Changing Behaviour, Learning Lessons

Unlocking social norms that stop environmentally-friendly behaviour

All sorts of behaviours need to change if sustainability goals are to be achieved. And when the Scottish Government wanted to understand how more environmentally friendly behaviour could be embedded in Scotland, it turned to the LWEC-accredited Sustainable Practices Research Group to provide the answers.

“The report we’ve just produced shows that trying to change individuals’ behaviour by changing their attitudes alone has limited value,” says Professor Dale Southerton of the University of Manchester, who leads the Group. “In reality, ‘good’ environmental behaviour is often impractical because of how society works, so the focus needs to be on addressing the way that practices are organised at a societal level.”

Japan, for instance, has achieved a major success with its imaginative ‘Coolbiz’initiative –saving energy equivalent to that used by 88,000 average US homes each year. To cut energy consumption, thermostats in offices around the country were adjusted to increase the temperature at which air conditioning kicked in. But this required a cultural relaxation in Japan’s very formal dress code, so an official government campaign promoted the acceptability of lighter, more casual, more comfortable clothing in the workplace. In Denmark, meanwhile, potential ‘nimby’opposition to construction of an offshore wind farm at Middelgrunden was avoided by giving over 8000 local people a share in its ownership and a direct stake in its success.

“Our aim is to understand how people can get locked into certain ways of behaving –and to pinpoint what’s needed to break the shackles of ‘normal behaviour’,”says Professor Southerton. “We want to lay the foundations for new, more sophisticated and ultimately more effective ways of delivering increased sustainability in the UK.”