WAKE-UP CALL
Welcome to the August 2008 Wake-Up Call, Awake’s monthly newsletter for research and news about behaviour change for sustainability.
To view this newsletter as a webpage, click here
In this edition of Wake-up Call…
·
Feature Article – Is
Being Green a Sacrifice?
·
Workshop Update - More
Cultivating Sustainability Workshops coming soon
·
60 seconds with… Bronwyn
Darlington, founder of Rise Up Productions
·
Interesting Article of the Month – Human Nature and Environmentally
Responsible Behavior
·
Creating a Culture of Sustainability – Partner for Pilot Project needed
·
Exercise of the Month – Accentuate the Positive
Feature Article – Is Being Green a Sacrifice?
What sacrifices to our lifestyle are we prepared to make
for a more sustainable society?
It’s a question guaranteed to start a hotly contested
debate. Many believe that the only way
we can transition to a society less dependent on natural resources and energy
is to radically alter our lifestyle – and that this will necessarily involve
giving up some of the conveniences and luxuries we now enjoy, especially in the
developed world.
Those at the other side of the debate insist we must
develop ways to reduce our impact on the planet while not compromising our
“standard of living”. This school of
thought claims that promoting a major change in lifestyle would be asking the
impossible and risk alienating the majority of the population to the point
where they would rather bury their heads in the sand . Far better, they say, to place our trust in
technology and new innovations to reduce the environmental impact of our
business-as-usual activities.
Just what, if
anything, will we need to give up in order to live more sustainably? The most common perception seems to be that
we will need to give up some of the things that are at the centre of our modern
lifestyles, such as convenience, cheap imported goods and frequent travel. Some also believe that the cost of living
will rise, as the price of energy, for instance, rises to incorporate carbon
pricing. To many, this is indeed a big
ask, and we are going to have a present a pretty compelling case to convince
people to part with these things we cherish so much. Most of us are well aware of what we are trying
to avoid by going green – the future vision of climate and ecological hell has
been depicted quite vividly in recent years.
Perhaps the secret lies in presenting a greener lifestyle
not so much in terms of what we will be giving up, but what we will be
gaining. Kaplan (see article of the month below) provides a compelling case for avoiding the appeal to
a noble sacrifice in order to create a more sustainable society. He argues that, far from being altruistic,
pro-environmental behaviours do have a benefit to all of us and those benefits
need to be articulated and fostered. He
claims that human beings are innate self-improvers, and are reluctant to engage
with something solely for the benefit of others.
Further evidence for the motivational importance of
self-interest is provided by Omoto
& Snyder, who looked at the motives of those who volunteer for social
causes, and found that those who did so for reasons of self-interest (such as
esteem and personal development) were more likely to stick with it for longer,
compared to those who had purely altruistic motives. In short, if we are going to do a socially
responsible thing, it helps if we can see that there is something in it for
us.
What could be “in it for us” to adopt a greener
lifestyle? The self-interest motive
explored by authors such as De
Young is that of “intrinsic satisfaction”.
In a 2000
paper, De Young noted that “certain patterns of behaviour are worth
engaging in because of the personal, internal contentment that engaging in
these behaviours provides. However,
these behaviours often focus on issues outside the immediate domain of the self
(eg. Protecting the environment, enhancing community). The ultimate effect may be environmentally
beneficial, but the proximate mechanism is self-interest, here in the form of
intrinsic satisfaction.” In simple
terms, this means that we feel good when we do something good for society, and
this good feeling is a powerful motive for doing it.
Values are another way of looking at the intrinsic
satisfaction of “doing the right thing”.
As previous articles in Wake-Up Call have outlined, people often find that when they act in an
sustainable way, they feel that they are living more in alignment with their
core values. A review of in-depth
interviews with people about their green behaviour led Maiteny
to “hypothesise that primary motives, such as altruistic and social values, are
often covered up by the more immediate, selective motives, which evolve around
one’s own needs (e.g. being comfortable, saving money and time)”. He goes on to claim that “when pro-environmental
is not framed and experienced as also contributing to personal well-being, it
is less likely to endure in the long term.”
Far from being a sacrifice, perhaps the most powerful
reinforcement for opting for a greener lifestyle is a sense of alignment and
integrity. We do not need a calculator
to tell us when we have made a choice for the future – we can feel it.
WANT TO USE THIS
ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with
it:
Awake provides psychology-based
services to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals,
groups and organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au for more info
Workshop
Update - More Cultivating Sustainability Workshops Coming Soon
The great response to the recent Cultivating Sustainability
workshops in Melbourne, Wellington & Auckland, shows that sustainability
advocates are hungry for practical tools and models to create behaviour
change. Here are just some of the
comments from attendees
“A rich and well-paced workshop that provided many tools, tips
and techniques to help create sustainable behaviour”
“The workshop provided me with some really useful tools to
inject into our behaviour change programmes”
“Great workshop – good balance of theory with participatory
exercises and discussions”
“A great selection of practical tools to
help with behaviour change programme planning and development”
Planning is now underway for further workshops in the main
centres of Australia, and possibly a further visit to New Zealand before the
end of the year. One of the priorities
for this plan is to travel as efficiently as possible to reduce environmental
impact*. To this end planning would be
greatly assisted if people could email expressions of interest in the workshop
to timc@awake.com.au .
The Cultivating Sustainability workshop can also be run
in-house, either in it’s entirety or tailored to suit your needs. If
your organisation or community group would like to discuss the possibility of
an inhouse workshop, it would be great to hear from you so that it can be
worked into the schedule.
*Traveling between cities to conduct workshops obviously
has an environmental impact, so the plan is to reduce the amount of individual
trips and travel as efficiently as possible.
I am also exploring the possibility of delivering workshops via webinar
or video conference, although have yet to find a solution which is satisfactory
for delivering a full day workshop which incorporates experiential tools. One of the things attendees really love about
these workshops is the ability to meet and share ideas with like-minded
people. While the search for the ideal
solution continues, I hope the net impact of providing sustainability advocates
with tools for behaviour change goes some way to justifying the travel
involved.
60 Seconds with… Bronwyn Darlington, founder of Rise Up Productions
What first got you focused on sustainability?
I was speaking to workers on a mine site and I was asking
them questions about green issues that I realised I could not even answer about
the clothing we wear.
What is the sustainable choice you have recently made of which you are most proud?
Riding my bike to business meetings in high heels.
What is a less sustainable choice that you are not so proud of?
I have a boat and enjoy adrenalin sports like wake-boarding, go-karting- not very environmentally friendly!
Research
Article of the Month – Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior
Where?
Human
Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior (Full article available for
free online)
by Stephen Kaplan
Journal of Social Issues, (2000) Volume 56 Issue 3, Pages
491 – 508
What is it about?
In the words of the author, “this article constitutes a search
for a people-oriented approach to encouraging environmentally responsible
behavior”. He argues that appealing to
altruism has contributed to helplessness and a sense that we have to reduce our
quality of life to be green.
What did they find?
Kaplan advocates a Reasonable Person approach, which draws
on the desire of people to develop their competence and solve problems. Instead of calling for sacrifice, he argues
that environmental educators should be encouraging participatory involvement by
people, and presenting them with green choices for which there are clear
benefits.
What can we take from this?
This article provides hope for those who are faced with the task of trying to convince people to do something that they do not want to do. By exploring some core issues of human nature and motivation, Kaplan has provided some useful pointers for how we can accentuate the positive of sustainable choices and increase the chance that people will feel good, rather than helpless, about sustainability.
Creating
a Culture of Sustainability – Partner for Pilot Project needed
Awake is currently seeking a group or organisation who
wishes to be involved in a pilot program for creating behaviour and culture
change. The project would involve the
following
1. Gathering of baseline data about
a. the group’s current attitudes and
beliefs about sustainability
b. behaviours in relation to
sustainability
c. outcomes, such as use of water,
paper, energy etc
2. One or more workshops, tailored to
suit the group’s needs, focused on engaging, empowering and inspiring people
around sustainability
3. Follow-up measures to track the
impact of the interventions
The purpose of the project is to assess the effectiveness of
a specific psychology-based approach to creating lasting behaviour change
within a group or organisation. It
would ideally suit a small-medium organisation, or a team/site within a larger
organisation. The format and approach
is flexible, so please don’t hesitate to contact me with suggestions.
If you are interested in being part of this project, or
know somebody who is, please contact timc@awake.com.au
Exercise of the Month – Accentuate the positive
1. List 3 things that you are
struggling to change in order to lighten your ecological footprint. (eg.
Driving to work)
2. For each, note 3 benefits which you
will gain by changing your behaviour. Try to consider ecological, emotional,
financial, spiritual and community benefits.
(Eg. Save money, be more relaxed, lower my contribution to pollution,
meet interesting people)
Often when we consider changing our behaviour, our
attention is drawn to what we will be “giving up” if we change. Just putting our attention on the benefits of
a change, rather than the drawbacks, can inspire us. And sometimes it also helps to consider the
benefits on a number of levels, rather than those which are immediately
obvious.
The exercise of the month provides a tool to help you get engaged, inspired, aware and in action around sustainability. Feel free to use it on your own, with a friend, or in your work. If you do use it with others, please tell them where you got it!
About Awake
Awake provides psychology-based services to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals, groups and organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au for more info
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