Campaigns to Conserve Heat by Closing Windows, etc.

Dear Zachary,

I'm fascinated by your recent email asking "Does anyone know of campaigns to conserve heat by encouraging building users to close windows, adjust blinds, and the like? We are designing a campaign to change the daily habits of faculty, staff, and students on a college campus (as opposed to changing physical facilities with weather stripping and locked thermostats)." There are a gazillion answers to your question about relying on people instead of technology for conservation, Zachary. The people approach vs. high tech approach you are addressing is very current! I was intrigued to hear recently of a study demonstrating that people could consistently outperform technology when it comes to conservation. I simply must get the EPA contact who shared that tid-bit to tell me more. The best response to your question that I know of, however, is the well-documented and long-proven strategy for changing collective behavior (norms) and sustaining change (in normative systems) that is described by the "pressure points" of the Keep America Beautiful System. With 30+ years of familiarity with that process, I boldly modify it with just one minor added element, economics. ;-)

That now-five-step strategy includes:

1. updating written expectations as a group, including policies, procedures, regulations, etc. pertaining to your project

2. improving/installing basic technology that makes behavioral expectations reasonable (that window needs to be as easy to close/open as possible, the pull cords on those blinds must work as expected, and the latch on that door must, well...latch!)

3. explaining personal as well as organizational economics...the specific rewards of compliance as well as penalties for non-compliance

4. communicating repeatedly, in a variety of ways, AND FOCUSING ON #1, #2, AND #3 ABOVE not on general fact sharing, and

5. providing for enforcement of expectations with pre-announced sanctions and publicizing that enforcement (probably NOT putting individuals or groups folks to public shame.) It is stated from time to time on our CBSM site that neither education nor economics, both of which are included above, have proven to have a lasting effect on changing behavior for the better. I agree with that in this way...education and/or economics working alone, aimed primarily at individuals, and not part of a larger, systems-based approach, are in fact likely to fail. By comparison, a powerful 8-cyclinder engine sitting out on the road alone can go nowhere and a fully-equipped car lacking that same engine is also immobilized. Both the powerful engine and the fully-equipped car are needed for a comfortable journey; it takes a complete system for any of its elements to go anywhere. Bearing that thought in mind, let me offer one caution about your completely avoiding reliance on technology. It is one thing to avoid expensive technology but at least some some facilitating technology is usually required. You cannot expect many folks to avoid littering from their cars if they have no place else to place to put their trash such as a simple car litter bag. You cannot expect a child to keep his or her room neat without clothes hangers, shelves, drawers, etc. And you cannot expect folks to really stay with a program that does not provided technology that facilitates their complying with your new expectations. Facilitating technology here means the window that's easy to open and close, the blinds that operate properly, the door latch that works, etc. A more learned version of this approach and of its applicability to virtually all of the environmental issues that are regularly discussed on this list is contained in the extraordinary book by E. Scott Geller, Ph.D at Virginia Tech called "Preserving the Environment: New Strategies for Behavior Change." This book was before its time in 1982 and, in many ways apparently, remains so.

b

Bob Horton, MS
City of Irving
Keep Irving Beautiful
Administrator
825 W. Irving Blvd., Dept #11
Irving, Texas 76050
Voice: 972-721-2175,
Cell: 972-742-2421
Fax: 972-721-2176
Email: [email protected]

The Conservation Council of Ontario's "Doors Closed" campaign for retailors has been quite successful. Maybe there are some lessons for campuses as well. See http://weconserve.ca/doorsclosed/?page_id=3 for the campaign's home page and http://weconserve.ca/articles/?p=9 for the initial 2005 results.

Cheers,
Marty Collier, MES (Pl.)

Healthy Transport Consulting
416-516-1621 x.2
[email protected]