Publication Year

Author(s)

Publisher

Step 2: Identifying Barriers and Benefits

From: Fostering Sustainable Behavior

$0.40

Uncovering barriers and benefits involves four steps. 1) Begin by reviewing relevant articles and reports. 2) Following this review, carry out observations of people engaging in the behavior you wish to promote (e.g., biking to work) as well as the behavior that you wish to dissuade people from participating in (e.g., driving to work). 3) Conduct focus groups to explore in-depth attitudes and behaviors of your target audience regarding the activities you wish to encourage and discourage. 4) Building on the information obtained from the focus groups, conduct a survey with a random sample of your target audience. A survey can enhance knowledge of the barriers to the behavior you wish to promote as well as what would precipitate action.

Preview

Contributors

Doug McKenzie-Mohr

Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, an environmental psychologist, is the founder of community-based social marketing, and his best-selling book, Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing, has become requisite reading for those who deliver programs to promote sustainable behavior. He has worked internationally with a diverse array of governmental and nongovernmental agencies, assisting them in identifying the barriers to behavior change and in developing and evaluating communitybased social marketing initiatives to overcome these barriers. He has served as an advisor for Canada’s public education efforts on climate change, as the coordinator of the international organization, Holis: The Society for a Sustainable Future, and as a member of Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. He is a former Professor of Psychology at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada where he co-coordinated the Environment and Society program. More than 50,000 program managers have attended workshops on community-based social marketing that he has delivered internationally.