Community-Based Social Marketing and Environmental Behavior Change

Environmental issues have become a driving factor in global policy and decision-making over the past several decades. Principles of sustainability and the environment are intersectional and impact all areas of modern life.

As climate change continues to intensify, integrating sustainability into all sectors will become increasingly important. A poll by CBS News shows that more than 50% of Americans believe climate change is a serious problem and should be addressed.

CBS News, 2019

However, there are deficits in creating and implementing environmental programs, as well as communicating initiatives to broad audiences. Sustainability is still a relatively new field, and emerging technologies and frameworks are being developed every day. This, in addition to the politicization of climate change and other non-partisan environmental issues, has made implementing environmental programs challenging. However, community-based social marketing, an emerging behavior change framework, may provide opportunities for successful implementation of sustainability and environmental programs. 

Community-based social marketing (CBSM) is a framework that utilizes community partnerships to drive meaningful behavior change as it relates to sustainability and environmental programs. The CBSM framework was founded by Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, a former professor at the University of Waterloo and the current President of McKenzie-Mohr Associates. This framework utilizes face-to-face communication to create lasting connections that build engagement around shared interests in sustainability and environmental issues. It builds upon the idea that people are more likely to change their behavior when they are engaged at the community level.

In terms of environmental behavior change, this shift occurs because people can see others adopting sustainability-focused mindsets and promoting positive behavior change. While individuals may want to lead more environmentally-friendly lives, they may be unsure how to take the first steps to doing so, and community-based social marketing helps individuals overcome these barriers. 

The CBSM framework utilizes a few steps to develop and implement environmental programs. The first step is selecting the target environmental behavior to be promoted. Then, both the barriers and the benefits to adopting the target behavior are determined. There are several important questions to ask during the process of identifying behaviors and benefits, including what barriers impede people from adopting behaviors, what benefits motivate people to adopt behaviors, and what internal and external behaviors are being targeted.

Once these questions have been answered, a behavior change strategy is developed and integrated into the environmental program, with a pilot being utilized to test a small portion of the target audience. Finally, if the pilot has proven successful, the campaign is implemented broadly, with regular revisions and evaluation being performed to determine its effectiveness. The CBSM framework requires an upfront investment of time and resources to research the target behaviors, but this ensures there will not be a need for resources to significantly revise, or even scrap, the implemented program once it has been made public. 

Generally speaking, the most important steps in promoting a target behavior are removing the barriers and providing an incentive. Research has shown that simply making it easy for others to adopt the behavior and providing an economic incentive is not enough. Concerning environmental behavior change programs, the target audience must be willing to adopt a sustainable mindset and make this mindset a part of their identity.

For example, if a program aims to increase recycling rates within an apartment complex, providing environmental education, a free recycling container, and information about the cost-savings associated with recycling is often not enough for individuals to commit to recycling more frequently. In addition to the environmental education and cost-savings information, a program should opt to foster a sense of identity and collaboration associated with recycling, such as giving back to the community, enriching the lives of others, and acting as stewards of the environment. By making a sustainable behavior part of one’s identity, the ability to integrate the behavior into daily life is much more feasible. 

I have utilized CBSM principles throughout my academic and professional endeavors to create connections with other people and encourage them to positively change their behaviors. The importance of face-to-face communication cannot be underestimated. I have experienced firsthand how engaging with people and helping them overcome barriers helps them adopt sustainable mindsets and understand the importance of environmental programs.

Through applying CBSM principles to environmental programs, a stronger sense of community will be fostered and the program’s probability of success and retention will increase. After the collective mass trauma and isolation humanity has endured due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering a sense of community is more important than ever before. Nearly all environmental issues can be traced to behavioral issues, and implementing robust behavioral change programs can help mitigate these issues and inspire individuals to join the fight against climate change. 

Note: I utilized information from the Quick Reference taken from www.cbsm.org for the information presented in this essay, which can be accessed at this link: https://cbsm.com/training/workshops

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Ashton Knatz is a Masters of Science candidate at the University of Edinburgh, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Sciences and a Certificate in Sustainability from the University of Iowa’s Honors College.