Engaging the Change: Proposing a New Approach to Sustainability
|
Pay employees/executives for performance, pay students for good grades, pay smokers for quitting and drivers for driving safely, via lowered insurance rates… a myriad of “pay for” strategies have taken hold in many sectors of the economy, based on the seemingly simple premise that people respond to direct, clearly spelled-out benefits. Give a patient a written prescription, and he will likely get it filled. Tell him to exercise more and eat less, and he likely will not – at least not for long.
Why not implement a straightforward action/response plan for green building? And how? The post below, adapted from an email sent to fellow green advocates a few days ago, is by Cindy Ojczyk, LEED AP, a Minneapolis-based environmental blogger and partner of green consulting company Verified Green.
What do remodelers think?
Perhaps we need to come up with a different approach to the whole sustainability issue than that of our predecessors.
I will start here with something I know well. I have a master’s degree in nutrition education. You can teach people all day about good strategies for long-term health, you can provide easy access tools (nutrition labels, FDA-regulated labels, insurance incentives, local gyms and healthy clubs, organic food…), but until they are in crisis, most people do not feel compelled to change their current behaviors to long-lasting actions that provide future gain.
What we are experiencing today in the Green world is no different than what the world of nutrition has been experiencing for the past 30 years. While people say they are concerned about their health and what they eat, how much they exercise, there is very little action to engage the change that is needed for long-term health.
There is a preponderance of research on human health and nutrition. There are ample tools and ample professionals that people can easily access to improve their health for long-term gain. Yet, we continue to look for the quick fix -- easy, “don’t bother me” answers such as diet pills, diet books, supplements, cereal fortified with oats, 30-minute infomercials selling magic machines to create six-pack abs…..
The question – if so much knowledge exists and so many tools have been developed, why are we in poorer health now than 30 years ago? Why are we more obese, less physically fit, more prone to asthma, more likely to experience cancer?
We will never solve the environmental sustainability issue until we solve the human nutrition issue. The earth will never be healthier until we understand what the obstacles are to personal health. Few people will have the fortitude to focus beyond themselves and focus on the earth.
As a scientist, I totally believe that the human body is no different than that of most animals – we became programmed through evolution to react to eminent danger with an adrenalin response – to fight or flee – to act or run.
How can we use this innate behavior to our benefit?
Let’s manipulate the system to create “fight/action” responses for the results we want.
-
In the state of California, the average portable beverage container is recycled at a rate of 80%. In the U.S., the average recycling rate is around 39%. The difference is that the California bottle bill creates a direct action/response – turn in container, get money back.
-
In Minnesota,
Xcel Energy and CEE's "Operation Insulation" program had a 40% response rate; that is, 40% of homeowners actually implemented the energy prescriptions written by the auditors. (The auditors gave the homeowners names of businesses they could contact to get the work done along with the prescription for the work that needed to be done). The current implementation rate of an energy audit prescription is 1-2%.
-
Schools that promote the collection of packaging, such as Box Tops for Education (General Mills), Kemps 5-cents milk bottle caps, pop tabs, Campbell Soup labels, make thousands of dollars per year from sponsoring companies! Parents actually take time to save these things because it is free and easy money.
How can we think about promoting sustainable behaviors differently than we currently do?
How can we get more people involved by engaging the fight/action response that they know well?
Cindy Ojczyk, LEED AP, is the environmental blogger for Press Publications and a partner at Verified Green, a collaborative consulting and training company that interacts with building professionals, product suppliers, and government entities to green the design and construction of new homes, remodels, and neighborhoods.
posted by Leah Thayer, senior editor, lthayer@hanleywood.com