{"id":8002,"date":"2013-05-14T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ietransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=8002"},"modified":"2013-05-14T14:25:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:25:20","slug":"sustainable-behavior-change-effective-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/articles\/sustainable-behavior-change-effective-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Behavior Change: Effective Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s fairly well established that, in terms of sustainability, attitudes far surpass actions. According to Gallup polls, at least 2\/3 of respondents have consistently responded to questions about their concern for the environment by saying that they would describe themselves as fairly green. This trend has been consistent for decades.<\/p>\n

But action is not always in line with attitude<\/a>. Many programs designed to encourage what many would think are “no brainer” sustainable behavior, like installing a high efficiency showerhead, fail to achieve significant adoption rates.<\/p>\n

Doug McKenzie Mohr, environmental psychiatrist, and author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior, suggests the answer is Community Based Social Marketing<\/a> (CBSM). CBSM proceeds in 5 steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Selecting behaviors you want to change<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Uncovering barriers & benefits<\/li>\n
  3. Developing strategies<\/li>\n
  4. Piloting the strategy<\/li>\n
  5. Implement broadly and evaluate<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step 1: Selecting Behaviors<\/h3>\n

    The first step in creating change is to select behaviors that you’d like to see changed. But rather than officials simply saying they’d like to see one particular behavior or another change, it’s better, according to McKenzie Mohr, to prioritize community programs and choose behaviors that will have the biggest effect. To do this, it’s critical to start with the broader scale data.<\/p>\n

    There are several important factors in selecting behaviors. One is that they’re non-divisible.<\/strong> So saying something like “we want to encourage people to plant native plants” is simply too general. There are too many types of native plants, some of which might actually be more water-thirsty than others. So any behavior needs to be drilled down as far as possible.<\/p>\n

    The second factor is to focus on the “end state”. Thus, a program where a municipality hands out energy efficient light bulbs will be less effective than a program where that municipality makes people bring in 10 incandescent bulbs to receive their replacement bulbs. In essence, the action has been taken, and “end state” achieved. And lastly, and perhaps most difficult, is not to use “strategies”. A strategy would be “we want people to take shorter showers.” Nice, but ineffective compared to end-state focused, non-divisible outcomes like “we want 75% of residents to change to a high efficiency showerhead”.<\/p>\n

    The next thing to consider in terms of selecting behaviors is how rigorous the selection criteria.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The selection criteria include three elements:<\/p>\n

    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/td>\n\n

    More rigorous (better)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Less rigorous (less effective)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    \n

    BIGGEST IMPACT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Technical Review:<\/p>\n

    What do the data say? What are the biggest areas needing improvement?<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Survey experts:<\/p>\n

    asking government officials, utility representatives, and other experts and summing their feedback.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    \n

    HIGHEST PROBABILITY<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Review Cases:<\/p>\n

    What has worked elsewhere? Case studies, in as much detail as possible.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Survey audience:<\/p>\n

    Ask the target population what they think would work.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    \n

    LOWEST PENETRATION<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Inspections:<\/p>\n

    Look at buildings, do assessments of how many of the desired change have been made.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Survey audience:<\/p>\n

    Ask people what they’ve done.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

    To identify the biggest impact areas, a strong approach is to look at the data.<\/strong> In Canada, Mohr said, 59% of electricity is used for heating space. So much attention is paid to lights, but when researchers looked at the data in Canada, only 5% of the total energy used was being used for lights. So any programs aimed at lights can only change a few percent overall, whereas programs aimed at heating can have a much bigger impact.\u00a0In Hawaii, clearly this would be quite different, so programs designed without this data review are bound to be less effective.<\/p>\n

    A weaker approach is to survey experts. You can find a lot of folks willing to give you input, but the data will be suspect to each person’s inherent biases and backgrounds. Good data, but definitely not the strongest approach.<\/p>\n

    To identify the changes with the highest probability of adoption, a strong approach is to look at case studies.<\/strong> What has worked elsewhere? How did those changes come about? A weaker approach is to survey people and ask them how many of them, for instance, would give up driving by themselves in favor of taking public transit. McKenzie Mohr’s website, www.cbsm.com<\/a>, has many case studies from around the world on any number of initiatives.<\/p>\n

    To identify the best possible overall outcome, you’ll want to find areas with low penetration.<\/strong> Figure it this way. If 75% of people have already installed a high efficiency showerhead, you can only penetrate the market 25% more (and to be honest, those 25% are likely going to come around eventually anyway, since everyone else is doing it).<\/p>\n

    Next Page (2 of 3), Step 2: Uncovering Barriers and Benefits to Social Change (step 2 of 5).<\/a><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Step 2: Uncovering Barriers and Benefits to Social Change<\/h3>\n

    How would you find out the barriers keeping someone from adopting sustainable behavior? Cost, availability, access, willpower, homeownership vs. rentership…there are a lot of barriers that come into play on just about any behavior change program.<\/p>\n

    Think about the difficulties involved in someone beginning to compost. If someone decides they want to learn how to compost<\/a>, how do they go about it? First, they need to understand what can and can’t be composted. Then, they have to figure out how to sort their waste stream with a wide variety of dishes they prepare. Then, they need a place to put it. Then, they have to figure out a watering schedule and a rotation schedule. (Then, they need to actually do those things on that schedule). And so on, and so forth….<\/p>\n

    So a first step toward figuring out how to increase the adoption of a sustainable behavior like composting, you first have to lay out these steps. This will uncover barriers. For instance, Dr. Mohr recalled a story about moving to a snowy part of Canada in the summertime, and placing his compost bin in the backyard, just like he did in his previous home. Little did he know that placing it behind a bush in the backyard that helped to hide it from site from the back windows meant that in the wintertime, it was going to be a long walk through a lot of snow in order to dump the kitchen compost.<\/p>\n

    So here’s how to figure out the barriers and benefits.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Do direct, but unobstrusive observation.<\/strong> It’s very important to be unobtrusive when observing (otherwise, you’ll influence people’s behavior and bias your findings). By observing people who install programmable thermostats, researchers were able to find<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Conduct research in focus groups.<\/strong> Pick people who do not do the behavior in question. If you have a focus group about composting, you want people who don’t compost (yet). BUT, set the stage–let them know right off the bat that they’ve been selected because they do not compost, thank them for their participation and for sharing such important information, and let them know that you think it’s great that we’re going to help identify the reasons why people don’t compost. If you don’t set the stage this way, then they’ll spend the whole time talking about why they should be composting, because they think that’s what you, as the researcher, want to hear. Tips for success: tell people that your notetaker is going to have trouble keeping up, so that participants should be writing down their own notes, and then regularly check in with them by saying, “So what did you write down there?”<\/em>\u00a0 You’ll need a facilitator for your workshop, who needs to be polite but assertive.<\/li>\n
    3. Conduct surveys.<\/strong> Face to face interviews give you the best participation rates, and the longest list of “end-state”, non-divisible behaviors. The challenge is that these kinds of interviews are expensive and take a long time to conduct. There are a whole range of other surveys, with limitations and benefits to each. Check out some info on survey research methods here from Rand<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Case study: proper tire inflation<\/h3>\n

      \"Tire<\/a>McKenzie Mohr described survey research in Canada that aimed to reduce fuel usage by addressing the fact that a majority of people in Canada had at least 1 tire that was not inflated properly, and 1\/3 had 3 or 4 tires that were regularly underinflated. The research showed the following barriers, in order of prevalence:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. people simply didn’t remember to check<\/li>\n
      2. people didn’t have a tire gauge<\/li>\n
      3. people lacked knowledge about how inflation affected them<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The benefits people described, in order of prevalence, were:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. safety<\/span><\/li>\n
        2. preventing tire wear<\/li>\n
        3. reducing gas expenditure<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Would that have been what you’d have suspected? It wasn’t for me, nor anyone else at my table at the McKenzie Mohr workshop, most of whom would have guessed the number 1 barrier would have been a lack of knowledge, and the number 1 benefit would have been reduced gas expenditure. If we’d designed a program based on those assumptions, our program would clearly have been ineffective.<\/p>\n

          Next page, Steps 3-5: Develop Strategy, Piloting Strategy, Broad-scale Implementation (page 3 of 3 in this article)<\/a><\/p>\n

          <\/p>\n

          Step 3: Developing Strategy<\/h3>\n

          There are four basic situations you’ll find yourself in after assessing the barriers and benefits.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. A situation with low benefits and high barriers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
          2. A situation with low benefits and low barriers.<\/li>\n
          3. A situation with high benefits and low barriers.<\/li>\n
          4. A situation with high benefits and high barriers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            The end goal is to have low barriers and high benefits, so whichever situation you’re in at the moment, above, will determine the strategy you take to implement the program.<\/p>\n

            Case study: Reducing Idling<\/h3>\n

            Drivers in Canada were observed to idle their vehicles while they were parked for an average of 3 minutes. It pollutes the air with ozone, SOx and NOx pollution, burns fuel needlessly, and produces greenhouse gases. Doing the research, the team found that the number one reason people were idling is that they didn’t know. Those who did thought, wrongly, that turning their car off and then back on would hurt their starters. The list went on–barriers to sustainable behavior were present, and the benefits to people were not as apparent.<\/p>\n

            The researchers first tried a sign asking people to Turn off their engine (below, left).<\/p>\n

            \"turning<\/a><\/p>\n

            The signs were put on posts with reduced height, to be at the drivers’ eye level. They measured little to no effect from the program. In contrast, they then created semi-transparent stickers to put in peoples’ rear windows (right, above). It was a total 180. Note the language: in the sticker on the right, people are making a commitment to turning off their engine when they are parked.<\/p>\n

            Voluntary commitments are incredibly effective, according to Mohr. In general, people want to be good people and do the right thing, so when they know what to do, and have made the commitment to it, behavior change is made.<\/p>\n

            In order of effectiveness, commitments come in many forms.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Most effective, a public and durable commitment (i.e., the sticker in the window)<\/span><\/li>\n
            2. Second most effective, a public commitment (writing an op-ed for the local paper)<\/li>\n
            3. third, a written commitment (personal journal entry)<\/li>\n
            4. last, a verbal commitment<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              To get people to commit to something, it’s important to ask them. “Can we count on you to ______?” Simple, but very, very effective. The stickers and educational program along with it were able to reduce idling 32% and duration of idle 73%.<\/p>\n

              A side note about incentives. Incentives have a laser focus that can help elicit behavior change. But…incentives subvert the positive effects of commitments. Commitments work because people internalize them, and, as mentioned, want<\/em> to be a good person by making that change. Commitments are broader and longer lasting. An incentive can change the person’s focus to simply look at one angle of a broader problem. For instance, the HI-5 program in Hawaii, wherein a 5 cent deposit is returned when a person brings that bottle or can in for recycling, was very effective in increasing recycling rates<\/a> and reducing waste sent to landfill. But it did absolutely nothing for other recyclables that didn’t have the 5 cent reward. The incentive subverted the commitment.<\/p>\n

              Broadcasting the message<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Social diffusion is incredibly powerful in helping foster sustainable behavior change. If a program naturally diffuses from person to person, there is a terrific sense of community that is supporting the change. For people planning programs and trying to implement it:<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Look for well-known, well respected people in the various nodes (groups) you’re trying to reach, and talk directly to them to get them to be first adopters. Ask them for a commitment to change, and if they make it, ask them to influence others.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
              2. Make those commitments durable and public, if possible.<\/li>\n
              3. Visibility influences adoption. If the action is visible, other people will want to follow suit.<\/li>\n
              4. If you have the behavior already in place, highlight the large # of people doing it. If you don’t, but there’s general consensus around the good idea, highlight “xx% of people believe that…”<\/li>\n
              5. Use descriptive norms to showcase what you want people to do. Do not use descriptive norms to say what other people are doing wrong (it basically, subconsciously tells people that it’s ok to also do the wrong behavior).<\/li>\n
              6. Use injunctive norms in a simple way to tell people what not to do, if there’s not a better, more positive message to use.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Step 4: Piloting Strategy<\/h3>\n

                To conduct an informative pilot, here’s a methodology.<\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. Choose your participants at random. Otherwise, your own bias will enter the scientific equation and the results may be skewed. DO NOT deliver programs to a “convenience sample” (people who want to test out your program. Self-selected folks will inevitably give you results that are not as applicable to the rest of the population.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
                2. Randomly assign the participants into subgroups. This more or less assures that you’ve controlled for pre-existing conditions, and allows you to assume that the results are due to the variables in the experiment that you are conducting.<\/li>\n
                3. Measure changes in behavior, changes in resource use, and changes in resource quality.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  \"Scientific<\/p>\n

                  In the above diagram, the strategy group is given the pilot program, and the control group is not. Assuming all else is equal (which is why you randomize the sample groups), you should see no change in the control group. But if you do see a change in the control group’s behavior, all is not lost. Humans are notoriously difficult to study and make terrible test subjects, so rather than chuck the data, simply correct for the control group’s behavior change. In plain English, if the strategy group changes behavior by 25%, and the control group by 9%, then simply adjust the “effect” of your program down by 9%. You’re basically going to assume that the treatment affected behavior by 25 – 9, or 16%.<\/p>\n

                  Step 5: Implement Broadly and Evaluate (step 5 of 5)<\/h3>\n

                  This step will depend mostly on very specific factors to what you’re doing, so therefore, we won’t spend any substantial time on it, and just refer you to check\u00a0out Doug McKenzie Mohr, and CBSM<\/a> for more information. I found the workshop to be truly engaging and think the formula their group has developed can give municipalities, governments, universities, and companies the methodology that will help them achieve the biggest behavior change within their communities.<\/p>\n

                  <\/p>\n

                  Photos courtesy of Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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