A low carbon transition requires disruptive innovations to challenge prevailing technologies and practices. Many disruptive low carbon innovations have been adopted, but in small numbers. Examples include car sharing networks, car free communities, and net zero energy buildings. To mitigate climate change, these and other innovations must diffuse or spread into the mass market. In the absence of strong policy incentives, social communication from adopters to non-adopters is the means by which innovations spread. But we do not understand how the different mechanisms of social influence work for disruptive low carbon innovations, and whether they can be harnessed to accelerate change.
