Boosting eco-route uptake with digital nudging elements in green information systems

• Providing emission information of route alternatives encourages green behavior. • Optimizing digital nudges has large positive effect on eco-route adoption. • Effects of specific digital nudges depend on presence of others. • The same digital nudges work well across segments, limiting personalization gains. • Eco-route adoption varies based on respondent characteristics. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from road transport is essential to limit global warming. Public policy often relies on costly and time-consuming mechanisms to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, such as subsidies for zero-emission vehicles. We study digital nudges in green information systems as a more cost-effective and faster-to-implement alternative that leverages technology-based just-in-time information to encourage environmental route choice. Using discrete choice experiments that mimic the real-world user experience of Google Maps’ eco-route implementation, we show how different presentations of just-in-time information lead to stark differences in eco-route adoption and consumers’ willingness to incur longer travel times to save emissions. Our analyses illustrate that optimizing Google Maps’ implementation may lead to carbon dioxide emissions savings equivalent to taking 58,000 cars off the road for one year.