According to the mentioned in the previous section, Santiago de Chile has shown an increase in the supply of "green" real estate products in the recent past; slogans such as
"energy housing" or "energy savings" are often found in the private real estate offer in Santiago de Chile. Apparently, these slogans are used to promote residential buildings newly built which – in many cases – just meet the minimum standards recently required by local building code. This shows the need to conduct an exploratory research, in order to gain better understanding of the implications for real estate developers for adopting energy efficiency strategies in the private housing sector. Moreover, this research focuses on the private housing sector in Chile because: 1) this sector has shown a significant growth in recent years (see section 2.2.1), therefore its impact on the environment – energy and resources consumption mainly – is also significant; 2) the public sector alone does not construct the so-called “social housing”; instead, it hires the services of private construction companies to do so (as described in section 2.2.3).
Recently, scientific research on residential energy efficiency in the Chilean context has focused on quantitative aspects concerning: modelling energy consumption in apartment buildings (Vera and Ordenes 2002, Encinas et al. 2009, Encinas and De Herde 2013), reviewing design and energy performance parameters for buildings in Mediterranean climate (Bustamante and Encinas 2012). In contrast, the qualitative approach is emerging and has focused on the perception barriers of Chilean architects to the inclusion of energy efficiency criteria in buildings (Trebilcock 2011). Therefore, this doctoral thesis seeks to fill in the research gap in the field of energy efficiency.
Specifically, in a scenario where regulations in the field of residential energy efficiency are emerging, where the private sector plays a leading role in the housing market, and considering the growth of Santiago de Chile and its energy demand, research is necessary to inquire about motivations to adopt residential energy efficiency measures and changing paradigms in the construction market. Therefore, the overall goal of this research seeks to generate empirical findings with regard to the private housing sector in Santiago de Chile, more precisely with regard to the motivations and barriers to the adoption of energy efficiency measures in Santiago de Chile,
The main question leading this doctoral thesis is: How do real estate developers apply energy efficiency in their housing offer in Santiago de Chile? The main research question is further refined by three sub questions. 1) who are the real estate developers that are
adopting energy efficiency and why? This is a compound question, first it seeks to identify real estate companies adopting energy efficiency measures in Santiago de Chile’s private housing market; then it looks into the motivations for doing so; 2) what types of energy efficiency measures are real estate companies adopting? This sub-research question seeks to identify the adopted residential energy efficiency strategies adopted by private developers in their different housing-products; and 3) which barriers to further implementation of energy efficiency exist? It seeks to identify the setbacks found by energy efficiency adopters in the implementation process in order to understand local issues in the adoption process.
This research uses a case study approach of an exploratory nature (Yin 2009). It investigates the voluntary adoption of energy efficiency measures in the private housing market in Santiago de Chile; at the same time, it seeks to understand the different driving factors behind real estate companies’ decisions to offer and apply energy-efficient housing. More precisely, this research uses a single case with embedded units methodology (Yin 2009); this means a holistic case study – the real estate housing sector in Santiago de Chile – with embedded sub-cases – the energy-efficient housing offer.
This would enable the researcher to explore the case while considering the influence of the housing market dynamics on the managers’ decision making. Sub-cases were selected by applying a criterion sampling strategy (Patton 2002), also known as purposive sampling (Flick 2009). The criterion for case selection was: to consider all real estate developers offering energy-efficient dwellings in Santiago de Chile.
Personal interviews were conducted during a six-week fieldwork stay in Santiago de Chile, between April and May 2012. Interviews were conducted until empirical saturation was reached, and when the primary data collection did not shed any further light on the issue under investigation (See Guest et al. 2006). Since the research was enlightened from different institutional and scientific settings, different stakeholders other than the housing sector were taken into account as key informants. The interview partners were carefully selected based on what they may know about the adoption of energy efficiency measures in the private housing sector.
The empirical data accounts for thirty-three personal interviews and a set of documents, including energy efficiency policies, on-line documents available on official websites from Chilean and international institutions. The data analysis was an iterative and reflexive process; this interactivity was applied throughout the process of qualitative inquiry.
Results provide a better understanding of real estate companies’ willingness to adopt energy efficiency in their different housing-products. This knowledge may allow researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to promote energy-efficient housing as path towards the reductions of CO₂ emissions in the housing sector.