Read the full story in The Guardian.
Good intentions are great, but wanting to do the right thing isn’t enough. Here are some tips to alter behaviour for the long-term.
Category: Social science
Two-part GreenBiz series on creating shared value
In “‘Creating Shared Value’ is lost in translation. Let’s reclaim it“, Niels Christiansen explains why this basic business principle is not a feel-good pet project, but more relevant than ever.
In “6 steps to create shared value in your company“, he provides six steps for redirecting the understanding of Creating Shared Value back to a basic business principle.
8 new ways to reduce waste at your business
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
When you toss something in the trash at work, you’re throwing money away. Follow these simple steps to turn garbage into profit.
New Behavior Change and Sustainability resource now available
The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable has developed a new sector resource on Behavior Change & Sustainability. Subsections of the guide include consumer behavior; employee engagement; energy efficiency programs; measurement; research articles; and tools.
Behavior change and sustainability is one of GLRPPR’s four focus areas. The others are: green chemistry/green engineering; technical assistance; and sustainable electronics. Visit the GLRPPR web site for additional resources on a wide variety of sustainability topics.
Transforming the climate conversation through social video
Read the full story in GreenBiz.
Over the last two decades, non-profit organizations have tried to influence U.S. consumer belief in anthropogenic, or human-driven, climate change. During that time, many high profile campaigns have been launched, from the Evangelical Environmental Network’s What Would Jesus Do? campaign in 2000 to Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s bipartisan We Can Solve It campaign in 2008 to 350.org’s Do the Math campaign in 2012.
While each campaign recorded its own successes, consumer data suggests that their collective impact on consumer beliefs has been nominal. Today, only a slim majority of Americans (57 percent) believe that climate change is caused by human activity, a percentage largely unchanged since Gallup’s Environment poll started in 2001.
Of course, there are many reasons why such campaigns might not have had broader impact. The campaigns may not have reached enough skeptics of anthropogenic climate change, or if they did, may have delivered messages that did not resonate or were discounted relative to counterarguments made by media organizations such as Fox News.
Former hedge fund executive Tom Steyer is already planning the next climate campaign through his super PAC NextGen Climate Action. NextGen intends to influence voting behavior in the midterm election, with the goal of electing public officials more likely to pass climate change legislation.
A sustainable work environment breeds a healthy, happy culture
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
Love and marriage. Peanut butter and jelly. Culture and environment? You bet! But what does environment (as in setting, atmosphere or surroundings) have to do with culture? Everything.
As it turns out, we announced our headquarters’ move from the suburbs to downtown Cleveland around the same time we began writing this Shift Happens column to engage readers in a conversation about organizational design and development approaches supporting a sustainability strategy. The move was to solve a growing space problem, reinforce our belief in the urban core, attract and retain the best and brightest employees, create an atmosphere to ramp up a culture of collaboration and innovation and “walk the talk” of sustainability.
How brands can capture the heart of the green consumer
Read the full story in GreenBiz.
For most companies, the holy grail of sustainability is a breakthrough with consumers. Or more specifically, getting more consumers to buy truly sustainable products — even if they sometimes do cost more. But it seems as if we never really will get there and this is validated by the experts and leaders in the sustainability field.
Marc Gunther, a leading light in the sustainability field, wrote about the elusive green consumer, pointing out that while market research shows that consumers want greener products, their purchasing behavior doesn’t follow suit. Similarly, Triple Pundit has shared statistics about consumers (becoming) increasingly skeptical of green products. And we were told by GreenBiz that we need a dose of reality when it comes to the presence (or absence) of green consumers.
It’s enough to drive us crazy — this elusive pesky green consumer. Or maybe we need to reassess the ways we look at consumers when we use our sustainability lens.
Would A Campus Carbon Tax Work Better Than Divestment?
Read the full story in Fast Company.
Divestment is more about symbolism, but a carbon tax would help university campuses make concrete changes.
Why sustainability professionals need to show more compassion
Read the full story from The Guardian.
There appears to be a hidden dynamic operating among sustainability professionals that they are somehow superior to those they accuse of being stuck in the destructive paradigm of consumerism and profits maximisation.
They believe they have seen beyond the limitations of classical economics and are therefore more visionary and enlightened than most. They recognise the dangers society faces and know the way out of the mess.
I am concerned that this attitude is making social, environmental and economic change more difficult to embed in corporations because rather than operating from a place of compassion to others, which can have the effect of developing a common understanding and bond, we often blame and attack individuals or companies who “just don’t get it”. The danger is that executives might then withdraw into their shell, and from this defensive position come to the belief that whatever sustainability initiatives they create will be criticised and therefore it’s better not to bother in the first place.
Can jaw-dropping visuals change the climate conversation?
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
In the wake of the White House’s climate blitz earlier this month, including the latest National Climate Assessment release, I find myself feeling strangely optimistic that America finally might be ready to prepare our homes, cities and public spaces for the impacts of climate change — particularly the effects of sea level rise.
Normally my optimism would be tempered by the sobering fact that Americans today still rank climate change and global warming dead last on the list of environmental priorities for the country.
But I am encouraged and inspired by the rise of what I’m calling resiliency catalysts. These are tools that broaden public awareness on climate change and drive implementation of adaptation strategies. At the cutting edge of this movement are powerful climate visualization tools that, on a higher level, show rather than tell the story of our future.
Saving Energy with Neighborly Behavior: Energy Efficiency for Multifamily Renters and Homebuyers
Tenant engagement programs encourage the people who live in a multifamily property to change their behavior in order to achieve a goal. These programs are an attractive option for owners or managers who want to improve energy efficiency. In this report, we assess the key features of existing programs, make recommendations for improvements that housing providers and advocates can use immediately, and outline a wish list for the future.
In late 2013 and early 2014, ACEEE conducted a series of surveys and interviews to examine the current landscape of tenant engagement programs in the United States. The focus of this report is on tenants living in multifamily buildings that operate energy efficiency programs. We were also interested in seeing if any programs use similar tactics to target people who own their homes, either units in multifamily buildings or single-family houses. We found that tenant engagement programs are much more likely to be found in properties with primarily low-income residents. We also found that many programs rely heavily on the mass information campaign, a technique that has been shown to be largely ineffective. However, a number of the programs we surveyed use more complex behavioral techniques like incentives, challenges, and teams of peer role models. We recommend that tenant engagement programs use techniques like community-based social marketing (CBSM) to ensure that the programs are tailored to the targeted community.
Americans care deeply about ‘global warming’ – but not ‘climate change’
Read the full story in The Guardian.
Yale researchers have found that the two terms, often used interchangeably, generate very different responses.
The full report, What’s In A Name? Global Warming vs Climate Change, is available here.
More by this team
Roser-Renouf, Connie and Stenhouse, Neil and Rolfe-Redding, Justin and Maibach, Edward W. and Leiserowitz, Anthony, “Engaging Diverse Audiences with Climate Change: Message Strategies for Global Warming’s Six Americas” (March 17, 2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2410650 orhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2410650.
Abstract: Global climate change – a threat of potentially unprecedented magnitude – is viewed from a variety of perspectives by Americans, with some dismissing the danger, some entirely unaware of its significance, and still others highly concerned and motivated to take action. Understanding the sources of these diverse perspectives is key to effective audience engagement: Messages that ignore the cultural and political underpinnings of people’s views on climate change are less likely to succeed.
In this chapter, we describe Global Warming’s Six Americas – six unique audience segments that view and respond to the issue in distinct ways. We describe the beliefs and characteristics of each group and discuss methods of effectively communicating with them in light of: (1) the pro- or counter-attitudinal nature of messages on the issue for each group; (2) their willingness to exert the cognitive effort necessary to process information on the issue; (3) their propensity for counter-arguing, motivated reasoning and message distortion; and (4) the communication content they say they most desire and, hence, would be most likely to process and accept.
Recyclebank Helps City Increase Recycling 323%
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Recyclebank has helped the city of Rochester Hills, Mich., increase pounds of materials recycled by 323 percent since 2008.
Recyclebank, in partnership with Republic Services, and Rochester Hills work together to reward residents for taking more sustainable actions, like recycling, with discounts and deals at local and national businesses. Also in 2008, Rochester Hills expanded its household recycling program and implemented single stream collection.
What NASCAR Nation thinks about ‘green’
Read the full post at GreenBiz.
There’s a reasonable chance that your response to the headline above is to say, “Hmmmm.” Or worse. That’s a natural reaction for many, especially those with a strong environmental ethic, when it comes to putting auto racing and “green” in the same sentence.
But NASCAR, the stock-car racing organization whose massive events make it America’s largest spectator sport, has been on an unlikely journey over the past few years, one with the potential to make an impact across a broad swath of the U.S. populace. The challenge, as so many other companies and organizations have found in influencing mainstream audiences on environmental topics and behaviors, is how to turn good intentions into good, green actions.
How Nest got its customers to cut their AC use (and like it)
Read the full story at Smart Planet.
Nest, the startup purchased by Google, partnered with several utilities last year to take the intelligence embedded in its web-enabled learning thermostat beyond the home and to the grid in an effort to broaden its energy savings mission.
The partnerships appear to have worked. On Thursday, Nest released the stats behind two of the programs–Rush Hour Rewards and Seasonal Savings–designed to encourage customers to cut their energy use. To date, the Rush Hour Rewards program, which allows people to earn money or credits from their utilities by using less energy when everyone else is using more, has achieved a 55 percent reduction in use during peak times, according to Nest.
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