Angela Paladino

A recent report compiled by the University of Melbourne for the CSIRO – assessing the willingness to pay more for ecologically sound electricity – finds that consumers would pay more for ‘green energy’, particularly if government and industry provided more incentives. Author of the report, Dr Angela Paladino (Marketing and Management, Faculty of Economics and Commerce) speaks with University of Melbourne Voice writer David Scott about key issues covered in the report.

Q What’s the most common misconception consumers have about green energy?

A Most people who provided comments on the survey we distributed said they would be worried that if the sun didn’t shine tomorrow – and they were using solar power – they wouldn’t have electricity. Or if the wind stopped for a week and the wind turbines weren’t moving, they would have nothing and their quality of life would decrease. The biggest misconception is that they aren’t reliable and they won’t last you a long time. People aren’t aware that the electricity is fed into a grid, and they would still receive comparable electricity supplies with renewable energy options as they get today with fossil fuel-generated electricity .

Q Where do you think the green energy debate will be five years from now?

A I think the debate is too much of a debate – it does not encompass enough action. It would be nice in five years if they (the government) had clear targets, if they had incentives in place for renewable electricity providers to actually invest more in technology. There is a lot of technology around the world that we (Australia) just don’t have so you would hope that in five years time the debate moves away from just talk and a little more action.

I also hope the debate moves towards more concrete information for people, increasing the objective knowledge they have, making them more informed about all types of electricity and not just one kind. And then hopefully we’ll move toward more action and away from just talk, because we’re only just talking at the moment.

Q What’s the one fundamental thing – if there is just one – power companies and the government could do to make green energy more accessible?

A There’s a suite of things government and companies need to do, but it all goes back to the issue of getting people educated and increasing their knowledge. What we’ve moved away from in the past five years is that people previously were not paying any attention to information about renewable electricity or green electricity or anything environmental.

Now people actively seek information, but the information that’s out there isn’t clear; it confounds and confuses people rather than clarifies anything. And it makes the problem seem too big to handle. At the moment consumers are bombarded with climate change information, environmental degradation and pollution.

Confronted by such big problems you and I might think: “Well my little contribution is not going to make any difference”. So we really need to move away from overloading and confusing people with too much information and moving towards simplifying messages, giving people clear and practical things they can do on a daily basis such as moving to renewable electricity adoption, saving electricity and minimising pollution.

Q The report also suggests people should be acknowledged if they purchase green energy…

A Yes, it gives people a sense of importance, patting them on the back, rewarding them for doing something for the environment. I can’t tell you how many people would email me to comment on the surveys and say that they would spend all this money buying green products or electricity that is green, and no-one ever acknowledged them for it. And while you would generally think you would do it for an altruistic motive, and people really shouldn’t have to be rewarded, they still want to be rewarded. They want some sort of acknowledgement, they want to be able to gloat to their friend that they’ve done this. And that’s in fact an important part of normative or interpersonal influence, because that starts to generate a conversation with people, starts the dialogue going and you can start to influence other people. In time, this can lead to mass adoption of a product. But if that conversation never starts, if there’s no acknowledgement for someone’s action, you will never get mass adoption of anything in this market.

Q The report mentions how celebrity endorsement adds a certain prestige and ‘trust’ value to the product in question. If you could pick one celebrity to endorse green energy, who would it be and why?

A Jamie Durie! He is very consistent with the green thumb approach, and he has credibility with people because he’s not seen as too much of a celebrity. He also doesn’t have just celebrity status, but also what we call ‘similarity’ in Australia, in that he has morals and values which are consistent with those of many people. That would also make them pay attention to what he has to say.

Q What’s the next step now that your report has been released?

A I’d like the debate to move on a little, with the results that have been launched, for people to ask more of their companies. If they demand more information and direct companies as to what information they want, they can actually start to change the direction of organisations. So you would hope enough people pay attention to what’s broadcast out there, to even think about the importance of green electricity, and to start to ask for changes to be made. That would be a nice outcome. Whether or not it happens is another issue.

Dr Angela Paladino is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and the recipient of a national Carrick Citation “for exceptional innovation and influence in creating authentic and contemporary learning experiences for undergraduate students studying in the marketing field”.