More sustainable behavior change through more targeted campaigns

Advertising campaigns with sustainable content are not tailored enough to their target groups. "They take too little account of the fact that people respond to different signals depending on how much they know about a topic," says transport scientist and sociologist Timo Ohnmacht, head of the project "Sustainable Lifestyles and Energy Consumption" as part of the National Research Program "Controlling Energy Consumption" and a researcher at the Competence Center for Mobility at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The research team of the Institute for Tourism industry ITW of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts worked closely with the city of Lucerne and the city of Biel for this project. 2,000 people were surveyed in Lucerne and Biel about their consumption behavior. In addition, workshops were held at environmental departments with representatives of the civil engineering offices responsible for cycle paths, the city communications department, the real estate departments and the transport companies.

The results were translated into concrete recommendations for action and summarized in six guides. They are addressed to municipalities, public authorities, communication or consulting agencies, interest groups and NGOs and are intended to encourage citizens to ride their bikes more, reduce their meat consumption, buy more used goods instead of new ones, use public transport, only change their cell phones when they are broken and generally live more energy-efficiently.

Ohnmacht explains that sustainable behavior change is a lengthy process. To better understand human behavior, the researchers have used insights from social psychology, which are visualized in a four-phase model on the graphic shown above. This is also an opportunity to make campaigns more effective and thus have a greater impact on human behavior.

People go through four phases before a new behavior becomes a habit for them: Precontemplation, Intention, Action and Habit. "Everyone goes through each phase, but not all for the same length of time. Some deliberate longer, others shorter," Ohnmacht says. "Some have relapses to an earlier phase, others don't."

Therefore, in addition to basic arguments for a certain behavior, motives should also be shown that confirm an action or reinforce a habit. People should be addressed in a phase-specific manner; this reduces wastage and saves time, money and nerves. "People in phases two and three are often over-served, while those in phases one and four are under-served," Ohnmacht argues. "Especially those who already exhibit the desired behavior are often forgotten. They, too, need encouragement that they don't fall back into earlier phases." There are influencing factors, such as emotions, social norms or problem-solving skills, that vary in impact depending on the stage of behavior change. The six guides list actions that can be taken for each phase and each appropriate influencing factor, and illustrate this with examples that have already been implemented.

Peter Schmidli from the environmental protection department of the city of Lucerne says that the phase model helped them a lot in their work: "Since the city has adopted a motion to greatly reduce energy consumption by 2050, we had already planned and implemented measures. But now we know that targeting those who are considering living more energy-efficiently anyway and want to cycle more, for example, is successful. But those who don't think it's important, we almost can't reach." The fact that the team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts also concretely assessed the benefits of past campaigns and pointed out campaigns from other cities was also very helpful.

"The important thing is that people are not patronized, but educated. They themselves have to change their behavior; no one can force them to do so," concludes Timo Ohnmacht.