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6 - Tossing a Pebble in a Pond

The Anatomy of a Demonstration Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2022

Daniel C. Matisoff  and
Douglas S. Noonan
Daniel C. Matisoff
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Douglas S. Noonan
Affiliation:
Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
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Summary

This chapter develops the economics theory of demonstration projects and then investigates the role of one demonstration project – the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design – at lowering information barriers for the adoption of innovative energy and environmental technologies. The KBISD demonstration project allows us to observe the formation of a network around a demonstration project and how attitudes and behaviors relating to environmental technologies permeate and disseminate throughout the network. This section presents results from an industry-wide survey as well as several dozen semi-structured interviews related to the KBISD. The interviews reveal motivations, challenges, innovations, costs, and risks associated with participation in a demonstration project, as well as key differences between this living building approach and design–bid–build approaches often employed in traditional buildings.It finds that, while working on the building was not affiliated with increased levels of technology familiarity prior to building construction, being affiliated with the US Green Building Council is highly correlated with increased knowledge of emergent technologies. This points to professional knowledge networks as having a key role in disseminating information regarding emergent technologies.

Keywords

demonstration projectspilot projectsinformation spilloversknowledge spillovers living buildingecolabelspeer effectslearningnetworks
Type
Chapter
Information
Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
Learning to LEED
 , pp. 143 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

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  • Tossing a Pebble in a Pond
  • Daniel C. Matisoff, Georgia Institute of Technology, Douglas S. Noonan, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
  • Book: Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
  • Online publication: 27 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108888769.007
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  • Tossing a Pebble in a Pond
  • Daniel C. Matisoff, Georgia Institute of Technology, Douglas S. Noonan, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
  • Book: Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
  • Online publication: 27 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108888769.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Tossing a Pebble in a Pond
  • Daniel C. Matisoff, Georgia Institute of Technology, Douglas S. Noonan, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
  • Book: Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
  • Online publication: 27 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108888769.007
Available formats
×