Promotion of Sustainable Practices Pledge (examples)

Hi John
Interested in your project above. Have you checked out Days of Change at http://daysofchange.org/ This is a Western Australian based program aimed at changing behaviour through the use of pledges etc.

Best wishes
Sally

Sally Paulin
ISTP. Murdoch University
Australia

John,

Very intriguing question. I recently read an article about "outgroups". When people in the study were led to believe that a certain behavior was characteristic of a group they definitely did not want to be like, they adopted the opposite behavior. So perhaps "Adults over 30 almost never make pledges to support the environment. They don't go to www.xxxx" might be effective. (Want to check veracity, though... )

Conversely, modeling is effective sometimes. "Celebrity X [you'd have to find an actual role model who actually did something] supports sustainability. So can you, at www.xxxxxxxxx"

Kids are especially susceptible to peer pressure. "3 out of 10 of your friends probably pledged at www.xxxxx" [Again, you want something truthful.]

Framing may be effective. Set a high bar, then pledging online is a low one by comparison. "Give $50 to Thousand Oaks env. sustainability. Don't have $55? You can pledge your support at www.xxxxx"

Get some kids together, ask them what would keep them from going online to make pledge, then have a city-wide or school-wide contest to formulate cool phrases to overcome those barriers. The contest by itself would generate interest, and the kids (and only the kids) can give you information on what the barriers are, and kids can provide the best lingo.



Robert Rowell
educator
United States

Sally Paulin,

I see from your Twitter feed that you have over 40,000 pledges! That's terrific! On your web site I see that you use and promote your efforts in Facebook and You Tube. What methodologies are you finding effective?



Robert Rowell
educator
United States

Thanks Sally, I had not heard about their project and went online to check out. It looks like it has gotten pretty good traction so I will study further and see what I can takeaway from their process. I was also very interested to see their expansion plans - pretty aggresive. Thanks again for the tip. John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

Robert, I had never heard of the outgroup concept, but it makes sense and I think I can see some potential there. On framing, asking for a donation is probably not feasible, but the concept of asking for a big commitment and then having a low-cost alternative would be - I will work this one through with my team.

I think you are spot-on with your sugestion about engaging the kids to come up with the language. The contest would be an excellent vehicle for engaging them in the discussion and concepts. We do a big Earth Day event so timing may be right to design the contest, publicize, get entries and do some type of recognition at our Earth Day events.

Thanks for the suggestions. John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

Dear Robert: Could you provide a citation for the article you mentioned in your comment about outgroups? I'd like to find a copy. Thanks.

Camille Kirk
UC Davis
United States

Hi John
I am not connected to the group but you could try contacting them by email at [email protected] - Garry Warden and Julian Ilich who founded this organisation would I am sure be happy to offer info and advice on how they have run their program

Best wishes
Sally


Sally Paulin
School of Sustainability, Murdoch University
Australia

Thanks and I love the personal touch of Hello@ instead of the info@ - first time I have come across that one. Best John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

Hi John,

I noticed on your original post you were also asking for a achievable and measurable pledge for kids. How about a commitment to a trash free lunch? Every day kids bring in juice boxes, individually wrapped cheezits, chips, etc and plastic sandwich bags. Get the kids to only use reusable containers. Are you already composting at the public schools.?
Kids could weigh their trash for a 2 week period before you start the pledge and then twice a month once program is in place. Maybe your organization could buy 20 reusable water bottles every time the weigh in is 25% less than the average before you started the challenge. Just an idea. We just started this at our school and the kids are really into it!

Sarah Lachance
Chair
Kennebunkport Conservation Commission
United States
www.campaignearth.org

Hi Sarah,

Appreciate the suggestions and like the simple concept. It allows each kid to contribute to making a difference and it is foused one easy to grasp area. We have 17 elementary schools so this might make for a good competition between the schools as well as the classrooms at each school.
Thanks John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

At one time EPA had a whole program about waste-free lunches in schools on their website. I see a poster still avaialable from them, but I'm not sure about the other supporting materials. Boise City partnered with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality a couple years ago and made the waste-free lunch "toolkit" available to schools. It included forms to monitor materials, a letter to parents, an article for the school's newsletter, etc. IDEQ still has the materials on their website at http://www.deq.idaho.gov/waste/educ_tools/waste_free_lunch.cfm#lunchbox, and I believe I still have Word versions of what we used here in the city. If you'd like to modify and use them, I'd be happy to forward them electronically.

Pamela Williams
Boise Public Works
United States

I went through the materials and it looked well thought out. Do you have any idea what the results were for the campaign? Were the school administrators & kids receptive and after the major rollout was over was there a lasting effect? I can also call Joanna Pierce who is listed as the contact if you are not familiar with the detials. Appreciate the links to the material. Thanks John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

Previously in this thread, I had mentioned a study in which experimental groups reduced a behavior after being led to believe that behavior was indicative of a group with which they did not want to be associated. Christie Manning found the reference, which I had lost. Here it is:

Shifting signals to help health: Using identity signaling to reduce risky health behaviors.


Author Berger, Jonah1; Rand, Lindsay2


Affiliation (1)Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, US; (2)Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, US


Source Journal of Consumer Research. Special Issue: Consumer welfare. Vol 35(3), Oct 2008, pp. 509-518


This research examines how identity-based interventions can improve consumer health. Results of laboratory and field experiments reveal that associating risky health behaviors with a social identity people do not want to signal can contaminate the behaviors and lead consumers to make healthier choices. College freshman reported consuming less alcohol (experiment 2), and restaurant patrons selected less fattening food (experiment 3), when drinking alcohol and eating junk food were presented as markers of avoidance groups. These findings demonstrate that identity- based interventions can shift the identities associated with real-world behaviors, thereby improving the health of populations.

Robert Rowell
educator
United States

John, the waste-free lunch toolkits were very popular with educators. Unfortunately, we did not track results. I'm a little pessimistic in terms of lasting impacts, as I think education and encouragement need to be ongoing to be effective. I doubt if the Idaho Dept. of Environmental Quality tracked results either, but Joanna may be able to provide more info than I.

Pamela Williams
Boise Public Works
United States

Thansk - I will follow up with her. John

John Brooks
Sr. Analyst
City of Thousand Oaks
United States
www.toaks.org/GoGreen

Thanks, Robert, for the citation!

Camille Kirk
Sustainability Planner
UC Davis
United States
www.sustainability.ucdavis.edu

Hi John,

I really like the idea of you creating a contest between schools. You might be surprised at how much interest that helps create. also, there is some great math opportunities as well. Maybe you could get a local bakery to donate chocolate chip cookies to the school that wins or the reusable water bottle idea..... Kids could create cool graphs showing the results and even post on the district's website.

Sarah Lachance
Chair
Kennebunkport Conservation Commission
United States
www.campaignearth.org