Why policy is not enough: Renewable energy adoption in India's commercial buildings

Accelerating renewable energy adoption in commercial buildings is critical for achieving climate targets, yet implementation remains uneven in many emerging economies despite supportive policy reforms. This study examines how India's Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act 2022 and associated renewable energy policies influence renewable energy adoption in the commercial building sector. Drawing on Habermas's theory of communicative action, the study develops the concept of regulated communicative action to explain how institutional conditions shape the translation of policy into organisational practice. A mixed-method qualitative design was employed, combining a survey of 101 commercial building stakeholders with four focus group discussions across six stakeholder categories. Data was analysed using the Gioia methodology, with findings interpreted through the interconnected domains of Lifeworld, Steering Media and Systems. Over half of respondents (52.5%) were unaware of the Green Energy Open Access policy, and 65.3% reported no explicit decarbonisation plan. Our results demonstrate that implementation gaps is associated not with isolated technological, financial or regulatory barriers, but with interactions among stakeholder awareness, governance fragmentation, organisational capability and infrastructure constraints. Contrary to much of the existing literature, cost-related barriers were prominent challenge theme and operated as institutionally mediated rather than independent constraints. The study advances sustainability transition research by providing a socio-institutional explanation of implementation gap and introducing regulated communicative action as a mechanism linking communication, regulation and organisational behaviour. The findings offer practical guidance for policymakers and industry, highlighting the importance of regulatory coherence, aligned incentives, capacity building and coordinated governance.