I am learning lots from email exchanges amongst our green mom bloggers’ group. This week, the question was raised of how to cast the greening of Thanksgiving under a fresh new way? I latched on to the ‘fresh’ part of the question and voiced that we were past the “10 Tips to a Greener Thanksgiving”. One of the moms disagreed.
I agree that it’s boring, but I think people still need to hear the basics sometimes. Repetition might be the only way to help people realize they are capable of making small changes. It may take years of hearing this stuff for my husband’s family to realize that buying “local” doesn’t mean running out to the nearest Harris Teeter for their prepared turkey and fixings all packaged up in nice little plastic containers!!!
Our exchange highlights a much bigger issue. Three years since the release of “An Inconvenient Truth”, what are the most effective strategies to spread the green message? As green communicators, are we to continue as usual, with our various how-to bits, or are we to adopt radically different approaches?
The advertising people tell us we are to pay attention to the following factors for effective communication:
- First is recall, or the ability for people to remember the message
- Second is persuasion, or the effectiveness of the message in persuading people to change their behaviors
- Third is repetition, the number of time a message is impressed upon people’s minds; we know repetition contributes to recall
La Marguerite 
hmmm …. We aren’t shining examples, but we try to stay away from discussions like these unless the guests move in that direction. We try to set by example – the meal is wonderful, but doesn’t have any meat products. More than a few guests are surprised by that. We aren’t interested in converting people away from meat, but it gives a message that you aren’t really giving up much and perhaps less meat is a reasonable goal.
Long walks in the woods before and after the meal, story telling, singing .. Our goal is a happy event that focuses on friends and local nature (not tv, politics, etc..)
If a green discussion comes up it will come up, but minds don’t easily change and I find group settings to be much less effective than one on one.
We have some well meaning friends who are mormons. We are atheists. It is very painful to be at their place as they “know” what is good for us and are constantly trying to convert. It is much less effective than if they simply lived by example (which they don’t — they claim to be christian, but are heavily into accumulating wealth).
“The way to go in my book, is through the connection with economic concerns.”
The problem is that the economy and its issues go up and down and all over the place. It’s like how when oil went from $75 to $150/bbl in six months, that proved peak oil was imminent; when it went from $150 to $75/bbl in three months, that proved peak oil would never happen.
They’re separate issues. It’s not really a matter of whether the message is warm and fuzzy or harsh and hectoring. You need both, carrot and stick – MLK said “I have a dream” but he also led hundreds of thousands of people on marches demanding their human rights NOW.
But really the thing to do is to bring it down to tangible things people can grasp. “The climate” is really an abstract thing to people, especially over decades. “Resource depletion” when the resources measure in the billions of tonnes, that’s abstract, too.
“15mpg is really wasteful compared to 30mpg” or “plastic bags choke turtles and anyway are wasteful, you just don’t need them” or “your neighbourhood will be nicer to live in if there are more pavements to walk along and more trees to walk under” are all concrete things which grab people.
Steve, on one hand I agree – to portray an example of happiness by example is a great way to showcase a life that can be led without excess. The Mormon family you describe seems to be an individual case as we also have good friends who live as you do – by example. The happy family with their amazing talents really highlights a positive attribute to either that family, their faith, or both. Regardless, the individual needs to be respected – and we’re faced with that as we are among people who do not share the same environmental principles as we do. In our last blog, 2 out of the 3 pertain to this problem:
Our society is in the midst of thinking only in the short-term, we generally do not have the ability to think in years down the line (i.e. how much does it cost me now versus over the life of the product or need)
We don’t like to admit wrong as adults – if we question ourselves (whether there is a better way or not), it means that we’re opening ourselves up to a correction. We’re human – we don’t like to be wrong.
The connection you speak of Marguerite (money as you pointed out) works for some – it really depends on your audience. Agree that it’s easier when one on one versus group – so you could measure up the commonalities to base your conversations on – else you’d have to be too general and vague.
The economy is saved, now how about turning attention and financial resources to saving the Earth from a meltdown?
It looks as if the Wonder Boys on Wall Street, who caused the current disaster in the world’s financial system, are going to rescue the family of humanity from a meltdown of the global economy.
Is it too much to ask some of these multi-billionaires to provide wealth to save the world from the global “meltdown” of Earth’s ice pack that is occurring in Greenland, Antarctica, the high mountain ranges from the Arctic Cordillera, to the Andes to the Himalayas?
Hi there,
We actually did a study on this over the summer- Even though marketers are bored of it, the common meaning of Green as a set of behaviors across many different areas (water, energy, waste, transportation, food) is just starting to gel with the general population, the second wave of green adopters- we based a lot of the how to videos, downloads, games, etc on our site on these findings- non partisan, non judgmental, easy ways to shift habits- it’s kind of overwhelming.
Free summary of study:
http://www.gogreenonline.com/index.php?option=com_jdownloads&Itemid=107&task=view.download&cid=4
Intro to videos:
http://www.gogreenonline.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=133&task=videodirectlink&id=13
Water video sample: http://www.gogreenonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=924&Itemid=116
Thanks for all the great work you’ve done here!
If you like the approach we’re taking, please tell your friends- we’re hoping that adding social networking to help create support groups to change habits will make a difference as will points and incentives and other ways to see direct, measurable feedback.
Christine
I think tying the under-lying principles of sustainable living to economics and personal health are the only way we are going to make it meaningful to everyone. Indeed, sustainability is inherently about the interconnectedness of all life – we can even tie “green” living aspects into national security and education. There is no issue that stands alone, and the sooner we stop treating the green movement like it’s juts about protecting the environment, the better.
It seems we have been riding a “green wave” for the last year and that people are getting bored of it and looking for the next shiny cool thing…
How to make sustainability SEXY?!! that is the question. Or, you know, get people to want and enjoy living in a completely different way than most were brought up? We are going to have to figure a way to make the idea of sustainability more than just the common sense idea that it is.
It is true that most people don’t think about 7 Generations from now; they think about their immediate situation and how to improve or enhance it. We can’t show people how horrible life may be for their great great grandkids in 150 years… and people tend not to put much stock in the wisdom of their elders in our culture…so what do we do?
Example is the most important tool we have, but there must be some other way to still attract people to the idea of living in a simpler, more sustainable way?
Maybe it’s kids, demanding that their parents and grandparents start acting like the stewards that we all should be?
This is not an easy one but, man, is it important.
I’m with Julie on the sexiness, so I say forget about Top Ten Lists.
Give us the Top One most creative and ridiculous and totally fun way to revolutionize one aspect of Thanksgiving. Write your article about it with love and goofiness. And ask people to try it out and take pictures and write back and share.
Hard to get people to make ten changes at once. But maybe not that hard to get us to make one silly change and fall in love with it.
Thanks all, for enriching the thinking on this most important issue. Let me summarize , if I may, with one simple idea:
The more we can relate to people, where they are at that particular point in time, the better the chances of being heard and of getting a positive response. When the economy is top in people’s mind, that means meeting them on that dimension, as right now. If priorities shift, then we would need to adjust accordingly. Basic marketing principle, and consumer psychology.