Understanding values when trying to promote sustainable behavior

[Kim Vincent]

This was originally posted from the Fostering Sustainable Behavior
daily listserve on 7/9/09
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Hi

Given that all of our decisions reflect a prioritisation of one value
over others (eg. convenience vs sustainability, cost vs quality), it
is imperative that we understand values when trying to promote
sustainable behaviour.

I ve done a fair bit of digging in this area myself and the easiest
way to present the conclusions in this forum is to direct you to
previous issues of my newsletter covering these topics:

http://www.awake.com.au/wakeupmar08.html
http://www.awake.com.au/wakeupaug08.html

The main points I'd make are
- people who adopt green behaviours are more likely to hold prosocial
values rather than pro-self values, compared to those who don t adopt
green behaviours
- Drawing peoples attention to values at the point at which they make
decisions is more likely to result in values congruent decisions (this
has been demonstrated with environmental purchasing decisions)
- If people choose green behaviours for reasons beyond immediate self-
interest, they are more likely to stick with it, and possibly adopt
some others

Hope this helps,


Tim


Tim Cotter
Awake
Australia
www.awake.com.au