An article from Green Futures that looks at how we can change behaviour positively.

So we’re out to get people to change their behaviour. But the usual ‘greener lifestyle’ promotion drops just about every clanger in the book. Green-Engage shares some hard truths about communication that doesn’t work, and gives us the key to getting it right.
“If everyone in the UK washed their laundry just ten degrees cooler, we’d need one less 250MW power station!!”

A compelling message? Quite the opposite, says Steve Hounsham, author of Green-Engage’s new report Painting the Town Green. Here’s his “rather ruthless demolition” of that well-intended message:

First of all, what is a 250MW power station? How big and bad is that? Is it big and bad at all? Are we talking about something the size of an airport or something the size of a tennis court?

Second, the double exclamation implies earth-shattering significance, but is a consumer actually bothered by how many power stations we have, so long as they are not actually near where they live?

Third, the statement implores people to change behaviour but apparently only offers a benefit at the society level, rather than the personal, which is a shaky motivator for many people.

Fourth, the wording “if everyone” hints at a key barrier to behaviour change. Unless people can see everyone else changing, why bother themselves – it’s not going to make any real difference and might even put them personally at a perceived disadvantage compared with their neighbours.

Finally, there’s no recognition within the statement of what might be the root cause of the problem: people might want to use the hot wash, believing that’s the best way to make clothes really clean and ‘safe’.

All right, point taken. But the Green-Engage project wasn’t set up to pick holes in past efforts. It’s a joint effort by a group of environmental organisations to create a blueprint for better communication. They want to be better at getting people to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviour. Hence Hounsham’s focus on getting the psychology right.

# Like all animals, people have an in-built mechanism to identify close-to-home personal benefits before there is any thought of altruism.

# Presenting green lifestyles as giving up everything nice, and living in a cave with the light switched off, is doomed to fail. Even a top salesman finds sacrifice a hard sell at the best of times. Over-consumption of resources may lie at the root of many of our environmental problems, but slagging off the consumerism which has given us a comfortable lifestyle won’t win many friends outside the loop of those already converted.

# Psychologists tell us that climate change comes within people’s ‘sphere of concern’ but not within their perceived ‘sphere of influence’. In other words, people think they can’t do anything about it. The problems seem overwhelming and the barriers to doing the right thing too high.

# Most lifestyle decisions aren’t made through rational consideration of the facts, but by emotions, habits, fashions, personal values, peer pressure and other intangibles. Getting people to change depends more on connecting with the heart than the head.

# We’ve misunderstood what consumer goods actually mean to people, ignoring their connections with personal identity, esteem and belonging. The car, perhaps the prime example, is less about transport and more about a sense of freedom, convenience and personal identity – a status symbol, a means of social bonding, a cocoon, a lover, a best friend and a refuge.

“We need ‘green living on a plate’. It’s got to be as easy as booking a holiday: the equivalent of just making a phone call, handing over a credit card number and turning up on the day.”

Drawing on views and ideas from a wide range of people in environmental policy, campaigns and communication, the Green-Engage report comes up with a set of 31 recommendations – which we have condensed into key ‘dos and don’ts’.

Getting the message right

Present messages as solutions. “Something better is on the way...”

Look for tangible, personal, close-to-home benefits for individuals. Green behaviour should win a personal reward; unsustainable actions should be discouraged with a price penalty or other disincentive.

Create agency – the ability for people to understand a problem in their own way, decide for themselves to do something about it, make a real difference that’s noticeable to them, and receive recognition for having done the right thing.

Acknowledge that every little counts. Presenting a ‘green on balance’ framework for personal living helps avoid the reaction; ‘I can’t do everything, so I’ll do nothing’. And accept that people slip into ‘bad ways’ now and again.

Aim to develop brands – packages of environmentally friendly behaviours – that different kinds of people will identify with. ‘Ethical living’ may appeal to inner-directed ‘seeker’-type personalities – who make up most of the membership of campaigning organisations – but not everyone is like that. A ‘smart living’ tag (purged of all green language) is better suited to outer-directed, esteem-driven personalities. Then there are the security-driven, home values-based types, who are more likely to be attracted to a ‘safe living’ brand.

Stop pretending environment is the only issue that should matter to people. Legitimise and broaden the appeal of green behaviours by wrapping up environment with the other four main families of visionary causes: prosperous, comfortable lives; social justice; peaceful, safe communities; and physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.

Work towards providing ‘green living on a plate’, as easy as booking a holiday: the equivalent of just making a phone call, handing over a credit card number and turning up on the day. Every town should have a ‘green demonstration house’ to help consumers see the choices they can make. And what about a national one-stop phone advice line?

Court influential role models – people who strike a chord with the public – and make more effort to get environment into popular culture and probe opportunities for soft messaging – TV drama, soaps, game shows, comedy, reality TV...

Introduce ‘starter kit’ advice, to get people engaged on easy actions with obvious paybacks or pleasant effects that fit into existing routines. A wildlife garden, or action on litter, might be an easier place to begin than changing how you travel. Aim to create bandwagon environmentalism with a sense of joining in, or missing out if you don’t.

Build bridges with faiths, focusing on shared principles and values, and ‘sign up’ religious leaders as public campaigners.

Don’t assume, like too many environmentalists, that everyone shares the same thirst for scary details of environment threats, the same triggers for concern, and the same compelling urge to do something about it.

Don’t present goals that seem hopelessly unobtainable. Focus instead on positives, optimism and human ingenuity. The presumption must be that we will get through all this, that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Don’t use unfamiliar language, specialised terms and jargon – it can switch people off from the message.

Don’t rely on exhortation and a pedestal ‘I know best’ attitude. Real dialogue is a shared journey on equal terms where both sides can learn.

Don’t rely on a head-focused approach (providing information and rational argument). Heart-focused messages can touch emotions, stimulate resonance, inspire and create desire.

Steve Hounsham is co-ordinator of Green-Engage and communications manager at Transport 2000. To order a copy of Painting the Town Green (printed copy £20, or £16 for Green Futures readers; pdf version £10), call Transport 2000 on 020 7613 0743.

See article at:
http://www.greenfutures.org.uk/features/default.asp?id=2470