Group based approaches

For me group based approaches to SC are a lot more powerful than focus on the individual simply by the way that they create social norms in particular communities. People compare themselves to others and have a "desire" to consume sustainably. One problem that struck me with the Ecoteams approach is that these schemes are less likely to engage the "honestly disengaged" (!) i.e. participants are more likely to be greens from the outset just striving to be "greener". Does anyone know of any particular Ecoteams that have targeted/managed to capture some of the "honestly disengaged"?

Infrastructural issues and case study

Infrastructural issues:

• Cost of public transport. I don't cover a lot of miles in my car (<5k>
• Housemates locked into high energy consumption e.g. strolling around the house in t-shirts with the heating on! (cringe!)
• A lack of time to share shopping trips and cooking with housemates (?) (is this self-constructed or a societally constructed issue?).

Case Study: Norwich advertiser Act on CO2 ad.

Seal the deal!

http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/

Can better advertising bring about sustainable consumption? What effects will adverts have on consumption behaviour?

Adverts: informative, digestible, appealing, incentivize, empower
In relation to the climate change issue, it’s less about informing and more about empowering in my opinion. A small anecdote: The other day, I was chatting to a friend about climate change and he remarked: “At least pollution has reduced since the smoking ban”. For me, this highlighted some important points relating to advertising. Firstly, that my friend is the type of person that ads should target and engage. Secondly (and perhaps most importantly) “ordinary” people don’t need to know anything about the science; just how to go about practically reducing personal carbon footprints. Ads need to successfully present carbon footprinting as THE social norm. Carbon should be made visible to my friend and his segment so that they can associate everyday, mundane activity to carbon usage/savings. They need to be physically directed to CO2 savings. Why not use grand rhetoric such as: “You can change the world”? Having said all this, I don’t believe ads will have much of an effect unless followed up by participatory community workshops (carbon watchers anyone?!).

p.s. I came across an Act on CO2 ad in the Norwich advertiser last week. It is too big to scan and attach here so if you're interested I'll bring it along to this Friday's seminar.

Sam

Book choice- continued!

I'm interested in Stern's book to catch a sense of his view of climate change without his economics hat on! How has his close work with theUK government influenced his perspective? Has he adopted the "joined up" thinking of Blair's labour government? Does he hint at a role for alternative economics in the battle against climate change? Finally, I believe that he's the type of guy that we need to listen to- and learn from- in order to respond effectively.

Book choice: Nick Stern (A Blueprint For a Safer Planet)

Having read the Stern Review, I was left to ponder whether he had any alternative non-mainstream perspectives on how we can tackle climate change (he's worked in India, Africa and for the World Bank so I assumed the answer to this question was yes!). I'll post more later- I'm in a rush!

Encouraging people to consume more sustainably?

• Lobbying for an expanded network of local food markets with a national ad campaign promoting their use.
• Gov funded community programmes guiding people on producing food in their own gardens.
• Prices for consumer products more closely aligned to carbon emissions.