The Green Behaviour: Experimental Economics and Sustainable Real Estate

The importance of lowering the ecological footprint of human kind to a sustainable level is meanwhile unquestionable. The number of green products is increasing, but the product itself is not sufficient to reduce the ecological imbalance. Since life-cycle-assessments and life-cycle-cost approaches in real estate investments became common, it is known that not just the construction but the sustainable operation of a building leads to the most ecological benefit. Therefore, consumer behaviour is the key to enable and push a sustainable development. By now, the real estate industry focused mainly on the property side rather than on the user and his behaviour. Addressing this issue, the research idea of the study is to introduce experimental and behavioural economics as well as aspects of game theory within sustainable real estate in order to reveal the triggers of individual user behaviour. The paper combines subsequently three disciplines: Game theory/ experimental economics, real estate and sustainability. Theoretical and practical findings of this study should enable companies to address the 'right' issues and to develop adequate incentive schemes for their employees in order to trigger 'green behaviour' and finally limit resource use to reduce operating expenses. Furthermore, efficient strategies to increase personal involvement for climate protection are developed and detailed insights regarding user behaviour are given.