Using E-mail Listservs to Promote Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors

This paper describes a social marketing campaign that encouraged individuals to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviors such as purchasing green power, installing energy-efficient lights, and checking tire pressure and refrigerator efficiency. An e-mail campaign was developed using the social marketing tools of commitment, prompting, and social norms. The results suggest that electronic listservs, which leverage social networks, can be a viable vehicle for social marketing. The paper extends the literature by introducing e-mail as a vehicle for obtaining individual commitment to change behavior.