Anthropogenic carbon dioxide mitigation: the social barriers to the diffusion of the compact fluorescent light bulb

Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs offer an economically efficient way to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions through reducing net electricity consumption. This study was aimed at understanding the barriers to the diffusing of the CFL within Humboldt State University's student body. A representative survey of the Humboldt State University student body was conducted to collect data. The final response rate was 46% and the dataset consisted of 916 responses. Several product attributes were identified as important reasons for not using the CFL. These were product cost, toxicity, compatibility, flickering, humming, brightness, and color quality. Furthermore, issues such as information availability, product location, shopping patterns, worldview, risk perception, significant others, and gender were shown to be significantly related to CFL use. This work concludes by examining an estimate of the total carbon dioxide mitigated by CFL use on campus. This study found that over the next year CFL adopters on campus will offset a conservative 12.443 tons of carbon dioxide.