Elisa Cooper Guelph Nov 6, 2009 16:23 pm

Hello,

I'm currently wrapping up a water and energy conservation project in Guelph based on CBSM. It's an annual project that focuses on specific behaviour changes each year (like installing low-flow showerheads or pipe insulation). We're trying to determine what recommendations we should make for evaluating the results of the project in the future. In the first year of the project we distributed 16,000 conservation kits and an additional 14,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs. With such a large-scale project it was challenging to accurately determine what percentage of the products distributed were actually used. We performed a phone follow-up where a small percentage of participants were called and asked to self-report on which products were used and which they planned to use. Something else that we were considering was having volunteers go and perform the follow-up in person in order to reduce the likelihood of people giving misinformation. Does anyone have experience with evaluating the results of widespread community projects with limited resources? Does anyone know if there are reports, articles or literature available on this that go beyond what is explained in "Fostering Sustainable Behaviour"?

Thank you very much!


Elisa Cooper
GIG 2009 Project Coordinator
Guelph Environmental Leadership
Canada