Lynn Johannson Georgetown Mar 18, 2011 13:54 pm

The more research that is done in the name of sustainability, the more people are realizing that respondents to surveys imagine themselves to be much greener than their actual practices or habits indicate.

When we have seen the possibility for cost savings between 1% and 16% in small, medium and large businesses just from behaviour change, it makes the work that Doug has been promoting even more important. Of course for almost every dollar saved or diverted toward buying green has a potential footprint reduction attached to it.

If we were able to help every Canadian small business orient their efforts to greening their productivity by 1%, we are talking about a $2 billion shift in the economy. While the US has a slightly larger medium-sized business sector, at the least we are talking about a much larger shift in the economy, multiply that by the US business population and the numbers start to get very serious very quickly.

Making sure that what is suggested as the behaviour change must also be based on good science. In the US the last study I read indicated the eco-literacy rate as no higher than 5%. It means practitioners face a great challenge with great risk. We cannot rest on our laurels for merely informing people, we have to ensure that we educate to keep the behaviour change alive.

Here is a current 'hot' behaviour change challenge, driven by Mother Nature and scientific ignorance. Consider the purchasing wave for iodine that spun off the Japanese coast in the form of a tsunami that hit North America. People who perceive themselves at risk are buying up iodine and using it when they are not at risk, but but themselves at risk for future need. There are a lot of smart people in this forum, surely some could put their heads together and apply some CBSM to this issue.

This also makes me think Doug that you need to add a thread for behaviour change related to disaster ...

Thanks for enabling this exchange Doug. When you 'do the math' you start to realize how critical this is financially, environmentally and socially.

Lynn Johannson
CEO and Founder
goingforthegreen.net and GFTG TV
Canada
www.goingforthegreen.net