Hearts and minds
From Seedawiki
Introduction
It is clear from many of the examples quoted in this website that footprint reduction requires three things together:
- practical opportunities,
- behaviour changes to make use of them and;
- underlying attitudes and values to motivate the behaviour changes.
For example, big improvements in technical energy efficiency in homes and cars through the 1970s and 80s did not result in any reductions average energy use per household or vehicle mile, because people took the benefit in the form of more consumption – more rooms heated to higher temperatures for more of the time, less care about turning things off, bigger, higher performance cars – because the efficiency improvements made warmth and speed effectively cheaper, and few people felt any moral responsibility to save them.
There is a great deal of training and awareness raising activity already underway. But it is difficult to get beyond the converted / captive audiences.
Research suggests many people are willing to act but don’t know how. According to research the South East England Regional Assembly commissioned from Ipsos MORI [1]:
Nine in 10 South East residents are committed to living a greener lifestyle but they need help to deliver on the promise - especially on travel behaviour.
Creative approaches
This section outlines some creative methods to take the footprint reduction message and skills beyond the ‘usual suspects’.
One is to show how low – footprint life could be not only feasible but attractive. We offer two tools to do this:
- An imaginary scenario, A Day in Diamondville, 2030, and;
- A description of a real place where people are already living a footprint reduced but extremely high quality life, Vauban in Germany.
10:10 is 'a mass movement that is signing up people and organisations from every corner of British life' to achieve a 10% cut in greenhouse emissions during 2010. Many local authorities have signed up alongside other public bodies, companies and individuals. The website includes guidance for local authorities.
The Transition Towns movement is mobilising communities (or at least some members of them!) to develop and implement plans for transition to lower carbon living.
More focused examples include the Greening Campaign, pioneered in Petersfield, which advises and motivates households to save energy using window cards to report progress.
Other imaginative approach to engagement include:
- opening eco-houses to the public. See Brighton & Hove eco open houses;
- using the familiar ‘dummies guide’ brand and format to promote green tourism. See Sustainable tourism for dummies.
- using humour. Leicester used a comedy festival as a vehicle for promoting footprint reduction, through a prize for venues and offsetting impacts by planting trees in the National Forest [2].
- Leicester council in partnership with Leicester diocese: Church leaders invited eight bishops from around the world to take part in a service at Leicester cathedral. The council’s environmental sustainability team were part of a 500- strong congregation who gathered at the cathedral to listen to the bishops speak. The partnership between the Church and the council is being replicated in southern India [3].
