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Achieving the greatly enhanced levels of reduction in energy demand that are required for climate stabilization will require new approaches to energy efficiency and conservation that go well beyond conventional approaches. Broadening the scope from discrete goals to systemic development path changes can contribute to sustainable futures by helping to overcome barriers to energy efficiency and by enhancing and expanding co-benefits, including improving social welfare and energy security. We call this approach transformative energy efficiency and conservation (TEEC). The province of British Columbia, Canada, has recently emerged as a locus for new energy efficiency and conservation initiatives that push the boundaries of what has been tried before in this jurisdiction. This paper examines the British Columbia case concluding that, although still in the early stages, the province is taking steps toward the development path changes that would be required to achieve transformative energy efficiency and conservation.

Local governments across the Canadian province of British Columbia have begun to implement measures to achieve energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Among these, a handful of communities have emerged as leaders, supported by a network of organisations across sectors and scales. This study uses a social network analysis approach to explore the nature and extent of this network, coupled with qualitative interview data to determine its effectiveness. The study reveals that while the network is providing important resources and information, leading governments require specific forms of support to push innovative policies and actions further. In addition, though a shared vision of integrated local energy systems is emerging across the province, the lack of a systemic integration of goals across scales has created significant legislative barriers at the local scale. IntroductionEmpirical studies of the more nuanced processes through which transformations may be achieved remain limited. In particular, the effectiveness of networks as a whole in achieving set goals, including their specific configurations and characteristics, is yet relatively understudied (Newig et al, 2010). An opportunity to assess a transformation network now exists in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), where commitments have been made to enact a carbon tax and cap-and-trade initiative, and reduce the province's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 33% below 2007 levels by 2020, and 80% by 2050.As a part of these actions, a BC Climate Action Charter (Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, 2012) was signed by 178 municipalities and regional governments in the province, committing over 90% of the province's local governments to carbon-neutral municipal operations by 2012. In addition, a provincial bill (Government of British Columbia, 2008) also requires local governments to integrate climate and energy goals and measures into their official community plans. As a result, several BC local governments have begun to initiate a series of measures to reduce GHG emissions and improve energy efficiency in the built environment. A number of organisations connected across scales and sectors have created a diverse network of actors that are collectively striving to assist local governments achieve their low-energy and emissions targets.In this paper we use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to describe this network and evaluate its effectiveness in supporting leading local governments to meet their targets. Both social network analysis and interview data are used to identify the relevant actors, their roles, and the ways in which they are facilitating transformative change in BC's built environment energy system. In sections 2, 3, and 4 we present an overview of networks and their role in effecting transformational changes, the methods, and results of the study, respectively.

Organizational values and organizational context have been shown to influence the willingness of businesses to voluntarily adopt environmental initiatives. This study explores how these factors support the adoption of an initiative that is not associated with a clear “win-win” outcome for the firm. Using a matched-pair research method to establish a degree of pretest equivalence, the authors compare the organizational values and organizational structural context of firms in Ontario, Canada, that had voluntarily adopted green electricity (e.g., wind, solar, and small hydro) with firms that had not. They find that the firms that had adopted green electricity were more likely to value improved environmental performance as more than a means to earn demonstrable financial gains, more likely to make public their environmental performance metrics, and more likely to integrate formal environmental responsibilities within their organization. In concluding, the authors argue that their evidence supports the efficacy of actualizing espoused proactive environmental values through formalized organizational structures.

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