This document discusses designing for pro-environmental behavior change. It outlines key influencers of behavior like structural, financial, social and personal factors. It also discusses overcoming barriers to behavior change through solutions that address these influencers. Specific solutions discussed include sustainable transport initiatives, waste segregation, and energy efficiency programs. The document advocates a holistic approach to behavior change using techniques like messaging, audience targeting, engagement and exemplifying desired behaviors.
1. Designing for pro-environmental behaviour change Samuel Smith, BioRegional Ecobuild 2011 Designing for pro-environmental behaviour change by Samuel Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.bioregional.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.bioregional.com
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4. Solutions for sustainability One Planet Companies One Planet Communities One Planet Regions BioRegional Production
6. BioRegional works with partners to demonstrate solutions for… Products & supply chains: wood, construction materials, food, paper Communities: new, retrofit, energy, transport, sustainable lifestyles
12. Structural Is the infrastructure or technology available? e.g. public transport, recycling bins, renewables, low impact materials Financial Is it affordable? e.g. incentives, tax breaks, loans, feed-in tariff, trading, other costs Social Is the behaviour normal and acceptable? e.g. will my neighbours accept my wind turbine? Will my family let me be a vegetarian? Personal Do I want to do anything? e.g. hassle, attitude, skills, time, competing behaviours
13. Social and personal barriers The value- action gap Values Action “ I want to do something about the environment”
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16. 1. Structural e.g. no public transport 3. Social e.g. no one else is doing it 4. Personal e.g. hassle, time 2. Financial e.g. don’t have money Catalysts Barriers Solutions
17. Ideas for One Planet Living Structural Finance Social Personal
18. Sustainable Transport 5 minute living concept at Sanoma Mountain Village 5 minutes walk Structural
28. Efficiency doesn’t always guarantee carbon savings Saved: £45 / year Saved: 150 kg CO 2 £45 can buy Cheap flight to turkey ~ 1,000 kg CO 2 7 yoga classes ~ 0 kg CO 2
38. 80% reduction in splashes observed because it gives men something to aim at, and stops them being distracted 5 Engage
39. 80% reduction in splashes observed because it gives men something to aim at, and stops them being distracted 5 Engage A nudge is a small thing that attracts our attention and changes our behaviour . Minor interventions which operate unnoticed in the background. As opposed to a shove.
40. 5 Engage A nudge is a small thing that attracts our attention and changes our behaviour . A minor interventions which operate unnoticed in the background. As opposed to a shove.
44. Thanks for coming Please fill out a feedback form Samuel Smith [email_address] Designing for pro-environmental behaviour change by Samuel Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.bioregional.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.bioregional.com
Notes de l'éditeur
We decided to change the name of the campaign to the Bust Your Carbon Campaign as it was felt that this was better suited to the audience than the Carbon Awareness Campaign.
Understanding behaviours – what people do and why they do it? Solutions and methods – case studies of projects influencing behaviours, and a method that you can use Activity – apply theory to a real life example
UK based, about 40 people BioRegional is an entrepreneurial charity which invents sustainable products, services and production systems and initiates the development of sustainable communities. We work in partnership with organisations around the world, and we help others to achieve sustainability through consultancy, education and by informing policy.
Environmental charity that develops practical solutions to sustainability problems Business approach Working with partners to develop award winning solutions
Our vision is of thriving regional economies where we meet more of our needs from local, renewable and waste resources, enabling people to enjoy a high quality of life within their fair share of the earth‘s resources - what we call one planet living.
Work in partnership around the world on new build communities One Planet Communities programme - by Rio 2012 Earth Summit, we have an objective for 5 outstanding case studies of communities
1) We are changing our behaviours all the time… it’s not a new process The design of buildings, services and infrastructure play an important part in achieving this vision, and we sometimes refer to this as the ‘hardware’. The ‘software’ is about the choices people have, and the decisions and behaviours they choose in their daily lives. While the ‘hardware’ has an important part to play in climate change mitigation, its effectiveness is usually mediated by the way the public understands, interprets, engages with or responds to it. For 15 years, BioRegional have carried out practical projects that have explored and tested out the relationships between the hardware and the software – thinking about the design of the built environment and technologies, and how this influences behaviour. In recent years, there has been a significant contribution from research groups and think-tanks on the theme of climate change psychology and behaviour change. The purpose of this document is to provide some background to behaviour change, highlight the current best practice in fostering pro-environmental behaviour change and to describe BioRegional’s own experience, approach and methodology.
Image generated by: hetemeel.com The first key message is that education alone does not result in pro-environmental behaviour. Early on, it was hoped that by educating an audience on a particular environmental issue, they will naturally become concerned about the issue and this concern will translate into changed behaviour. This linear progression between education, attitude and behaviour does not typically hold true. Rather, behaviours change is much more complicated and people do not always react in the way you would expect. This is because our behaviours are shaped by a multitude of factors such as our emotional state, our perceptions and our values (see Figure 1). Therefore, a more comprehensive approach than education and raising awareness is required to encourage pro-environmental behaviour. Kollmuss, A. and J. Agyeman. 2002. “Mind the Gap: Why Do People Act Environmentally and What Are the Barriers to Pro-environmental Behavior?” Environmental Education Research 8(3):239–260. ACTIVITY: Ask audience to list as many things that shape our behaviours as possible
Habits, Skills, Values, Culture, Perceptions, Education, Emotions, Capacity, Infrastructure, Experience, Attitude, Time Generated using Wordie: League gothic font Discuss rational / emotional…. – represent by two people – example cycling to work…
Made a jump and placed things into four easy categories. All these influence our behaviour When thinking about behaviour change, we want to have as many of these boxes acting as enablers. This presentation – more interested in social and personal. Structure and financial need to be there and will encourage people, but it is much easier if there is the will, and motivation – and in fact it’s that which drives us to put in place the structures and financial incentives. Social and personal categories = more of an emotional response Structural and financial categories = more rational
How much of our values are translated into the action recommended to mitigate climate change? Energy Saving Trust surveys reveal that 80% of people in the UK believe climate change will affect them and their families, and the same number believe it is having an effect on the UK right now. There is also a strong interest in ‘being green’, with 70% of those surveyed saying that ‘being green’ is popular 2 . Despite this, it has been reported that around 40% of the population are doing nothing about reducing their energy use, and very few (4%) have taken substantial lifestyle changes 2, . These perception studies suggest that people often have an interest in being green but suggest there can be a gap between people’s values (“I think this is the best course of action”) and their behaviours (“but I am not doing it”). Psychologists call this the value-action gap (or attitude-behaviour gap) and there are four key barrier categories that may be preventing action (see Figure 2). Energy Saving Trust, (2007). The Green Barometer . Available at: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk Similar outcomes were found in Defra’s survey on public attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. Available at www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/social/behaviour/index.htm American Psychological Association (APA), (2009). Psychology & Global Climate Change: Report of the APA Task Force on the Interface between psychology and global climate change . Available at: www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.pdf These barrier categories are a simplification of the influences of behaviour discussed in Table 1.
Dissonance is the lack of consistency between values and actions and it can make people feel uncomfortable. People tend to resolve this uncomfortable feeling, where attitudes and beliefs don’t match action, in one or more of the following three ways: Through action and behaviour change (the desired outcome) By changing their values, attitudes or beliefs By seeking to deny values and attitudes through justification or rationalisation These different responses are all understandable for a topic such as climate change which is often communicated as being out-of-control and unscalable. Several studies have identified different forms of denial and rationalisations that people use to justify inaction. Understanding these is useful for any behaviour change programme, where the challenge is to identify the motivators and catalysts that will tip people towards action. 3) Denial in this context constitutes not only active denial of climate science but also an inability to confront the realities of its impacts and take action. It includes congnition (not acknowledging the facts); emotion (not feeling or not being disturbed); morality (not regnognising wrongness or responsibility) and action (not taking active steps in response to knowledge) - Taken from CAT report RATIONALISATIONS: Reinterpreting the threat: “I don’t know”, “I don’t believe it”, “It won’t affect me”, “It’s too late”; ”It’s out of my hands” Reinterpreting responsibility: “It’s other people’s fault”; “Others should lead”; “Others aren’t doing enough”; “I’m not doing anything unless enough others do it too”; Doubting the desirability of change and ability to change: “It’s not normal”; “I don’t want to”; “Other things are more important”; “It’s too hard” This particular field of study is called cognitive dissonance and is one of the most extensively studied theories in social psychology. Stoll-Kleeman et al., (2001), The psychology of denial concerning climate change mitigation measures: evidence from Swiss focus groups , Global Environmental Change, 11(2), pp. 107-117. A useful summary of rationalisations used by individuals is given by the Centre for Alternative Technology’s report: Zero Carbon 2030: Chapter 6: Motivation and Behaviour Change, pp. 151-160. Available at: www.cat.org.uk
Dissonance is the lack of consistency between values and actions and it can make people feel uncomfortable. People tend to resolve this uncomfortable feeling, where attitudes and beliefs don’t match action, in one or more of the following three ways: Through action and behaviour change (the desired outcome) By changing their values, attitudes or beliefs By seeking to deny values and attitudes through justification or rationalisation These different responses are all understandable for a topic such as climate change which is often communicated as being out-of-control and unscalable. Several studies have identified different forms of denial and rationalisations that people use to justify inaction. Understanding these is useful for any behaviour change programme, where the challenge is to identify the motivators and catalysts that will tip people towards action. 3) Denial in this context constitutes not only active denial of climate science but also an inability to confront the realities of its impacts and take action. It includes congnition (not acknowledging the facts); emotion (not feeling or not being disturbed); morality (not regnognising wrongness or responsibility) and action (not taking active steps in response to knowledge) - Taken from CAT report RATIONALISATIONS: Reinterpreting the threat: “I don’t know”, “I don’t believe it”, “It won’t affect me”, “It’s too late”; ”It’s out of my hands” Reinterpreting responsibility: “It’s other people’s fault”; “Others should lead”; “Others aren’t doing enough”; “I’m not doing anything unless enough others do it too”; Doubting the desirability of change and ability to change: “It’s not normal”; “I don’t want to”; “Other things are more important”; “It’s too hard” This particular field of study is called cognitive dissonance and is one of the most extensively studied theories in social psychology. Stoll-Kleeman et al., (2001), The psychology of denial concerning climate change mitigation measures: evidence from Swiss focus groups , Global Environmental Change, 11(2), pp. 107-117. A useful summary of rationalisations used by individuals is given by the Centre for Alternative Technology’s report: Zero Carbon 2030: Chapter 6: Motivation and Behaviour Change, pp. 151-160. Available at: www.cat.org.uk
Catalysts, tipping points, to help people overcome barriers
Structural – Sanoma and Home Zones Rebuild / One Planet Products Financial – PAYS Social – BedZED Personal – Energy stuff / One Planet Food
STRUCTURAL Closer to home, the same theory is being applied to our work in eco-towns - Bicester Samona Mountain Village, North America An ex-industrial site forty miles north of San Francisco that will house 5,000 people in 1,892 homes, while providing 4,400 jobs. 5 minute living in Samona – helping make it easy. Sonoma Mountain Village is built around an urban Town Square, which has a daily farmer's market, the community is planned to ensure every resident is no more than a five-minute walk to the cinema, groceries, restaurants, offices, day care and shops offering local, sustainable, and fair trade products and services. Streets are narrow, sidewalks are wide. Kids can walk to school and safely play in the streets. By combining new urbanism with deep sustainability, Sonoma Mountain Village turns an old factory into a living neighborhood. With other behaviour change incentives to drive less, 82% reduction in vehicle emissions compared to the average Californian lifestyle.
Other examples: Financial – Curreteba Barclays Bikes, London We are doing similar work as integrators at the Bicester Eco-town 3 years before the bid – 41 Accidents, 16 involving children 13 months since completing the scheme, 6 slight, 1 involving a child Speeds were already low, but have been modestly reduced Traffic flows reduced appropriately Residents’ association still going strong
The Veg Van is trying to find ways to help people buy fresh, organic, local produce Behaviour change is done by: Overcoming financial: low overheads etc means 95% of our produce is cheaper than Sainsbury's, also providing local jobs Overcoming personal: hassle from going to a veg. store, placement, on people’s way home from work Overcoming social: trying to make it normal, habits, etc Key results: 26% of Veg Van customers are eating more fruit and veg due to The Veg Van. 11% are eating less processed produce. £1 spent at The Veg Van creates £2.60 for the local economy, compared to £1.40 if spent in the local supermarket. The Veg Van is saving 41kg CO2eq per month through reducing customers' need to drive out of the area to buy food. Farm produce has significantly lower global warming potential compared to similar supermarket produce through reducing transport and chemical inputs (see graph attached). 9% of customers are getting more exercise through walking / cycling to The Veg Van and 9% have increased their social interaction through shopping with us.
Making segregation easy Carclubs – one is a hybrid at BedZED BedZED hosted London’s first car club which is provided by City Car Club – members share use of a locally based fleet of vehicles.
PERSONAL – tackling hassle and time
Problem: what if you like the colour red Southern california Edison, ambient orb, experiments with text messaging and emails did no good, but orb reduced energy in peak periods by 40 percent, include threshold – playing Abba songs? Sweden design engineers power cord that shows intensity of electric current as it goes through Clive Thompson 2007 http://designapplause.com/2010/power-aware-cord/9694/ http://www.energy-behave.net/pdf/Guidelines_Changing_Energy_Behaviour.pdf
Problem: what if you like the colour red Southern california Edison, ambient orb, experiments with text messaging and emails did no good, but orb reduced energy in peak periods by 40 percent, include threshold – playing Abba songs? Sweden design engineers power cord that shows intensity of electric current as it goes through Clive Thompson 2007 http://designapplause.com/2010/power-aware-cord/9694/ http://www.energy-behave.net/pdf/Guidelines_Changing_Energy_Behaviour.pdf
Re-bound effect (aka take back effect) Describes when efficiency improvements are offset by behaviour changes. Rebound effects can be significant but they don’t need to make energy efficiency policies ineffective. Enforces this importance of behaviour change. An energy saving lightbulb lasts around 10 times longer than a traditional bulb so it will save you around £40 before it needs replacing. http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Publication-Download/?oid=594350&aid=2164103 http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=0710ReboundEffects http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/Downloads/PDF/07/0710ReboundEffect/0710LaunchPresentation.pdf
Re-bound effect (aka take back effect) Describes when efficiency improvements are offset by behaviour changes. Rebound effects can be significant but they don’t need to make energy efficiency policies ineffective. Enforces this importance of behaviour change. Financial saving: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Home-improvements-and-products/Lighting Carbon saving: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/energysavingbulbs.shtml http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=0710ReboundEffects http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/Downloads/PDF/07/0710ReboundEffect/0710LaunchPresentation.pdf
Re-bound effect (aka take back effect) Describes when efficiency improvements are offset by behaviour changes. Rebound effects can be significant but they don’t need to make energy efficiency policies ineffective. Enforces this importance of behaviour change. Financial saving: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Home-improvements-and-products/Lighting Carbon saving: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/energysavingbulbs.shtml http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=0710ReboundEffects http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/Downloads/PDF/07/0710ReboundEffect/0710LaunchPresentation.pdf
Also stresses the importance of international cap-and-trade type frameworks, emission trading schemes etc For communities and companies – we use a common framework – thread sustainability together – everyone has an interest in one of the principles. By getting By using an overarching framework, we are hoping that our projects don’t fall into this trap. Rather we want our positive impacts to create spill-over effects. Where certain behaviours can be catalytic and can lead to bigger changes in other areas. Which is the whole idea behind using small steps to get people to change and do something bigger. But it is often thought that the first change needs to be big. If all that happens is little changes then only Spillover is the idea that if you encourage people to undertake one environmentally-friendly behaviour they'll be more likely to try another. In that way, little changes lead to bigger things. It's a concept promoted by DEFRA (Defra calls them 'wedge' behaviours) and also FUTERRA ('foot in the door' techniques).an overall little change will occur. http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/simple_painless_report.pdf
There’s no shortage of guidance and ideas. We’ve read through a lot of it and been trying it out. This is our approach, which is informed by all of these sources.
7 STEPS Identify your aims – for example: manager trying to get staff to switch off equipment, use both sides of the paper a shop trying to promote and sell eco-product on a team designing a big behavior change programme for a new development, eco town housing association trying to help tenants be more energy efficient
Defra segmentation models Settlers – driven by security, financial saving, identity, belonging, safety Prospectors – outer directed – driven by success, esteem of others, self-esteem Pioneers – ethics, making connections, exploration, innovation
Quote from a “how to be green” guide on a county council website What is a 250mw power station anyway? Double exclamation!! But how significant is it unless you live next door? Who benefits? Changing individual behaviour with no personal gain
Who’s giving your message? Which one of these would you listen to? Who does the talking is as important as what is being said. It is important to enlist others where appropriate to deliver messages, facilitate workshops and demonstrate the change. Potential messengers might include politicians, business leaders, environmentalists, scientists and young people/children. All should have qualities that provide motivation, inspiration or working examples of the change you are trying to create. When planning this part of the project, there might be opportunities to identify strategic partnerships that can help deliver a message or programme. Trials from community projects have shown that semi-facilitation (where a member of the local community / organisation is trained to be group facilitator and has external support) is often the best method for engagement, rather than using a full-time professional facilitator or having non-supported facilitation by the community / organisation. Support from external facilitators can help provide an independent outside view as well as credibility Corner, Adam. Group models for pro-environmental behaviour change. School of Psychology, Cardiff University, March 2010. Available from the Climate Outreach and Information Network at: http://coinet.org.uk/sites/coinet.org.uk/files/Group-based%20models%20of%20pro-environmental%20behaviour%20change.pdf Messenger : do they have the right reputation, popular, respected, Maybe an endorsement e.g est label, fsc,
Reach your audience Get them engaged Keep them engaged Social~networks, YouTube, Radio, Posters, Word~of~mouth, Door~knocking, Newspaper, Article, Professional~bodies, Email, Events, Conferences, Leaflets, Billboards, Lectures, Forums, Twitter, Website, TV
Highlight that nudges are just a small method and not to get too excited or worked up about them – as they can only have limited scope. If you’re feeling sneaky In Amsterdam, the tile under Schiphol's urinals would pass inspection in an operating room. But nobody notices. What everybody does notice is that each urinal has a fly in it. Look harder, and the fly turns into the black outline of a fly, etched into the porcelain. It improves the aim. If a man sees a fly, he aims at it. Fly-in-urinal research found that etchings reduce spillage by 80%. It gives a guy something to think about. That's the perfect example of process control. But how long does it last?
In Amsterdam, the tile under Schiphol's urinals would pass inspection in an operating room. But nobody notices. What everybody does notice is that each urinal has a fly in it. Look harder, and the fly turns into the black outline of a fly, etched into the porcelain. It improves the aim. If a man sees a fly, he aims at it. Fly-in-urinal research found that etchings reduce spillage by 80%. It gives a guy something to think about. That's the perfect example of process control. But how long does it last?
Supermarkets are very good at nudges E.g. Bakery smells from the back of the store are often pumped to the front for people walking inside. Product placement influences decision making and what people buy. Offers tempt people to buy things they wouldn’t normally buy and colours and labelling also influence decisions.
Monitoring is often overlooked and conducted ‘last-minute’ after a project is completed. However, it is the monitoring data that gives good projects a legacy and provides vital information for other groups embarking on similar projects. It can also be useful to provide the business case for more projects or funding, as you will be able to show impact. As a general guide, the data chosen for monitoring should: Be SMART. That means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound Non-intrusive as possible . Projects that require too much invasive monitoring can sometimes be annoying and make people feel uncomfortable. By explaining why you are collecting data and what it is being used for can help prevent any negative feelings towards behaviour change and sustainability. Early in the project you should consider non-intrusive ways to collect data, for example, using smart meters rather than asking for energy bills. Easy and convenient. Projects should consider data collection methods that are easy for collectors as well as the audience. For example, online-surveys or person-to-person conversations as appropriate. Useful. It should be obvious, but only collect data that will be useful. Think carefully about who will need the monitoring data and what uses it can have. It may be best to think about this through a facilitated session where ideas and methods can be shared. 8) Exemplify A successful project is something to be proud of and promoting it encourages and motivates everyone involved in the project to continue and do more good actions and projects. For others not involved in the project, it provides inspiration, case studies and motivation to initiate similar projects. When promoting a project, honesty is important as projects that are not entirely successful provide vital lessons that help others. Think about what makes a good news story. If you want press coverage, talk to a communications expert to understand how to write a press release. Also consider using new technologies to promote the project such as Twitter, blog posts and Facebook, as well as giving presentations and having a celebratory party. All these different ideas are easy to organise and will help get your message out to a wide audience.