Do sustainability committees reduce electricity use in Taiwan? Mitigating electricity regulation as motivation.

The extant literature has largely overlooked not only the causes of electricity conservation at the firm-level, but also the potential industry-level moderators that shape the relationship. Taiwan faces an impending energy crisis due to overwhelming reliance on foreign fossil fuel and electricity legislation failure (such as raising electricity prices). Drawing on self-regulation theory to ground the study and a sample from Taiwan, this study documents that the existence of a sustainability committee is positively associated with corporate electricity usage reduction. However, the relationship does not seem to be linear. Memberships in environmentally-intensive industries negatively moderate the relationship between electricity usage reduction and the existence of sustainability committees. • Overwhelming reliance on foreign fossil fuel make Taiwan vulnerable to energy market risks. • Sustainability committees represent internal governance mechanisms that respond to reduce electricity use. • Sustainability committees serve as substitutes for statutory control in non-electricity consumption industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]