Hi Folks;
How well do you think this will work? I'm working with a group that wants to change behaviour by inviting people to pledge to do one thing to help the environment. Their choices are things like: take shorter showers, replace light bulbs with florescent bulbs, set up a composter et. We plan to do this at a display booth we'll take to different venues where people can pledge to do their one thing and get their picture taken against a cool back drop. We are still working out the details. I'm looking for feedback from anyone who has done this sort of pledge setup in a public venue. I know there are several internet sites that do this on line. Will people come forward? will this scare them off? do we need other things at the booth to bring them in????? Any comments are welcome.
Danita
Danita Maslankowski
Southern Region Team Leader
Alberta Conservation Team
Deerfoot Square 3rd Flr. 2938- 11 Street SE
Calgary, Alberta T2E 7L7
Ph: (403) 297-3390
Fax: (403) 297-6069
[email protected]
Pledging in Public
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Danita,
At the Southwest Florida Water Management District, we have done some work with pledges at special events to get people to make a commitment to conservatory behaviors. In this pledge, http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/download/ws_pledge_2005.pdf we asked people to pledge to various watershed protection and water conservation behaviors. Their "incentive," which was also a prompt reminding them of what they pledged to do, was a blue plastic bracelet that says, "I TOOK THE PLEDGE," and "WaterMatters.org," our web site. We also had paper copies of the pledge at various special events. People were asked to take the completed pledges home with them and put them on their refrigerator, or other highly visible location, to remind them of the behaviors they pledged to do. We collected contact information from pledge takers and conducted a follow-up survey with them to track the sustainability of behavior changes. In this survey, we asked respondents to report what behaviors they participated in prior to taking the pledge, what they pledged to do and what behaviors they followed through with.
Quick Summary of follow-up survey results:
51.8 percent remembered most of the actions they pledged to do
42.7 percent somewhat agreed that the pledge had an impact on how they care for their watershed 36 percent somewhat agreed that the wristband served as a reminder
54.1 percent strongly agreed that they would have followed through on their pledge without the wristband
57.7 percent strongly agreed that the Watershed Pledge is an effective way to encourage people to take care of their watershed
51.8 percent strongly agree that they were already committed to protecting their watershed prior to taking the pledge
Top five post-pledge behaviors followed through with
87 percent - Turn off faucet while brushing teeth (benefit "easy")
86 percent - Never dump toxic materials (benefit "help the environment")
79 percent - Check the car for leaks and maintain with tune-ups (benefit "help the environment")
77 percent - Fix leaks (benefit "help the environment")
75 percent - Use water-efficient showerheads (benefit "help environment")
75 percent - Encourage others to take the pledge (benefit "help environment")
Top five post-pledge behaviors not followed through with
37 percent - Take part in an event that benefits the environment (barrier "need more information")
30 percent - Use water-efficient toilets (barrier "too expensive")
25 percent - Use water-efficient faucets (barrier "too expensive")
18 percent - Use water-efficient showerheads (barriers "don't know how" and "too expensive")
17 percent - Encourage others to take the pledge (barrier "forgot)
Hope this is helpful.
All the best,
Dorian Morgan
Senior Communications Coordinator
Southwest Florida Water Management District
2379 Broad Street Brooksville, FL 34604-6899
(352) 796-7211 or 1-800-423-1476, ext. 4790
fax (352) 754-6883
[email protected]
Reduce the Juice has run several projects that involve pledging (at the doorstep usually, but at Farmers Markets and other community events as well). In our first project, we too provided a lawn sign for the pledgers. However, we actually installed the sign for the homeowner. Im not sure if it would have been so successful if we expected them to do the installation. It seemed to work at creating a new social norm which was our intention because we had many calls from others looking for their sign. Check out the photo gallery for some pictures: "http://www.reducethejuice.ca/community/shelburne/photo.htm"
Theresa
Executive Director
Reduce the Juice
p:519-943-0303
c:519-938-6601
Good question. We have just recently used pledges at booths before but the 'reward' was not a picture but a flag for their lawn when they pledged to practice safe lawn care or a rubber duck when they pledged to help prevent stormwater pollution. We have not done any follow up yet to see if making the pledge and getting the 'trinket' made any difference, so can't say if it is an effective way to change behavior. Personally I would not find a picture of my self in front of a cool back drop a reward - actually it would be 'punishment' for me. But I am not your target audience. Maybe subsample your target audience and see what they think of the picture.
Kathy Hoppe MDEP
207-760-3134