Abstract
A common view of business in political science and sociology is that capital owners, managers, firms and their associations are only short-term profit-seekers. If this were true, business “as such” would have fought against social and environmental policies at all times and in all places. In fact, business contributed to many long-term problem-solving processes with respect to social and environmental issues. Most of these ecological approaches are currently subsumed under the concept of sustainability, and one of the most important strategies in this respect is energy saving. Since our world’s energy resources are limited and the usage of many energy forms implies some severe long-term negative externalities (e.g. global warming or radio activity), energy saving is one of the key strategies that contribute to sustainable social and economic development. In this chapter, we study a special area of energy saving and energy efficiency improvement, that is, the reduction of electricity consumption in private households. With respect to the numbers and types of policy measures designed to reduce energy consumption, there is large variation between countries. Many countries apply regulatory measures (voluntary or mandatory norms and standards with respect to energy efficient appliances), labelling programs, information campaigns, and counselling activities. We focus on product standards and environmental labelling. Both types of policy instruments are well established measures in helping reduce energy consuption.
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Notes
- 1.
The United States is the ideal type of liberal market economy. Other LMEs include Australia, Canada, New Zealand and United Kingdom.
- 2.
Coordinated market economies include Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Sweden among many others.
- 3.
DIRECTIVE 2005/32/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 July 2005 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products and amending Council Directive 92/42/EEC and Directives 96/57/EC and 2000/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
- 4.
REGULATION (EC) No 2422/2001 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 November 2001 on a Community energy efficiency labelling programme for office equipment.
- 5.
COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 92/75/EEC of 22 September 1992 on the indication by labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by household appliances.
- 6.
DIRECTIVE 2006/32/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 5 April 2006 on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and repealing Council Directive 93/76/EEC.
- 7.
DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2002 on the energy performance of buildings.
- 8.
DIRECTIVE 2010/30/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 May 2010 on the indication by labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by energy-related products.
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Lang, A., Malang, T., Schneider, V. (2014). Product Labelling and Standards: Business Participation in Energy Efficiency Regimes. In: Lang, A., Murphy, H. (eds) Business and Sustainability. Sustainability and Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07239-5_7
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