I have recently come across a very practical example of a kind of "tragedy of the commons" - the unwillingness to invest in assets that benefit stakeholders indiscriminately. Specifically, on large strata-title apartment projects there is a reluctance to implement such measures as:
- central hot water heating (~ 10% lower all-up costs, ~20% lower operating costs)
- Solar hot water heating (>20% ROI)
- Solar electric power (~10% ROI)
UNLESS some kind of user-pays system is implemented, which would use up pretty much all of the gains.
The concern is of course that providing the above systems would create a "commons" that would tend to be exploited.
I am curious if there are any ideas on a usable solutions, perhaps some kind of workable protocol that would enable the above, or existing success stories - what made them work?
I would be suggesting heading towards the dark arts;
where you might be trying to encourage ROI for upfront asset sacrifice (pay now, reap the benefits later) you can put off the upfront sacrifice by taking out a loan and gradually paying it off - thereby doing a (pay over time, reap the benefits over time). It would decrease your ROI but also decrease the upfront hesitations over cost.
I would be modelling the thoughts of those who don't want to pay up as: (Opportunity cost of paying now) > (Return over time)
especially when you consider that not all members of a strata will be the same members to reap the 20 year return... Also considering that people are probably not expecting the increase in energy prices, and also the cost of a solar system might go down in the future...