Sally, all Leopolders & Sierrans,
This is a short article that I just got from Doug Mackenzie-Mohr, the
author who's workshop
I attended last week.  While we are engaged in direct action on various
projects most of the
time, we should sit back periodically and review our successes and
techniques.  Doug's research
and experience has shown that it is possible to create sustainable
behaviors in people if we use
some basic techniques and analysis.  I think we should get our heads
together on this sometime.
I am still reading his book and will lend it out to any of you who want
to read it, but in the mean-
time, it is all available on the website.
My apologies for not letting you all know about the workshop in
advance.  I will make sure that
Patti Cale-Furgeson puts the Sierra Club on her notification list for
future events of this sort.
Phil
Most people know that to protect the environment they should recycle
more, water their lawn less, get out of the car and take a multitude of
other steps to reduce their ecological footprint.  But as often as not
the actions people take are not consistent with what they know to be
true about the state of the environment. In fact, research demonstrates
that simply providing information usually has little or no effect on
what
people do.  But if not brochures, then what? Over the last several
years a new approach, community-based social marketing, has emerged as
an
attractive alternative for delivering programs to change environmental
behavior.  The Fostering Sustainable Behavior website was created to
help those who design environmental programs ( http://www.cbsm.com ).
Briefly, this site includes the following resources:

- an online guide to using community-based social marketing to
fostering sustainable behavior.  This guide provides detailed
information on
how to design environmental programs to effectively change behavior.
This
guide will be of particular use to those who design programs to
encourage such activities as waste reduction, water and energy
efficiency,
watershed protection, pollution prevention, alternative transportation
choices, etc.;

- a searchable database of over 1200 academic articles on fostering
sustainable behavior;

- a discussion forum for sharing information and asking questions of
others;

- a searchable database of graphics that have been used to foster
sustainable behavior;

- a searchable database of over 80 case studies, with new cases being
added weekly; and

- a searchable database of downloadable reports.

Please consider forwarding information about this site to colleagues
who might be interested.

Best, Doug

Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Ph.D.
Environmental Psychologist [log in to unmask] http://www.cbsm.com

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