World Wide Fund for Nature

WWF

Crompton, Tom

Weathercocks & Signposts.

The environment movement at a crossroads

Godalming

2008

WWF's Strategies for Change Project is a new work stream which contributes to the growing debate about how best to effect environmentally-friendly behavioural change. In particular, the project examines the importance of our collective social values in driving behavioural change, and the ways in which such values are shaped.

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Executive summary

1. Introduction
1.1 Post-environmentalism
1.2 Situating this report in the debate about behavioural change
1.2.1 Government policy
1.2.2 Business opportunity
1.2.3 Individual behaviour
1.2.4 Who this report is written for
1.3 The environmental challenges we face
1.3.1 Climate change
1.3.2 Water
1.3.3 Forests
1.3.4 Oceans
1.4 The failure of government, and the compounding effects of ′small steps′ campaigns

2. The marketing approach to pro-environmental behavioural change strategies
2.1 Compact fluorescent light bulbs today, marching on Parliament tomorrow
2.2 Green consumption and appeals to materialism
2.3 Green consumption and consumerism
2.4 Decoupling growth and environmental impact
2.5 Marketing less: Sharing and treasuring
2.5.1 Strategies for buying less
2.5.1.1 Spending more
2.5.1.2 Spending less
2.5.2 The need for a new myth
2.6 Market segmentation
2.7 Self-interest
2.8 Commodifying behavioural changes
2.9 Do the reasons for behavioural change matter?
2.9.1 The rebound effect
2.9.2 Foot-in-the-door
2.9.3 The type of goals that motivate us
2.10 Lessons from marketing approaches
2.10.1 The importance of values, and the attitude-behaviour gap
2.10.2 Tailoring messages to specific audiences
2.10.3 The importance of social context
2.10.4 The importance of making it easy: Contextual factors

3. Towards an alternative approach
3.1 From marketing strategies to political strategies, and from weathercocks to signposts
3.2 The attitude-behaviour gap
3.3 Self-identity
3.3.1 Attitudes, values and identity
3.3.2 Environmental identity
3.3.3 Altruism, self-transcendence, and pro-environmental behaviour
3.3.4 Identity and consumerism
3.3.4.1 Playing marketers at their own game
3.3.4.2 Restricting the freedom of marketers
3.3.4.3 Strengthening alternative narratives about who we are
3.4 Beyond materialism
3.5 Self-determination theory and pro-environmental behavioural change
3.5.1 Motives – the ′why′ of behaviour
3.5.2 Types of goals – the ′what′ of behaviour
3.5.3 The effects of promoting some types of goal
3.5.4 Pro-environmental behaviour and the ′why′ and ′what′ of behaviour
3.5.5 ′Lock-in′: Might an appeal to extrinsic values reinforce a focus on small steps?
3.5.6 Introjection and guilt
3.5.7 Is focus on ′things you can do′ misplaced?
3.6 Values and the future of environmental NGOs
3.7 Do we have time to engage at the level of values?
3.7.1. Public debate on values is set to intensify
3.7.2 There is already appetite for this debate in public life
3.7.3 We must do what is necessary

4. Eight practical steps
4.1 Achieve greater clarity on the values that motivate the environment movement
4.2 Emphasise intrinsic goals in environmental communications
4.3 Begin to deploy a broader vocabulary of values in policy debates
4.4 Find common ground with development agencies on these values
4.5 Help responsible businesses think beyond ′the business case for sustainable development′
4.6 Highlight the way in which the marketing industry works to manipulate our motivations
4.7 Work to support and embolden public figures in the course of articulating intrinsic values in public discourse
4.8 Identify and promote mechanisms to make public affinity for nature more salient

Contribute to this debate

References

↑ http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/weathercocks_report2.pdf

↑ WorldWideFundforNature(WWF)2008-Weathercocks&Signposts.pdf