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26/03/2010
CHANGING BEHAVIOUR KEY TO CUTTING CARBON
Mike Holland and John Howard of Smye Holland Associates both addressed the 13th annual Carbon Action Network East (CAN East) conference in Cambridge this week.
Their topic was ‘marketing carbon reduction’. Mike spoke about the need to change consumer behaviour if real reductions in the UK’s carbon footprint are to be achieved. He talked about the psychological triggers that influence behaviour and suggested that a variety of different messages – mostly about consumers’ self-interests – need to be delivered in a variety of different ways if people are to be persuaded to take action.
John gave a presentation on the work which Smye Holland Associates is doing with the Eastern Carbon Reduction Initiative which aims to get householders to insulate their homes – not in order to reduce their carbon footprint (although that is the underlying motivation for the scheme itself) but in order to enjoy warmer homes and lower heating bills. It is an example of how the message about carbon reduction needs to be reframed in terms of consumer benefits.
The duo’s appearance at the CAN East conference took place on the day after a two-day Waste Action Forum meeting in Barnsley organised by Smye Holland Associates. This also had a theme of reducing carbon footprints, although from the perspective of waste minimisation, management and recycling rather than energy consumption. However, this conference came to similar conclusions about the need to provide consumers with self-interested reasons for changing behaviour.
Smye Holland Associates provides marketing and public relations support for clients in the environment sector.
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