What would you say are the easiest sustainable behavioural changes to affect at outdoor festivals (the low hanging fruit)?
In reference to waste and recycling I would say:
Littering has a tipping point, if a few people do it everyone else will so remove the ability to litter (this is social practice theory)
@TMBEvents01
If you are in control of the materials coming on to your site e.g. you control the catering and the serveware- choose as many reusable options as possible then design your bins covers to reflect the waste people are holding in their hand.
Ensure the bin toppers and visual references are on the top of the bin so you do not have an open bin.
This is because we look for visual cues and don’t read, if there is an open bin, people will look inside and drop where they see the same item. !
Here is an example of some good bins - 1 from Zero Events https://www.zwevents.org.uk/
And from Cisco Live: 
Hi Jayne, This is a very interesting topic for current times, rather than talking about 'how people should take responsibility I want to share some studies on why people recycle. Barr found that curbside recycling was motivated by social norms (their neighbours doing it) and the ease of access to infrastructure.
“Prediction of willingness to recycle is not values-based but primarily norm based, as well as knowledge of recycling schemes and logistical ease particularly kerbside recycling” Barr 2001.
Not by environmental motives, the people who recycle because of their pro-environmental values are likely to reuse and reduce but this is value driven- if people are not motivated by environment values shaming them or asking them to take responsibility is less likely to work.
This is where it is better to look at the social and cultural drivers and seeing how these can be activated.
How do we challenge who takes responsibility? and change that behaviour?
People often talk about fines and taxes, these work on a number of levels.
The plastic bag tax made it socially acceptable for people to carry around second-hand bags - before that it wasn’t acceptable.
They also activate something called loss aversion- which is a principle that suggests that it losing something is twice as painful for our brains than the relative pleasure of gaining something. This is why a Latte Levy works better than a discount- getting money off doesn’t drive us as much as losing money (its why people keep gambling when they are losing)
This is exactly where I’m getting stuck in my research… social and cultural drivers. To be honest other than getting out there and asking people why they…?, of which i have tried I’m a bit short of ideas.
Trying to get people to do anything when they are tired, drunk or hungover! When people from a TV screen or a newspaper dismay at the litter left at the end of a festival - they havent been in that persons shoes walking for an hour to set up 4 days before, walked miles. The thought of trudging stuff back is not EASY, ATTRACTIVE, SOCIAL & TIMELY. This si where putting sherpas and mechanisms which remove the pain and friction are essential
Do you think Deposit Return Schemes are one of the solutions ?
@Steph @Brooke this is relevant to you too… > This is exactly where I’m getting stuck in my research… social and cultural drivers. To be honest other than getting out there and asking people why they…?, of which i have tried I’m a bit short of ideas.
Exactly what you have to do, put yourself in the position of the user and journey map the experience. this is what I do when I work on behaviour change initiatives for all aspects of work- events, plastics, recycling, food waste etc.
You need to understand what is happening in someones day to day- what are the influences, the barriers, their priorities. Then conduct user surveys and research. I am working on a project at the moment to understand the motivations to drinking bottled water at home - it is often to do with health and safety concerns and cultural knowledge and mistrust of tap water plus the convenience of a cold bottle in the fridge.
Great insights - thanks Livvy.
I find the psychology of it all so interesting. It’s useful to know, so we can try to understand others’ behaviour, when it’s so different from our own. E.g. I’ve been to many festivals, been very tired, walked for miles (I miss Glastonbury) and yet I’ve never left anything behind for others to pick up. It infuriates me that others do this, as festivals or anywhere. If you can take it with you, you can take it away with you when you leave!
If you haven’t already, the book Package design workbook written by Steven Dupuise has a great section on Packaging evolution which highlights the need during world war 1 and 2 for safe food and drink . the tin can was born. I think you would find it relevant?
I find the psychology of it all so interesting. It’s useful to know, so we can try to understand others’ behaviour, when it’s so different from our own. E.g. I’ve been to many festivals, been very tired, walked for miles (I miss Glastonbury) and yet I’ve never left anything behind for others to pick up. It infuriates me that others do this, as festivals or anywhere. If you can take it with you, you can take it away with you when you leave!
Yes I hear you, but that is because of your values… we have to accept that people don’t think like us, its why I studied behaviour change- and that’s when i realised we can’t change peoples behaviour but we can change the infrastructure much quicker. Look up Maslow’s Value Types- It is really enlightening- if people are more motivated by their community they will follow the social norms within that.
Is that different to his hierarchy of needs?
Completely- it will give materials a value and make it socially accepted and expected to take materials back. They will not activate values or a care for the environment but they will change the social norm. In countries with DRS, there is very little litter because other people pick it up so there is less of a litter ‘tipping point’
Your reminding me of my CERT Ed training. Thank you.
Brooke I dont follow any social media accounts as such but these are the people and organisations doing interesting things in the field of behavioural economics:
Dan Ariely- his website and blog is fascinating and so are his short courses
Ogilvy
Mindworx
Is that different to his hierarchy of needs?
It is based on this and what are values are at the different stages- settlers are in the basic needs section and motivated by community and safety
Prospecters are motivated by looking good and get involved in something when it is good for their image- the environmental movement has a lot of prospectors joining it now as its more desirable to be seen to be sustainable.
Pioneers - motivated by their environmental and social values.
Within each section their are sub-characters but its useful.
BlockquoteYour reminding me of my CERT Ed training. Thank you.
What was the training on?
You can find more resources on my website, including podcasts, video discussions and a short online course which goes through some of these key principles and how to research and design an initiative: http://www.sustainablesidekicks.com/behaviour-change1.html
I love running workshops on these topics using the techniques from design thinking and behavioural economics to unpack the behaviours and the barriers to design solutions. Shout if you would like to do one sometime. This chat has reminded me on how much fun it is and all the a-has that are unpacked with these disciplines.
Apologies, a cert ed is a teacher training course, it is the qualification gained if you haven’t got a degree. I did my course with a wonderful woman called Lou Mycroft. This chat has reminded me how much she showed us relating to changing behaviour, of course this was relevant to unruly 14 + year olds
