Abstract
Previous research on voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) frequently assesses the effectiveness of federal, state, and third party programs and why organizations seek to join such programs. Yet, research has yet to evaluate the effectiveness or firm motivation relative to local VEPs. Recognizing this gap, our paper examines the structure and organization of Fort Collins’ Climate Wise program, a local VEP. Using a variety of sources, we find that the program has successfully met both short- and long-term goals by persistently self-evaluating and seeking outside financial support. Findings from this analysis can aid in understanding and developing local VEPs elsewhere. Specifically, this initial research suggests that local VEPs need to consider local context and available resources when implementing such programs. Furthermore, it is possible for local VEPs to attract a diverse variety of participating firms by avoiding one-size-fits-all participation levels and by establishing a sense of ownership among partners.
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Notes
Coal, oil, and natural gas
While not germane to our research, within the VEP effectiveness literature, researchers have classified VEPs into three major categories: unilateral commitments, bilateral or negotiated agreements, and public voluntary programs (Alberini and Segerson 2002; Borck and Coglianese 2009; Brouhle and others 2005; Koehler 2007; Lyon and Maxwell 2002). Unilateral commitments are initiatives led by individual businesses or trade associations without involvement by government. Bilateral agreements and public voluntary programs are collaborative agreements in which firms negotiate with government to set terms and conditions of involvement or firms voluntarily commit to predetermined terms and conditions set by government.
Lehman and Geller (2004) identify a number of learning strategies: dissemination, formal education, verbal or written instruction and prompts, modeling, public commitments and demonstration.
VEPs are difficult to evaluate often because of poor organizational monitoring and reporting of data. These gaps often prevent empirical analysis of pollution abatement or environmental goal achievement of any VEP. In our case, data were missing from 1999 to 2005 or the first 6 years of the program’s existence.
Please note that per firm abatement information was not provided due to confidentiality agreements between Climate Wise and participating firms.
The average median family income in Fort Collins is $74,596 and 49.3 % of the population earned a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Comparatively, Colorado’s median family income is $69,591 and the U.S. family median income is $62,363. The percentage of the population in Colorado with a Bachelor’s degree or higher is only 35.5 % of the population and the U.S. national rate is 27.5 %.
The City of Fort Collins’ organization chart can be found www.fcgov.com/citymanager/pdf/org_chart.pdf?201008
For 2010 and 2011, the total budget for all city funds was $498 million.
In 1990, Fort Collins greenhouse gas emission accounted for 0.037 % of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (Natural Resources Department 1999).
To oversee the implementation and assessment of city’s environmental action plans, the City Council also mandated the development of an Energy Management Team (Natural Resource Department 1999). The team would be responsible for monitoring the achievement of its LAP and with assisting with the publication of biennial greenhouse gas emission reduction reports. The first biennial report was released in 2000 with the latest in 2010.
These programs are funded through city funds, federal/state grants, or a combination of the two.
The reason cited was that the EPA needed to better align its limited resources with goals associated with the GHG Reporting Program” (McCarthy 2010).
Critiques of top–down regulation typically includes discussions of unnecessarily combative relationships between regulated firms and regulators, high transaction costs, voluminous paperwork for government agencies, too much focus on firms meeting administrative outputs while ignoring environmental outcomes, an assumption that firms are “bad eggs” and an inability to address non-point sources of pollution (Fiorino 2006).
Despite the presence of multiple environmental variables, as a program Climate Wise only set goals relative to greenhouse gas reductions. Because of this, our “effectiveness” analysis is limited to this one variable. When data is available, we do provide other measures of environmental impact.
Prior to 2008, Climate Wise budget was not an individual line item.
Although we hoped to include specific goals for recruitment, staff did not have specific numeric targets set.
See http://www.fcgov.com/climatewise/partners.php for complete list.
Climate Wise has also benefited from the use of an Advisory Committee, composed of individuals from participating firms, which was established in 2006. The group was charged with generating ideas geared towards attracting new members and improving the performance of existing ones. In 2010, the committee system was augmented to include four subcommittees (ambassador, mentoring, infrastructure, and corporate social responsibility) to account for the increase in participation. Each subcommittee focuses on specific advancement goals for the program.
While we cannot independently verify the veracity of $39 million saved, Climate Wise does utilize an independent firm to verify its “results.”
Free riding behavior can be defined as the act of enjoying the benefits of a particular activity without participating or contributing to said effort—In the case of the Climate Wise program, free-riders of the program are those firms that have joined the program but remain only in the “active partner” category, which indicates no effort to green practices. In essence, these firms may enjoy the benefits associated with being a member of the program without actually performing any greening projects. We calculated the number of free riders by taking the total membership and subtracting the number of platinum, gold, silver, and bronze firms. Those firms listed as “active partners” technically constitute program free riders as they do not complete any projects or actively green their practices.
Free promotion and publicity is a key benefit of Climate Wise membership.
To avoid measuring the impact of free-riding, we elected to create the earlier table of silver-platinum members. As these partners completed at least one project, we believe that they are not-free riders and represent the firms responsible for environmental improvements cited by Climate Wise staff.
Lehman and Geller (2004) identify a number of learning strategies: dissemination, formal education, verbal or written instruction and prompts, modeling, public commitments and demonstration.
This observation may be of particular interest to practitioners.
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Acknowledgements
We would first like to thank the Climate Wise Team, especially Kathy Collier and Wendy Serour and our private sector interviewees. We are also extremely grateful to Dr. Susan Opp, Dr. Charles Davis for their early feedback and extremely valuable commentary. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Michele Betsill for graciously sharing her interviews with Climate Wise partners with us. We received no external funding for this project.
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Samantha, M., Jonathan, F. Can Local Voluntary Environmental Programs “Work”? An Examination of Fort Collins’ (Colorado) Climate Wise Program. Environmental Management 51, 969–987 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0022-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0022-z