U.S. non-governmental organizations’ cross-sectoral entrepreneurial strategies in energy efficiency

When established institutional pathways for energy efficiency policies necessary to mitigate climate change are blocked at the federal level, how do entrepreneurs in the NGO sector innovate new approaches? What strategies do they employ? In this paper, we look at the strategies used by leaders of U.S. energy efficiency NGOs that have found new ways to work across sectors and at state and regional levels to increase appliance efficiency. Using 15 interviews with NGO leaders, organizational materials, and historical archives in the energy efficiency field, we explore strategies nonprofit leaders have used to establish new cross-sectoral arrangements to advance their appliance efficiency goals. Situating them in a dynamic political context, we identify four key strategies particularly important for cross-sectoral entrepreneurship: (1) performing legitimacy across sectors, (2) creating a collective action frame, (3) institutionalizing the diffusion of the collective action frame, and (4) coordinating new patterns of action in existing institutions.