Einladung zum Vortrag „Carbon Offsetting with Eco-Conscious Consumers“ von Prof. Souza

15. November 2019, von Kathrin Heim

Foto: UHH/Denstorf

Im Rahmen des interdisziplinären Forschungsprojekts „Sustainable Lives: Food Choices as Politics and Lifestyle“ lädt die Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaft interessierte Zuhörer zum Vortrag

„Carbon Offsetting with Eco-Conscious Consumers“

mit Herrn Prof. Dr. Gil Souza ein.

Der Vortrag findet am Freitag, dem 29. November 2019 von 10:00–12:00 Uhr
im Haus der Betriebswirtschaft (Moorweidenstraße 18), im Raum 0005.1 (EG) statt.

Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf dem Flyer zur Vortragsreihe.

Gilvan „Gil“ C. Souza ist Professor für Operations Management am Department of Operations & Decision Technologies auf dem Campus in Bloomington der Indiana University.

Abstract

Joint work with Fei Gao 

In this paper we model a firm that can reduce its carbon footprint in response to the emergence of a segment of eco-conscious consumers, who consider the embedded carbon footprint of a product when making purchasing decisions. The firm can reduce its controllable emissions, with fixed and variable cost implications, and it can also buy carbon offsets for both its controllable and uncontrollable emissions in the supply chain. We provide three key findings. First, the firm does not necessarily purchase offsets as a way to avoid reducing its controllable emissions, so the two strategies can be complements. Hence, offsets do not necessarily mean “buying your way out of trouble”. Second, the decision to buy carbon offsets for uncontrollable emissions depends critically on the correlation between consumers’ preferences for the product itself and its environmental implications. Third, although lower offset prices increase their adoption by firms, they do not necessarily lead to lower effective emissions by firms: a higher offset price can prompt the firm to reduce its market coverage and focus on eco-conscious consumers, and hence reduce its carbon footprint.