I'm organizing a social marketing study group within my agency. I have the most knowledge of the group, but haven't actually done a SM project. Ideally we would have an outside instructor, but I haven't marketed the idea well enough to get the funding! Yet. Does anyone have experience in this kind of internal leader-less learning process for SM? Any suggestions for other basic guides or curricula that would build on the DMM book? I'll provide these background materials:
- Getting in Step,the EPA social marketing guide for watershed outreach.
- Fostering Sustainable Behaviorwebsite and book.
- Handouts from Peter Mitchells SM workshop. (Peter is with the firm Marketing for Change)
- Materials on the Chesapeake Club fertilizer campaign from the Chesapeake Bay Program.
I will prepare a two hour introduction to the topic for our workgroup. For the next four to six weeks, we would meet weekly to go through the initial steps of selecting an environmental objective and behavior change focus, identifying the audience, understanding the current process relative to the activity, developing a hypothesis and identifying audience research needs. In the first month, we would meet with Chris Conner, the communications coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Program, to learn about their fertilizer SM campaign. Once we have identified research needs , we would meet less frequently, perhaps monthly. Each of us would identify a few people to help us with the process, whether inside or outside EPA. At each meeting we would report on progress and help each other move our projects forward. The participants I've lined up so far are interested in reducing pesticides in lawns, overcoming barriers to tree planting in urban areas, reducing pharmaceutical waste going into streams, achieving better implementation of an EMS, and increasing use of BMPs to reduce volume and velocity of stormwater. Part of the project would be linking the social marketing approach to performance measurement. The expectation is that a clear understanding of the assumptions were making, and applying data to plan a behavior change project will allow us to more accurately measure environmental results. Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for your help.
Mindy Lemoine
Environmental Innovation Branch (3EA40)
Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: (215) 814-2736,
Fax: (215) 814-2783
[email protected]
Developing SM Study Group in My Organization
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Dear Mindy:
A question of clarification on one of your specific points within your broader request - your interest in helping others to achieve better implementation of an EMS - is this related to ISO 14001 specifically and is this interest geared to small and medium-sized enterprise?
Lynn L. E. Johannson
B.E.S., (Hons) M.Sc., FRSA
...
Mindy,
You might check out the Northwest Earth Institute website at www.nwei.org. They offer some really great 'classes' on various sustainability type issues and have an interesting model for their classes. I'm not sure if it would be considered social marketing but I participated in a few of the classes many years ago and found the structure to be a very good catalyst for conversation, and even for taking action. They are designed for the workplace (or a group of neighbors or members of other communities) so you might find useful to check out.
Barbara Plummer
Portland Office of Transportation