Complying with voluntary energy conservation agreements (II): Lighting in Hong Kong’s shopping malls

Voluntary agreements have the potential to complement mandatory policies for achieving energy conservation and environmental goals. Through examining three voluntary agreements for indoor and outdoor lighting in Hong Kong's shopping malls, we aim to understand the compliance decisions and explore how to select more effective voluntary agreements. A field survey was conducted to solicit empirical data on shopping mall visitors’ responses to unsatisfactory lighting conditions and advertising effect of outdoor lighting. It is found that visitors are unlikely to leave due to unsatisfactory indoor lighting conditions, while the advertising effect of outdoor lighting is significant in attracting visitors’ attention, particularly tourists. This implies voluntary agreements focusing on reducing excessive indoor lighting, or “De-lamp”, would receive more support. The prevalent compliance with the Earth Hour is mainly due to the public image penalty on non-compliance and the minimal compliance cost of losing the advertising effect for only one hour in a year. The Voluntary Charter Scheme on Outdoor Lighting Reduction, however, would suffer non-compliance with the significant advertising effects of outdoor lighting. The research suggests prioritising “De-lamp” in promotion. Overall, we are cautiously pessimistic on the effectiveness of voluntary agreements for significant energy conservation, given visitors’ lacking of a green preference.