Eco-friendly Living in the Greater Morristown, NJ Area

Ahhh the obligatory Earth Day post required of any environmental blog worth its salt…  It’s the day environmentalists look forward to as an excuse to educate others who most likely don’t care – maybe this year will be the year everyone will wake up!

As someone who is now both a student and practitioner of sustainability, I’ve been struggling with this idea of how we can really get everyone aboard the sustainability train so that people think about their impact on the Earth more than once a year.  Working at an environmental nonprofit and then switching gears to a graduate program in sustainability,  I was surrounded by like-minded environmentalists and somewhat isolated to the attitudes and lack of interest that many people have toward the environment.  I thought, hey, this sustainability stuff is neat.  It makes sense economically, socially and environmentally; why shouldn’t everyone want to adopt it once they know about it?  I became convinced that education (both mine and theirs) was the key to converting others.  However, when I recently started my internship, it became apparent that this sustainability gig wasn’t going to be so easy after all.

I was tasked with establishing a composting program, and when I heard one of the guests where I work incorrectly pronounce “compostable,” I knew I was in for a challenge.  Composting is something I’ve done my entire life, so it was a wake-up call to meet people who had no idea what it was, or why it was important.  I even had someone say, “But we’re going to put all the trash and stuff in there, too, right?”  Wrong!  When starting the program, we stationed people at each waste disposal station to help people dispose of their waste.  I started by asking, “Can I help you compost today?” which seemed to me the most friendly and least intrusive intro.  One of my colleagues, when asking this, had one person who said, “No, thanks” and proceeded to throw everything right into the trash bin right in front of her.  When we switched to, “We’re starting a new composting initiative…” and then proceeded to tell them what to do, it seemed to work a lot better.  (Lesson learned there: don’t give people options.)

How do we get buy in from those that just don’t seem to care?  Or those who go out of their way to be harmful to the environment?  In school, we recently had someone talk to us about behavioral economics and what it takes to transform the market (we were discussing the energy market).   I’ll share with you some things I learned.  Apparently, studies show that information and education do not work – except with highly motivated people who have enough interest to learn (like all of you ecoMotown readers out there).  Incentives (monetary) work, but only in the short-term and don’t really change long-term behaviors.

So what does work?

• Competition – Studies have shown that if you show people their household energy usage and that of their neighbors, people significantly cut back their usage just because they don’t want to be outdone.
• Social diffusion – Target the socially influential and/or lead by example.  When trying to get farmers to integrate a sustainable practice on their farms, initiators in a study found out who the 3 most influential farmers were in the community, got them on board, and soon the entire town had adopted the new practices.
• Prompts – People forget.  Remind them with signs near the place of action – i.e. a reminder to fill your tires with air in the car, not in a pamphlet or on the computer.

So while you’re out spreading Earth Day cheer (as I know many of you ecoMotown readers are wont to do), consider these suggestions.  Check out this website: www.toolsofchange.com for some other ideas.  Lead by example, give people a gentle reminder and maybe even light a fire under them with a little light-hearted competition.  People may just do what you want them to do.  As someone who is dedicated to spreading sustainability, I’m hopeful they will.

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