Environmental campaigners ignore identity at their peril

By ignoring the role that identity plays in individual responses to green messaging, environmental campaigners could strengthen aspects of identity that are antagonistic to pro-environmental concerns and behaviors. That cautionary message comes from an article by Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser in the July-August issue of Environment Magazine titled Human Identity: A Missing Link in Environmental Campaigning.

Among the potential pitfalls identified by the authors are:

1. Focusing on financial self-interest or social status as reasons for engaging in pro-environmental behavior could strengthen the values of consumerism and materialism which are antithetical to a fully green lifestyle.
2. Singling out SUVs for disapproval could send the signal to non-SUV owners that they don’t need to make any changes in their driving habits.

Those are but two problems that the authors say could be avoided if communicators take into account identity when formulating their messages. The conclusion states:

Ultimately, there may need to be an inversion of the raison d'être of many environmental groups. That is, rather than asking: “How can we marshal the widest range of interest groups to support the environmental cause?”, they might come to ask, “How can we best build on our natural support base, and our natural areas of political influence, to support campaigns that promote socially and environmentally helpful aspects of identity, and to change institutions and policies that promote problematic aspects of identity?”

As an interesting side note, this paper’s introduction claims that the empirical literature does not lend clear support to the argument that simple pro-environmental behavioral changes “spill over” into more difficult and significant changes. That’s a contradiction of the post that I wrote last week titled: Can small changes lead to big ones? Their citation for that claim was a paper by John Th⊘gersen and Tom Crompton titled “Simple and Painless? The Limitations of Spillover in Environmental Campaigning,” that was published in the Journal of Consumer Policy. I plan to read that soon and blog about it here. Have any thoughts on the topic? Leave your comment below or send me a message.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader.

I had a big event Tuesday which you can read about from the links on my Twitter feed or my company’s cellulosic ethanol blog. But there was a lot of great content out there and I managed to get to a fair amount of it. Here are the links for the week:

Advertising:

Greens need to be more creative

Hey, Kaco New Energy, Schuco, Solar World, and Yingli Solar! You're all on my list! ...in a good way.

Media:

Columbia Journalism Review: Most media do okay with climate change, Russia’s blazing summer, Asia super-monsoon rains, Greenland’s busted glacier

The Weather Channel's Stu Ostro talks weather-climate links

They Might Be Giants Sing "Electric Car": an Anthem for EVs (Video)

Weekly Mulch: Green Daydreams? A Clean Gulf, Energy Efficiency, and More

Public Opinion:

Americans Divided About Future Gulf Drilling

Bill McKibben on 10/10/10

Can Energy Sector Workers Serve as Influential Public Ambassadors?

Can small changes lead to big ones?

GM’s attractive leasing terms for the Volt won’t be enough

Grandeur of Delusions: Thoughts on the Public Perceptions of Energy Consumption and Savings Study

The Gulf of Perception

Public Relations:

Free range family farm raises cage-free chickens

My Top Five Sustainability / CSR Communication Examples

Social Media:

Sustainable urban campground to be crowd-funded & managed

The Ultimate Guide To Green Guest Blogging

Stakeholder Engagement:

Conservation International and Major Corporations in Brazil Launch Joint Biodiversity Initiative

General Mills Commits to Sourcing Sustainable Palm Oil

Can small changes lead to big ones?

How can people be convinced to significantly green their lives? To make the big changes needed to conserve natural resources and decrease energy use?

Robert B. Cialdini may have something to suggest. Cialdini' is the author of Influence and I’ve been reading his follow-up book Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Each of the 50 ways is given its own chapter in the easy to read book and number 14 is titled: “How can one small step help your influence take a giant leap?”

This chapter tells the story of two social science researchers posing as the Road Traffic Safety Committee and their quest to get homeowners to place “a large, unsightly sign measuring six feet by three feet and stating DRIVE CAREFULLY on [their] front lawn.” Unsurprisingly, only 17 percent in the “posh neighborhood” agreed to place the sign in their yard. But what was astonishing was that the researchers were able to increase that rate to 76 percent among a similar group “simply by making one seemingly insignificant addition to their request.” From page 65 of the book:

A different research assistant approached this separate group of residents two weeks prior to this burdensome request and asked them if they’d be willing to display a very small, relatively inconspicuous sign in their window that read BE A SAFE DRIVER. Because it was such a small request, almost all of these residents agreed. Two weeks later, when someone else came to their home and asked them if they’d be willing to place the large billboard on their otherwise perfectly manicured lawn, they were much more inclined to agree.

The researchers found that agreeing to the small request caused the homeowners “to see themselves as committed to worthy causes, such as safe driving.” With their identity slightly altered, they were almost five times as likely to agree to the much larger sign.

What’s the lesson for green communicators? There are those in the environmental community who dismiss things like compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and recycling as nice, but relatively insignificant in light of the greater changes society needs to make. But against the backdrop of this research, those small steps could be seen as the first steps that lead individuals to a greener identify and prepare them to make larger changes that benefit the environment. Just like the small sign led to the big one, the CFL could lead to FFV or the home solar water heater.

I’ve seen this in my personal life. My interest in the environmental movement started with communications consulting for wind and biofuels companies. That led me to be more intentional about recycling and to start composting. One day, I swapped all my incandescent bulbs for CFLs. These small changes helped to educate me and led me to do more. When a water-heater needed replacing, I went with the tankless that cost more but used far less energy. Then, I replaced water-guzzling appliances with low-flow shower-heads, high-efficiency toilets and an ENERGY STAR dishwasher and washing machine.

What will I do next? I can’t say for sure, but I’m looking. Got any ideas?

Greens need to be more creative

Environmentalists have to be more creative if they want to convince people to make more environmentally-friendly decisions. That’s the message from green marketing agency EcoAlign in the first of a series of “creative briefs” released this month.

In this first brief, EcoAlign asked six artists (three from the U.S. and three from other countries) to create an original image of the “tree of life.” The diverse images can be licensed from EcoAlign with proceeds benefitting the National Forest Foundation and Groundswell International.

I work much more often with words than images, but I like EcoAlign’s approach. Their marketing strategy is clearly to give away content (like their EcoPinion surveys that I read and saved) and gain the links, tweets and other buzz that comes with it. Integrating the two non-profits was a nice touch.

I’ll certainly be looking forward to reading the other briefs. As I’ve said on this blog repeatedly, environmental communicators need to do better. These briefs could be an important contribution to that improvement.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. It’s a short list this week because I was on vacation and unplugged for much of it, but here are the links:

Branding:

10 Ways to Make Green Relevant to the Mainstream

Brands in a New Age of Responsibility – Jez Frampton, Interbrand

Media:

OpenIDEO

Tweeting a Green Newspaper

Opinion Research:

In Going Solar, Americans Cite Cost Savings Over Environmental Benefits

A Daily newspaper from green journalist tweets

A while ago I developed two lists to track green communicators and green journalists on Twitter. Both have become fairly popular with each having more than 100 followers.

I just used a new service called Paper.li to create daily newspapers based on the links from both lists: green journalists and green communicators. Read more on my post at the Inspired Economist.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. Here are the links for this week:

Advertising:

Are Green Marketers Selling Their Souls?

BMW Banned from Claiming Zero Emission EV’s

Eco Marketing Trends: Green Marketing Done Right (PDF)

Lexus: the Darker Side of Climate Denial

Opinion Research:

Corporation or Consumer: Who’s Driving Us toward Sustainability?

Green Living Pulse is out tomorrow

Special Journal Issue Examines Science Communication in Environmental Controversies

Public Affairs:

Dems turn focus to GOP Senate contenders as latest 'BP Republicans'

Greens Debating Tactics Instead of Ideas

Public Relations:

Filling the Science Communication Gap

Is It Hot in Here? Must Be Global Warming

Oil spill mars UC Berkeley's BP-funded research

Sustainable Industries Webinar – Beyond The Eco-Label

Walmart Releases Its Roadmap to GHG Accounting

What will be the top 5 issues for 2011?

What will be the top 5 issues for 2011?

A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate in the 7 Green Bloggers series at Planetsave by identifying what I believed was the Top Environmental Stories of the Year, Other than BP Oil Spill. For me, the top story of the year thus far was:

The decline in public concern for the environment that occurred while environmental news and communications were at an all-time high. Mainstream media coverage of the environment peaked late last year during COP15 and this year with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. But rather than increase the concern that Americans hold for the environment, it appears to have had the opposite effect.

You'll have to go to Planetsave to read my full response. A few days later, seven green bloggers were asked to pull out their crystal ball and identify what they thought would be the top stories of the rest of the year.

Now, I have been asked by a publication that covers sustainability and communications to look a little further into the future and identify the five most important issues I expect to be working on next year. As a panelist for this issue, I have also been asked to identify "sustainability leaders" for the rest of the panel to vote on. I've got a few ideas on both, but wanted to ask my readers for input. What issues will be big next year? Who will lead them? Leave your comments below or message me on Twitter @nathanschock.