inspiring sustainable living – expert insights into consumer behavior & unilever’s five levers...

8/3/2019 Inspiring Sustainable Living Expert Insights into Consumer Behavior & Unilevers Five Levers for Change

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BEHAVIOUR CHANGE ANDSUSTAINABILITYCreating a sustainable uture will requireundamental changes in attitude andbehaviour across society. Governmentsand industry will have to change but sotoo will individual citizens.

We all know rom personal experienceo losing weight or getting t just howdicult change is.

Successul change comes rom a real

understanding o people, their habitsand their motivations. As one o theworlds leading consumer goodscompanies, whose products are used bytwo billion people every day, Unilever isconstantly researching the attitudes andneeds o people all around the world.

We have a long history o both

sustainability and the use o marketingand market research to promotebehaviour change. And or the rst timewe are publishing our own model oreective behaviour change. We call thisapproach the Five Levers or Change.

It oers a practical tool, based onwhat we have learnt over decades o

research and observation. We hopeothers will also use it in tackling the bigsustainability challenges we all ace.

At Unilever, weve learnt how toencourage people to wash their handswith soap at the right times o the day,to do their laundry at low temperaturesand to brush their teeth twice a day. Indoing so, we have made measurableimprovements to the health, hygieneand quality o lie o millions o people.

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plancommits us to ambitious targets overthe next decade. We intend to helpmore than a billion people take actionto improve their health; to halve theenvironmental ootprint o our products;and to source 100% o our agriculturalraw materials sustainably.

SUCCESSfUL CHANGECOmES fROm A REALUNDERSTANDING OfpEOpLE, THEIRHABITS

ANDTHEIRmOTIVATIONS.


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Behaviour Change and Sustainability

INSpIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING

The issues are evolving rapidly. Wecertainly dont have all the answers.The challenge o sustainable livingrequires us all to work together and bebold and ambitious in our hopes orthe uture. Thats why we have invitedleading experts rom around the worldto contribute their thoughts on thesubject. They provide some ascinatingperspectives and pose real challenges.

We believe that business and brandshave a powerul role to play in creatingsustainable living. Brands are morethan simply products; they embodyvalues and aspirations. They can inspireand enable change. Look at what theWWFs Panda has done to promoteour understanding o the importanceo nature, or what Dove has done tochallenge misguided stereotypeso beauty.

It wont be easy to make sustainableliving an everyday reality rather than apipedream. We hope that our practicalapproach, the Five Levers or Change,and the contributions in this publication,will inspire others to take action.

pAUL pOLmAN,

CHIEf EXECUTIVE OffICER,

UNILEVER

THECHALLENGEOf SUSTAINABLE LIVING

REqUIRESUS ALL

TO wORk TOGETHERAND BE BOLD AND

AmBITIOUS IN OURHOpESfORTHE

fUTURE.


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INSpIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING:

UNILEVERS fIVE LEVERS fOR CHANGE

CONSUmING pASSIONS:

wHY DO wE CONSUmE?

THE TRANSfORmATIVE pOwER

Of INDIVIDUALS

VISIONS AND ACTIONS fOR

SUSTAINABLE LIfESTYLES

B V pRADEEp, VICE pRESIDENT,

CONSUmER & mARkET INSIGHT, UNILEVER

VAL CURTIS, LONDON SCHOOL Of

HYGIENE AND TROpICAL mEDICINE

HELIO mATTAR, pRESIDENT, AkATU INSTITUTE

fOR CONSCIOUS CONSUmpTION, BRAzIL

CHERYL HICkS AND mICHAEL kUHNDT,

UNEp/wUppERTAL INSTITUTE, CSCp, GERmANY

8

16

20

24

CONTENTS


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TECHNOLOGY HOLDS THE kEY

TO THE fUTURE

DYSfUNCTIONAL pOLITICIANS

AND THE pOwER Of BRANDS

GOVERNmENTS, NUDGING

AND EffECTIVE SCIENCE

EXITING THE VALLEY

Of DEATH

DR RICHARD L wRIGHT, BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE

DIRECTOR, UNILEVER

JONATHON pORRITT, fOUNDER DIRECTOR,

fORUm fOR THE fUTURE

CHARLES ABRAHAm, pENINSULA COLLEGE Of

mEDICINE & DENTISTRY, UNIVERSITY Of EXETER

SImON zADEk, INDEpENDENT ADVISOR; SENIOR

VISITING fELLOw, GLOBAL GREEN GROwTH INSTITUTE

30

34

38

42


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INSpIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING:UNILEVERS fIVE LEVERS fOR CHANGEB V pRADEEp, VICE pRESIDENT, CONSUmER & mARkET INSIGHT, UNILEVER

Over a hundred years ago, Unileversounders saw business opportunitiesin serving unmet social needs. WilliamLever launched Liebuoy, the worlds rsthealth soap, which played an importantrole in preventing disease and promotinghygiene in Victorian Britain.

Ever since, innovative marketing hasbeen central to promoting the benetso Unilevers brands inmeeting everyday needssuch as washing, eatingand cleaning.

Weve learnt that marketing can be apowerul orce or behaviour change.For example, most people have soap athome, but unless they use it properly(i.e. washing hands beore meals,not just ater), the health benets oreducing disease will not be realised.

Likewise, or many years we have beentrying to encourage people to eatmargarine instead o butter or hearthealth and to brush their teeth twicea day or the most eective protectionagainst tooth decay.

Along the way weve learnt a great dealabout people, what motivates them, and

how to inorm and engage them.

Developing the Five Leversor Change

Several years ago, I was part o a teamthat had a clear mission: to developa best practice toolkit or behaviourchange. We drew on skills rom insideand outside Unilever psychologistsand academics rom leading universities;


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Inspiring Sustainable Living: Unilevers Five Levers For Change | 7


hygiene experts; and colleagues romour research laboratories, marketingdepartments and those out meeting

with people who cook, clean and washwith our products across the world.

We developed the Five Levers orChange a set o principles broughttogether in a new approach, which,i applied to behaviour changeinterventions, will increase the likelihoodo having a lasting impact.

We soon realised that this approachcould be essential in helping to meet thegoals o the newly launched UnileverSustainable Living Plan.

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

Unilever has an ambitious plan to grow

our business in a way that helps improvepeoples health and well-being, reducesenvironmental impact and enhances

livelihoods. Inspiring consumers toadopt new sustainable products and

behaviours is central to this. Aterall, two thirds o the greenhouse gasimpacts o our products across theliecycle and about hal o our waterootprint is associated with consumeruse, as distinct rom manuacturing orsourcing ingredients.

Our Five Levers or Change helps provide

the insights needed, whether it isencouraging consumers to use less hotwater when showering or washing theirhands beore meals and ater going tothe toilet.

Five Levers or Change

How does it work? The rst step isto revisit what we know about ourconsumers. We systematically identiy:

BARRIERS what are the thingsthat stop people rom adopting anew behaviour?

TRIGGERS how could we get peopleto start a new behaviour?

mOTIVATORS what are theways to help them stick with thenew behaviour?

Next, we take all those insights andconsider how to inspire the change

thats needed using each oUnileversFive Levers or Change.

fORmANYYEARS wEHAVE BEENTRYING TO

ENCOURAGE pEOpLE TOEATmARGARINEINSTEAD

Of BUTTER... AND TO

BRUSH THEIR TEETHTwICE A DAY.


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ae it

UNDERSTOODDo people know about the behaviour?Do they believe its relevant to them?This Lever raises awareness andencourages acceptance.

Many people believe that i their handslook clean, then they are clean. Liebuoysoaps glo-germ demonstration helpschildren in India, Indonesia, Pakistan andBangladesh understand that washinghands with water alone isnt goodenough to get rid o germs. Ultra-violetlight shows the germs let behind ontheir hands when they wash with water

alone. Hands are washed again withsoap and shown as germ-ree under thesame ultra-violet light.

ae it

EASYDo people know what to do andeel condent doing it? Can theysee it tting into their lives? ThisLever establishes convenienceand confdence.

In many parts o the world, laundry iswashed by hand. It is typically in thesecountries that water is scarce. WithComort One Rinse abric conditioneryou only need one bucket or rinsingrather than three. When we launchedin Vietnam, people needed to see withtheir own eyes the convenience o

washing out detergent residues aterjust one rinse. TV commercials createdhigh awareness but proved not to be

UNILEVERS fIVE LEVERS fOR CHANGE


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enough to establish confdence. Livedemonstration events and product

samples helped to build confdence thatthe new way o rinsing was enoughto remove all residues and showed theconvenience in terms o saving timeand water.

ae it

DESIRABLEWill doing this new behaviour t withtheir actual or aspirational sel-image?Does it t with how they relate toothers or want to? This Lever is aboutsel and society because humansare social animals. We tend to emulatethe liestyles and habits o people werespect like our parents or sometimes acelebrity and ollow norms in society.

Inant mortality is a big issue in somecountries, and many lives could besaved through the simple practice ohandwashing at key moments whenlooking ater the newborn baby. Liebuoycommunicates to new mothers, tappinginto the insight that mums like to eelthey are a good mum, and be seen in

this way by others.

So in its communication, the brandhas linked washing hands with soapwith being a good mother, which is apowerul motivator.

ae it

REwARDINGDo people know when theyre doingthe behaviour right? Do they get somesort o reward or doing it? This Leverdemonstrates the proo and payo.

The USs number-one haircare brand,Suave, encourages women to turno the shower while they lather their

hair by answering that all-importantquestion: whats in it or me? The brandcampaign showed how amilies couldsave up to $150 a year on utility bills bycutting hot water use, as well as havinga positive impact on the environment.

ae it aHABITOnce people have made a change,what can we do to help them keepdoing it? This Lever is about reinorcingand reminding.

Liebuoy soaps handwashing campaignsrun over a minimum o 21 days to

encourage repetition o behaviour inrelevant settings every day. Duringeach day o the programme, childrenparticipate in activities designed todeliver the handwashing message in anengaging and memorable way. Comicbooks, posters, quizzes and songs allwork to remind them about the messageo handwashing at key occasions.

Compliance is also tallied on a dailysticker chart with the help o mum andteachers, to reinorce the behaviour.


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The Five Levers or Change oers acoherent approach to thinking about

behaviour change and putting it intopractice. It is not intended as a step-by-step process; the Levers dont have toollow one ater the other. But whatweve learnt is that the most eectiveprogrammes apply all the Levers insome way.

Changing oral hygiene habits

an example in practice

More than hal the worlds populationonly brush their teeth once aday, rather than twice as dentistsrecommend. Clinical studies show

that brushing twice a day witha fuoride toothpaste

can reduce tooth

decay by up to50% amongchildren

compared

to brushing once. And yet tooth decayremains one o the most commonchronic childhood diseases the WorldHealth Organisation estimates that 60-90% o school children worldwide havedental cavities.

So we have set a goal in the UnileverSustainable Living Plan to help 50million people change their toothbrushing behaviour. We used the FiveLevers or Change model to develop ourbehaviour change campaign.

First, we selected our target audience ocusing on children aged 4-8, theage at which children learn to brushby themselves and establish their oralcare habits or a lietime. Our secondarytarget audience is parents andteachers who play an important rolein modelling and reinorcing goodbrushing behaviour. We ound that

childrens current habit is predominantlyto brush their teeth just once a day in the morning ater breakast.

THE mOST

EffECTIVEpROGRAmmESAppLY

ALLTHELEVERS

IN SOmEwAY.


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Having identied our target andunderstood their current behaviour,we then conducted in-depth researchacross a range o markets to nd outmore about what children and theirparents think, do and eel when itcomes to oral health. We mined existinginormation or insights and immersed

ourselves in the world o children andtheir parents: watching childrens TVprogrammes, playing their games,reading magazines and parent blogsand speaking to young children andparents we knew.

Then we undertook some exploratoryresearch to plug gaps in our knowledge.This helped us to identiy somekey insights:

Barrier insights which revealedthat the lack o understanding about

the importance o night brushing isan important block to brushingtwice a day

Trigger insights which highlight howto motivate children and their parentsto adopt the habit

Motivator insights whichsuggest ways to ensure that the

new habit o brushing twice a dayis sustained over time and becomesan established part o thebedtime routine.

THE fIVE LEVERSfORCHANGEOffERS ACOHERENTAppROACHTO THINkINGABOUT

BEHAVIOURCHANGEAND pUTTING IT INTO

pRACTICE.


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These new insights were brought to liein the Pablo and Oliver programme orour Signal and Pepsodent toothpastebrands, which shows the un timesthat a ather and son can share whenbrushing their teeth together at night.

We used all Five Levers or Change

in the programme. To make itunderstood we used powerulmessages such as brushing day andnight with a fuoride toothpaste can cuttooth decay up to 50% among childrencompared to brushing once. To makeit easy, we oered downloadablegames to make brushing teeth at nightan easy habit or the amily to share. Tomake it rewarding, we oered prizesor continuing with the habit.

However, the real breakthrough camerom our eorts to make it desirable.

This inspired us to create a strong roleor dad in the campaign. We recognisedthe role athers can play in passing ongood habits to children and howthis appeals to a athers desire oseeing himsel as a good, involvedand un parent.

Finally, to help make it a habit we

explored new ways o creating sustainedbehaviour change. Along with stickerdiaries to encourage children to practisethe new habit over several weeks,we reminded parents by sending themmobile alerts to coincide withchildrens bedtime.

Results are very encouraging with

increased brushing requency in thecountries running the programme. Thisis a great win-win outcome: improvingchildrens oral health and helping usgrow our business.

The uture

The Five Levers or Change is a simpleprocess that has resulted in somesuccess. But there is no silver bullet orbehaviour change.

Our methodology increases thelikelihood o developing a successulbehaviour change programme, butdeveloping the programme is onlyhal the story. The critical second halinvolves staying power.

OUR mETHODOLOGYINCREASESTHELIkELIHOOD

Of DEVELOpING A

SUCCESSfULBEHAVIOUR CHANGE

pROGRAmmE.


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A behavioural change programmerequires sustained and consistentinvestment. Too oten, campaignsannounce the need or the newbehaviour and stop there. In orderto work, change needs to start withawareness but then build upon this toestablish and reinorce the behaviour.It lasts beyond a campaign, indeedbeyond the time-span o the averagemarketers job.

And, most importantly, we areaware that just as people are

complex, so too is behaviour change.Our understanding is continuallyevolving. We are continuing towork with authorities in the eld toensure were exposed to the latestbehavioural change thinkingand practice.

We are publishing our approachbecause we think that there are

wider benets rom sharing our workwith others. Weve learnt a greatdeal through our health and hygienecampaigns and we know that thereis potential or this approach to beapplied to the environmental eld helping consumers use less water,emit less greenhouse gases andproduce less waste.

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plansets out our own commitments as acompany over the next decade, andwe hope others will join in to createwidespread and lasting change.

The uture rests on companiesproducing goods and services

that society wants, in ways thatenhance health and well-beingand dont damage the planet oruture generations.

wE HOpEOTHERSwILLJOININ TOCREATEwIDESpREAD

AND LASTINGCHANGE.


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CONSUmING pASSIONS:wHY DO wE CONSUmE?VAL CURTIS, LONDON SCHOOL Of HYGIENE AND TROpICAL mEDICINE

Why are we humans such a greedylot? There are our reasons why welike to consume. First, we seek tomeet basic needs: or calories, micro-nutrients, water, shelter and transport,or example. Second, we consume tostimulate ourselves, to give ourselvespleasure: cheesecake, music, fowersand recreational drugs all all into this

category. We also consume to hoard:owning and collecting things is anancient instinctual buer against theshortages our ancestors suered inthe Pleistocene savannah. This instinctto hoard is more oten nowadaysexpressed in shoe, ornament and, inmy case, hotel soap collecting. Butthe ourth, and most economically

important, type o consumption servesa signalling unction consumption asdisplay. As Georey Miller eloquentlyargues in his book Spent, we consumeto show o. We throw away the oldand buy the latest phone becauseotherwise wed be seen as oldashioned; we wear whats cool in oursocial group; we buy beauty products

to advertise our tness and thus attractpotential mates (even i we are notactually in need o one).

Two types o consumption

Consumption o goods is on the riseglobally, and most o this rise can beput down to two o the our orces.One part o the world still has to meetits basic needs: or ood, or washingmachines and or toilets. At the sametime people in the rich world are

spending wildly in an arms race odisplay consumption: the high-techkitchen, the our-wheel drive, theairplane trip to the mini-break, the newmobile phone every 18 months, all owhich aim to out-do, not just the localJoneses, but the global mega-rich, asseen on TV. It is important to separatethese two categories o consumption.

Spending on basic needs will growinexorably in the emerging marketso the world and it is untenable tosuggest that such growth should bestifed or somehow prevented. To takeone example; without access to thewashing machine, two-thirds o theworlds women still laboriously scrub

clothes clean by hand in bowls, basinsand rivers. As Hans Rosling pointsout in his classic the Magic Washing


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Consuming Passions: Why Do We Consume? | 15


Machine talk at TED, the non-protconerence organisation, not even the

most hardened environmentalist isprepared to wash his jeans by hand. Yetthese same environmentalists presumeto propose that poor women orgo theliberation rom drudgery o the energy-consuming machine. Rosling argues thatwe should rather direct our concernsat the consumption patterns o therich world, who use the lions share o

resources mostly or the purpose oconspicuous display consumption.

I consumerism really is a problem orthe uture o the planet (and not allwould agree, or a contrarian view seeThe Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley),then the question o how to stemthis rampant, wasteul, signalling via

products is a pressing one.

First we need tosee the problemor what it is. Thesociologist andeconomist ThorsteinVeblen provided an early explanation inhis 1899 critique o consumerism. He

argued that conspicuous consumption,via conspicuous waste, is used as a wayto signal status. Evolutionary psychologytells us why. The brain o Homo sapiensevolved in a world o scarcity, and asa result we are tuned to always wantmore. Because this was adaptive, itkept us striving to get the stu thathelped us to get more ospring, in

our dim and distant past. But it wasalso adaptive to admire, to emulate,to cleave to and to want to mate withthose who had more. Displaying yoursuccess through having so much surplusthat it could even be wasted led othersto want to ally with you and to accordyou social status, and hence highertness and more gene copies in thenext generation. The desire to signalsuccess and to copy the successul arethus inescapable acts o the human

wE CONSUmETOSHOw Off.

wE THROwAwAYTHE OLD AND BUY THE

LATESTpHONE BECAUSEOTHERwISE wED BE

SEEN ASOLDfASHIONED.


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nature that we have inherited: theyare ancient motives, the voices o our

ancestors, and we cannot simply reasonthem away.

Marketing and a spiral osel-destruction

Marketers have, o course, longunderstood the power o thesevoices. They know that they can sell

shampoo and cars on sex appeal andmobile phones as status props. Addingsignalling value to brands works, it shitsmore products, however irrational thisdisplay behaviour may be in ourmodern world.

And, o course, the wider the gapbetween those who have stu and

those who have not, the greater themotivation or those with less to tryto catch up. As rich countries getricher, as the rich in emerging marketspull away rom their poor, and as themega-rich get to display their toys viaglobal media, so the innate need tosignal that one is not a ailuregrows. As a result, more and moreconsumers around the worldspend rantically in an eort tosignal that they are also worthyo attention, status and matingopportunity. Is this an inevitableand gathering process,doomed to spiral us intosel-destruction?

Imprecations to give up our

goodies are certainly not goingto halt the process. In Christopher

Marlowes play Dr Faustus, Mephistoargues to Faust that or the good o his

own soul he should:

Pack up your things and get

back to the land

And there begin to

dig and ditch;

Keep to the marrow round,

conne your mind,

And live on odder o the simplest kind,A beast among the bees;

and dont orget

To use your own dung on

the crops you set!

-Marlowe,1604

No amount o romantic environmental

rhetoric will induce us, as a species,to orgo the vast improvements inthe conditions o lie brought aboutby industrialisation. And there is noquestion that our current global marketsystem will allow these benets tocontinue to spread. This inevitably

means more consumption. So howcan we meet the challengeo reining in wasteul,signalling consumption?

Motivations, payos andthe uture

One way to engineer humanbehaviour is to change whatscalled the motivational payostructure. Tax systems could bere-engineered to social ends,one o which could be to switch


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Consuming Passions: Why Do We Consume? | 17

INSpIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVINGINSpIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING

to purchase taxes that make a distinctionbetween basic needs and wasteul

consumption. This would be deeplycontroversial; careul research and muchcitizen debate would be needed togure out how to draw the line betweenwhat was and what was not wasteul.

Another way to change the motivationalpayo structure is to imbue the targetbehaviour with a new motive: can

wasteul consumption behaviourbe seen as parasitic on society andthereore disgusting? Can it be maderidiculous, embarrassing and shameul?Some moves have been made in thisdirection by the environmental lobby,suggesting that this may be possible.Research could be conducted tohighlight the craziness o our consuming

behaviour, the lack o logic in our ranticsignalling signals that ew even noticeanyway and the insanity o signallingsexual attractiveness when happilymarried or post-reproductive. We canexpose our mismatched cave-manmotives as ridiculous, damaging anddisgusting in the context o themodern world.

However, its not clear how research orcampaigns to change public attitudeswould be unded. Most resourcesdeployed in infuencing humanconsumption behaviour today work inthe opposite direction: global marketingbudgets motivate us to spend in anenvironmentally unsound ashion.Some large companies, o course, have

a vested interest in continuing to shitas much product as possible; it is not in

their short-term interests to attempt tocurb wasteul consumption.

Yet the most enlightened companies,those that are ahead o, or even leaderso, social change, may nd that theyget a rst-mover advantage, a chanceto claim the moral high ground, achance or their brands to become moretrusted by consumers because they areassociated with improving our planet.They can innovate to produce products

that are slim, light, long lasting, useecient production and packaging,and are easy on the environment: andthey can market these as signals otaste and status. They can und researchinto wasteul consumption and evencampaign against it. Those companieswho rst claim the moral high groundearn the right to shoot at others below,

and can join a growing trend thatstigmatises, rather than admiresand lauds, wasteul consumption.

CONSUmERS AROUNDTHEwORLD SpEND

fRANTICALLY IN ANEffORTTOSIGNALTHAT

THEY AREALSOwORTHY OfATTENTION,STATUSANDmATING OppORTUNITY.


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THE TRANSfORmATIVEpOwER Of INDIVIDUALSHELIO mATTAR, pRESIDENT, AkATU INSTITUTE fOR CONSCIOUS CONSUmpTION, BRAzIL

Around 16% o humankind isresponsible or 78% o all consumption.At the same time, present levels oconsumption demand 50% morerenewable natural resources than theEarth is able to supply. This meansthat the proportion o humanity thatat present denes the mainstreampattern o consumption although

that proportion is quite small isalready leading to a situation whereEarth cannot continue to provideclean air, potable water, healthy arableland and a complete absorption oresidues generated by productionand consumption. The environmentalservices demanded rom the planet aresimply not there to be supplied.

I the whole o humanity were toconsume resources at the same rateas the 16% richest inhabitants othe planet, ve Earths would notbe sucient to supply all resourcesneeded. So, clearly, a new pattern oconsumption is needed, one that wouldallow the well-being o the whole o

humankind and, at the same time,respect the inherent limits o the natural

resources o the planet on whichwe all live.

In general, the tendency is to thinkthat, or that to happen, it would benecessary to reduce the well-beingprovided by the present model oconsumption. That is not true. A simpleexample may help explain why: i only

one individual cleans their teeth threetimes a day using one cup o waterinstead o leaving the water running


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The Transormative Power o Individuals | 19

rom the tap or the two minutesthat brushing takes, the amount owater saved during the 70 years otheir lie would be equivalent tothree-quarters o the water in an

Olympic swimming pool.

The power o acting together

This example considers only one smallgesture, that o turning o the tapwhile cleaning your teeth, and or justone individual. Can you imagine thesavings when a amily, a community,a nation adopts the same behaviour?Or when one considers other activitieswhere water is consumed, such astaking a shower; washing dishes,

the foor, your clothes, the car; whencooking. That clearly shows whereUnilevers approach, small actions,big dierence comes rom. In Brazil,the same slogan was translated intoPortuguese as each gesture counts,which expresses the same concept.

For that reason, consumption can beused as a powerul means to positivelytransorm the world. For that to berealised, the individual would have tobe aware o the impact o every act o

CONSUmpTIONCANBEUSEDAS ApOwERfULmEANSTO pOSITIVELY

TRANSfORmTHEwORLD.


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consumption on the environment andsociety and try to reduce the negative

impacts and increase the positive ones.That can be done through a changein the behaviour o the consumer orthrough a change in the productsoered by companies to consumers, soas to have a smaller negative impact onthe environment. A good exampleare the products designed to use lessenergy, such as Unilevers laundry

products.

It is important to remember thatno product can be manuacturedor used without the extraction onatural resources rom the crust othe Earth and the use o water andenergy. These items are present in theproduction or use o products, even

when the consumer does not noticethem explicitly. As a consequence,consumers can make an enormouseveryday contribution to the present

and uture sustainabilityo lie on our planetby choosing whichcompanies to buy romand giving preerence to

those that have adopted a more riendlystance towards the environment and

society. They can choose products thatwere produced, and can be used anddisposed o, with the best possiblestandards rom an environmental andsocial point o view.

The opportunity ahead

It is important to emphasise that we

are not reerring to uture risks butto the opportunities or each andevery consumer to contribute today toreduce the present and uture risks ounsustainability. However, the problemis o such magnitude that it would betoo optimistic to expect a solution tocome rom any single social agent, be itgovernment, multilateral organisations,

corporations or civil society. We needa process that engages the whole ohumanity, starting with the actions oeach individual. This should be refectedin the enabling conditions provided bynational governments, corporationsand multilateral organisations so thatchange is implemented on a scale andat a speed that can contribute, in time,to reversing the present pattern ounsustainability o lie on Earth.

But let me repeat: the process startsat the level o the individual, with theunderstanding that small actions willlead to big changes. In order to showthat individuals do have an enormousopportunity to contribute, let me giveyou two additional examples.


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The Transormative Power o Individuals | 21

A single British or American citizenthrows away, every day, 1.3kg o waste.

Over 75 years the approximate lieexpectancy o each o those citizens the total amount disposed o as wasteby one individual is 36 tons. I one takessix amilies with two children each,the amount o waste they throw awayduring their lives (assuming a lie spano 75 years), would require 271,000towers the size o Big Ben in London to

hold it all.

O course, the more individuals reducethe amount o waste produced, thelower the cost o collecting it, allowinggovernments to invest in other,more important issues than garbagecollection.

And a nal example: one Americanindividual consumes, on average, 350go cattle meat every day. To producethese quantities o meat, 5,300 litres owater are needed.

As a consequence, over 75 years the lietime o an average American an amount equivalent to almost 60Olympic swimming pools is necessaryor the production o meat that anindividual will eat. That is a lot o waterto eed just one individual.O course, the more individualsreduce the amount o bee they eat,or substitute with chicken, the lesswater will be consumed and more willbe available or other uses. Water is a

precious resource that large groups opeople and regions on the planet lack.

By telling ones amily and riends about

these examples, and by mobilising themto choose better products and to usethem in a better way, each individualcan multiply the positive impact o hisor her actions by the number o peoplethey mobilise to do the same. We muststart today.

EACH INDIVIDUALCAN mULTIpLYTHE

pOSITIVE ImpACTOf HISORHERACTIONS

BY THENUmBER OfpEOpLE THEY mOBILISETO DO THESAmE.


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VISIONS AND ACTIONS fORSUSTAINABLE LIfESTYLESCHERYL HICkS AND mICHAEL kUHNDT, UNEp/wUppERTAL INSTITUTE, CSCp, GERmANY

I you had to live your lie moresustainably this weekend, what wouldyou do? Answering this questionimplies that you have a good idea owhat sustainability means, that youknow what is unsustainable about theway you currently spend your weekendand that you are already interested inseeking options or what you might

do dierently to achieve sustainability.Having it all, that is meeting all oour needs and desires with minimalenvironmental and social impact, willrequire a deeper understanding o whatthose needs and desires are, and whatis holding us back.

These questions are at the centre o

a current research eort, SPREADSustainable Liestyles 2050, which isexploring what it means to live our livesmore sustainably, what changes will berequired and or whom, what optionscan be enabled to help us to meetdiering individual needs and desires,and what promising sustainable livingpractices are already starting to

be revealed.

What is unsustainable about theway we live?

In the last century, a modern economyhas delivered remarkable afuence andincreased quality o living standardsor hundreds o millions o peopleworldwide. But the economic growthbehind this wealth generation has

inficted dangerous costs on theenvironment, while billions more aspireto the same high standards o living.

According to the Global FootprintNetwork, humanity today is simplydemanding more resources than theEarth can provide ve planets i youlive in the US and o course, we

only have one. This century has begunwith a great convergence in livingstandards as poorer countries speedilyadopt the technology, know-how andpolicies that made the West rich. Chinaand India are the biggest and astestgrowing o the catch-up countries, butthe emerging-market boom has spreadto embrace Latin America and

Arica too.


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Visions and Actions For Sustainable Liestyles | 23

The way we eat and live in our homes,what we buy, consume and waste,and how we move around account orsignicant impacts. According to theEuropean Environment Agency, our

ood is among the highest (2030% oour household consumption impacts).Meat and dairy account or 24% oall o ood consumption impacts inEurope. Over-consumption o shis leading to the depletion o somesh stocks and collapsing sheries.Increased imports o non-seasonaland exotic ood are associated with

high levels o ood processing andhigh energy use both or production

and use. The energy used to heat ourhomes (67% o household energy

consumption in the EU) and the waterwe use, together with our appliancesand electronic goods, account orapproximately 40% o total energyconsumption. Increasing extraction onatural resources and raw materials(such as wood products, metals anddiamonds) used to manuacturegrowing volumes o household

products and consumer goods,together with rising levels o householdwaste, and the impact o the transporto these goods around the globe,can cause consumer goods alone toaccount or 14% o an average citizensootprint in the UK. Current liestylepatterns are also leading to signicanthealth impacts, such as obesity, heart

disease and cancer.

Visions o sustainable living romaround the world

Universally, people want to improvetheir lives. But what is right oreveryone, everywhere? Recent studiesshow that our visions o sustainability,our ideas about sustainable living, andthe utures we aspire to show nuanceso interpretation around the world.

Globally, sustainability is stillpredominantly seen as a good thatinvolves some sort o trade-o. Thisentails a risk that people might eelalienated rom it, with no real sense oagency or empowerment to make

change happen.

GLOBALLY,

SUSTAINABILITYISSTILL pREDOmINANTLY SEEN

AS A GOOD THAT INVOLVESSOmESORTOf

TRADE-Off.


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24

For Western households, sustainability

tends to mean some variation o livingwith minimal impact on the Earth.This may include things like minimisingthe use o non-renewable resources,thinking about purchases in termso whether they were really needed,how they would be disposed o andrecycled. The Latin American view tendsto put more importance on aspects o

community and social development.The Asian view tends to includenuances o economic sustainabilityrst along with the viability o nationaleconomic development. For example,the Switch Asia Network Facility, whichpromotes sustainable production andconsumption in Asia, nds that liestylesin Asia are increasingly infuenced by

the escalating consumption patternso its growing middle class. Asia isexpected to be at the oreront oworldwide consumption by 2030, withconsumer spending projected to reach$32 trillion and constitute about 42%o worldwide consumption.

A global survey o young adults ontheir visions or sustainable liestyles

was published by the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP) in2011. According to this survey, very ewyoung people around the world citeddreams o luxury and unlimited materialcomort. These young adults portrayedoptimistic visions or their lives in theuture which included: the capacity tomeet ones needs and reach a middle-

class standard o living, a ullling jobproviding a sense o sel-achievement,a successul amily and social lie, and aclean environment. Importantly, youngadults seek security: nancial, social,environmental and personal.

What will it take to havethe liestyles we want, more

sustainably?

The global population will not changebehaviour or liestyles homogeneously.Each o us has dierent needs, desires,cultural legacies and habits that weseek to ull on a daily basis. Humanbehaviour and consumer segmentationspecialists group people by similaritiesin terms o motivators, infuencersand triggers to behave or act. Whenit comes to sustainability, studies haveound that our sense o empowermentto make change and our ability todelay personal gratication drive manybehaviours and daily decisions. Forexample, consumer segmentationstudies show that about 12% ous will be leaders in society, eel

empowered to make change andadvocate what we believe in while

wE NEEDTO mAkE

SUSTAINABLELIVING OpTIONS EASY.


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delaying personal gain or graticationor the greater good; about 78% o

us will do this only i it benets ouramilies or community and makes adierence in their lives; about 10% ous eel completely outside mainstreamsociety and that our actions make nodierence in society; and most o us,7080% o people in most societies,are driven by a constant need orinstant personal gratication, eeling

empowered to make change orourselves without compromise.

What does this mean or sustainableliestyles and how can we use thisinormation to enable more sustainableliving? These studies suggest thatonly a small number o us will alterour behaviour or liestyles to protect

the environment alone. Even wherewell-being and agency are seenas cornerstones o an ideal uture,sustainability is not spontaneouslyconsidered as a actor o progress the benets are not clear.

What this tells us is that inormationis not enough; we need to makesustainable living options easy. RichardThaler and Cass Sunstein describe intheir recent book, Nudge (2008), thatevery day we make decisions aboutthe way we live, but unortunately,we oten choose poorly. Our mistakesmake us poorer and less healthy, andhave a negative impact on the planet.By knowing how people think, we candesign choice environments that make

it easier or people to choose what isbest or themselves their amilies and

their society.

For example, immediate inormationabout what people are buying isimportant but does not tell us enoughabout why people buy and whatwould help them to change impactulconsumption or liestyle habits.Thereore, we need to understandwhat current behaviours (and liestylechoices) mean to people and whatneeds they ull. This inormationcan then help us to develop dierentoptions and more sustainable ways toull those needs.


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26

We have learned several key thingsabout motivating behaviour change.Here is a sample rom our recentwork with the social innovation rm,Collective Invention:

Changes proposed have to fll theindividuals needs. I the way we live

is ocused on pleasure and eelingso success, new products and serviceswill only be adopted i they at leastmaintain and ideally enhance pleasure.A drop in perormance or perceivedstatus will not be accepted.

Old behaviours need to beunlearned. Phasing in the change with

a new product or service that ulls thesame need helps new behaviours to belearned in a non-critical way and oldbehaviours gradually reduced. This iswhy driving a hybrid will be easier ormost consumers than cycling or takingpublic transport.

Instant eedback and positivereinorcement are critical.This allows people to keepconnecting change to things that areimportant to them. Smart meters thatshow the energy consumption o yourhouse on a daily basis are an examplewhere you can see your reductionsin energy use in real time. Seeing theenergy consumption o your housebenchmarked against your neighbours,

where your consumption is higher, willalso tend to be very motivating orbehaviour change.

Understanding how people think andwhat motivates them to act may helppolicy-makers, community leaders anddesigners to develop many solutionoptions that better address peoplesneeds, desires and growing concerns.Adding knowledge o sustainability inthis process creates new opportunities

to drive product, policy and processinnovation that will advance broadersocietal innovation and deliver theuture liestyles we want. We canhave it all.

Future Actions Translatingsustainability into meaning or oureveryday lives

1. Visualising and demonstratingWe need more examples anddemonstrations o what moresustainable living actually looks like.The Collaborating Centre orSustainable Consumption & Production(CSCP) and Collective Invention haveproduced a prototype o what moresustainable living could look like in2050 in the orm o a demonstrationexample o a amily living in Europe inthe year 2050: The Family YOU. Thisamily is a set o constructed personasthat allow us to jump into the shoeso people living in the uture andshare their liestyles, and to explorethe ways in which possible utures willintersect with the needs, desires and

actions o individuals. What policies,inrastructure, services and societalinnovations might have enabled these


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living conditions? What behaviourchanges are needed to deliver thisvision o a more sustainable uture?

2. Options, access and availabilityWe need more options or sustainableliving that meet diverse needs and

desires. These options need to bereadily available and easy to access.The CSCP has developed or the REWEGroup, one o the leading tradingand travel and tourism companiesin Europe, the PRO PLANET productlabel system. The aim is to supportsustainable consumption in the massmarket and to oer products with

sustainable added value at a goodprice. The methodology identiesthe most adverse environmental andsocial impacts o the product during itsliecycle, including consumption (HotSpot Analysis) and generates strategiesto minimise the negative impacts.At least 80 products across Germanynow have a PRO PLANET label,

including oods (strawberries, tomatoes,peppers), paper products (toiletpaper), textiles (t-shirts) and home

improvement products (paint, woodenfooring). Further analysis and roll-out

o other product groups is planned.3. Innovation at all levelsAchieving sustainable liestyles willrequire a radical rethinking o thesystems that are currently drivingunsustainable trends innovationis required at all levels o business(business model, product and serviceinnovation), policy (legislation and

decision-making innovation) and society(social and societal innovation) andin partnership or collaboration witheach other. Sustainability entrepreneursare critical actors or enabling a moresustainable uture by ocusing on thetechnological, social and inrastructureinnovations that will deliver moresustainable liestyle models.

The CSCP is providing trainingprogrammes and tools or the academiccommunity in emerging markets withthe aim o encouraging and developingmore sustainability entrepreneurs.The SMART Start-Up initiative beganwith a programme introducingsustainable liestyles and sustainableentrepreneurship into Aricanuniversities and colleges rom 2007 to2010. Currently it is applied throughoutEurope, in China and in Brazil.

wE NEED mORE EXAmpLES

AND DEmONSTRATIONSOf wHATmORE

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

ACTUALLY LOOkS LIkE.


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28

TECHNOLOGY HOLDS THE kEYTO THE fUTUREDR RICHARD L wRIGHT,

BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE DIRECTOR, UNILEVER

As a behavioural scientist in UnileversResearch & Development (R&D) team,the question I ask mysel is: how canour science and technology expertisehelp people to wash their hands beoremeals, clean their teeth at night and useproducts more sustainably?

One way science helps is by ensuring

that the understanding and theoriesdeveloped in behavioural science overmany years drive Unilevers behaviourchange interventions. We turned theoryinto practice by developing accessibleprinciples that are now used by ourbrand marketing teams.

However, probably the most powerul

means that Unilevers R&D team has tochange peoples behaviour lies in thelarge number o consumers we reach:we design products that are used 2billion times a day. We help shape whatand how people eat, how they washtheir clothes and clean their teeth. Thismeans that we play a critical role in thebehaviour which aects their health

and well-being, and the extent to whichthey impact our planet when carryingout everyday actions.

I we can help all our consumers tomake small changes in behaviour then,multiplied by billions o uses, this canmake a huge dierence to our world.Subtle changes in product design canenable these changes.

However, this isnt about manipulation.It is about making the right choice theeasy and desirable choice. It is similar toThaler and Sunsteins idea o nudging.For instance, shoppers could be nudgedto buy more healthy oods i they werepresented at eye level in stores.

Some simple nudges in practice

In a similar vein we have nudgedour consumers into buying more


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Technology Holds the Key to the Future | 29


sustainable, concentrated Omo andPersil laundry liquids because they arelighter and more convenient. I dosedcorrectly, concentrates provide the samenumber o washes as dilute liquids,while reducing water and waste per

bottle, and halving the number otrucks required to transport them. Thisreduces greenhouse gas emissions perwash. And, because dosing smalleramounts is critical or concentrates, wealso nudged them into using the rightamount by providing the correct sizedosing cap.

A second, more recent, example isComort One Rinse. We noticed thatconsumers in some Asian countries suchas Vietnam and India, who handwashtheir clothes, used three buckets owater at the rinse stage. For theseconsumers, clothes were not completelyrinsed until all the soap oam haddisappeared. Comort One Rinse usesoam-dispersing technology to reducethe amount o oam and thereby therequirement or rinsing decreases to

just one bucket. This has made the tasko washing clothes by hand easier and

quicker or consumers and delivered anenvironmental benet at the same time.

You may wonder why we need to besubtle in our approach to environmentalbehaviour change. Why cant we justcreate and market environmentallyriendly products under a greenproposition? The truth is that most

people are not ready to trade o producteectiveness or convenience or thebenet o the environment. In the West,many people drive their car to the localshops because o the convenience.The key to reducing our environmentalootprint is, in part, about usingsustainable ingredients or more ecienttechnology but also about creating

products that shape peoples behaviourwhile at the same time improving theirproduct experience, not making it worse.

Another area in which technology canmake a big impact in behaviour changeis in providing the means or accuratebehaviour measurement. The availabilityo small, low-cost electronic sensors hasdramatically changed the way we studybehaviour in Unilever.

Back to the bathroom How do wemeasure accurately?

I have spent a large part o my careerwondering what people do in thebathroom when they clean their teeth,go to the toilet or shower. Despite my

interest, peoples enthusiasm or beingwatched in the bathroom is limited!

wE DESIGNpRODUCTS

THAT ARE USED

2 BILLIONTImES A DAY.


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30

There are critical gaps in understandingwhat people actually do rather than

what they say they do. However, askingthem is not a good alternative towatching them; many everyday activitiesthat lead to health or environmentaloutcomes are habitual and doneunconsciously. These are repeatedactions that we do without thinking it comes as no surprise, thereore, thatpeople have a poor ability to tell you

what they do.

A second problem with asking people isthat they like to present themselves in apositive light. When asked by a doctor,we tend to underestimate our alcoholconsumption. This is not becausewe mistrust the doctors motives butbecause an underestimate presents us

in a better light. We have ound strongsel-presentation eects repeatedly inour research; people exaggerate goodbehaviours such as cleaning their teethand washing their hands, while theyunderestimate bad unhealthy or anti-social behaviours.

Our solution to the problem ounderstanding behaviour has been atechnological one. Over the past eightyears, I have worked with technologists,inside and outside Unilever, to developsmall electronic devices which monitormovement. We embed these intoproducts like soap and toothbrushesand use them in our consumer trials.

When our volunteers use the sensor

products, the devices record signalswhich can be downloaded and

interpreted back at the laboratory. Sowe know when and how our productsare being used 24 hours a day, 7 daysa week. This means we know whenarmers in rural India wash their handsand bodies with soap and how manytimes a week urban Chinese consumers

brush their teeth.

We have also used these electronicsensors to test the eectiveness obehaviour change campaigns. Unileversbehaviour change approach (describedin the article by B V Pradeep) wasused to develop a TV advertisement toencourage children to brush at night.It used the ather as a role model,suggesting that children adopt theathers good and bad habits so teachthem a good one such as cleaning yourteeth at night. In our study, hal theamilies were shown this advert andthe others a TV advert or the samebrand but that did not talk about nightbrushing. All members o these amiliesreceived sensored brushes and their

behaviour was tracked beore and aterexposure to the adverts.

THERE ARE CRITICALGApSIN UNDERSTANDING

wHATpEOpLE

ACTUALLYDO.


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Technology Holds the Key to the Future | 31


When asked, both groups claimed tohave increased their brushing ollowingthe adverts. However, our monitorsshowed that neither group changedtheir morning time brushing, whileonly the group watching the role-model advert increased their eveningbrushing. Although the exposure tothe advert was limited, and the eectssmall, this real behavioural eect gaveus condence to move ahead with thePablo and Oliver TV campaign. Hadwe relied on peoples reports we wouldhave seen no dierence between thetwo adverts. Had we wanted to see a

clinical outcome, such as reduction incavities, it would have taken years andcost millions.

We have also developed monitors orsoap, bottles and washing machines

and now we are even using them totrack showering. As well as enablingevaluation, they play a critical role ingenerating insights which then drive ourinnovation ideas.

Recently, we conducted what we believeto be the UKs largest showering study.We monitored the showers o 100

amilies. Using electronic monitors wewere able to get over 1,000 days wortho data, a total o over 2,600 showers.Our monitors recorded when showerswere taken and how long they lasted;we also recorded the water fow andtemperature o the showers. Someinteresting things we ound were thatthe average shower time was around

eight minutes three minutes longerthan the popularly conceived ve-minute shower and that nearly a quartero showers used more than the 80 litreso water considered typical or bathing.

These and other insights rom ourshowering study will drive our eortsinto nudging people into takingmore sustainable showers. We dontyet have all the answers and we arestill learning as we trial and developdierent programmes. Its an excitingtime to be developing behaviour changeinterventions, and there are many newinnovations ahead. I am convincedthat in order to change behaviours,technology can and must be key.


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DYSfUNCTIONAL pOLITICIANSAND THE pOwER Of BRANDSJONATHON pORRITT, fOUNDER DIRECTOR, fORUm fOR THE fUTURE

A bit o me still recoils in a mixture orepugnance and disbelie at the ideathat its going to be the worlds leadingbrands that will rescue us rom todaysslow but inexorable slide into ecologicaldisaster. Ater all, many o those brandshave been in the vanguard o todaysplanet-trashing hyper-consumption,contributing not just to todays long

list o environmental problems but alsoto a world ever more viciously dividedbetween the haves and have-nots.

The rich worlds elites were only toohappy earlier in 2011 to see protestorsout on the streets o Tunis, Cairo,Sanaa and Benghazi. The disaectionthat gave birth to the Arab Spring

was demonstrably a good thing,promising the downall o dictators andthe prospect o Western-style, market-based democracies. But theyre nowmore than a little non-plussed at thesight o protestors on the streets oMadrid, Lisbon, London, New York andother US cities expressing their ownbitter disaection with the ailures o

that very same brand o market-baseddemocracy. When conronting the gold-plated, ludicrously over-privileged lives

o the richest 1% in the world today,we are the 99 may just turn out to beas powerul a rallying cry in the West asin the Middle East.

As those divides deepen, and theplanets lie-support systems get justa little more stressed out every year, itseems sort o preposterous to conjure

up the power o leading brands to turnthings around. As Proessor Tim Jacksonhas pointed out so tellingly in his 2009book, Prosperity without Growth, manybrands are very ar rom being a orceor good in todays world: People arebeing persuaded to spend money wedont have on things we dont need tocreate impressions that wont last on

people we dont care about.

But then just look around you at thebroader sustainability scene. The vastmajority o consumers today are stilleither conused/disempowered, orindierent/ignorant I know its notpolitically correct to say that, but itstrue. Worse yet, the vast majority o

investors are still intent on maximisingshort-term returns rather than buildingover the long-term even when its


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Dysunctional Politicians and the Power o Brands | 33

their own pension unds that theyreinvesting in.

And worst o all, governments theworld over would appear to be cluelessabout transitioning their economiesrom yesterdays patently unsustainablesmash and grab, slash and burn tothe kind o sustainable capitalism thatoers the prospect o better lives or the99% while staying within recognised

environmental limits without tootraumatic a decline in the livingstandards o the 1%.

The potential power o brands

So lets not look these branded git-horses in the mouth. When I compareour politicians sorry perormance

on environmental issues with theperormance o some o Forum or theFutures leading corporate partners,theres no question who is making thebigger dierence. Not just in terms oreducing their own direct ootprint,but in helping their customers improvetheir own lives in increasingly moresustainable and responsible ways.

Brands are so much better placed tonarrow that rightening valuesactiongap that politicians have to conront(where the voters say one thing andpromptly do another), and are somehowmore trustworthy precisely because theyare so clearly in the business o makingmoney out o doing the right thing.As Dorothy Mackenzie o the brand

consulting business, Dragon Rouge putsit: People resist moralising statements.

But everyone knows a brand is out tomake money and that clarity o intentwins trust.

And that trust creates the space toinnovate. While politicians sit aroundwaiting or people to show them

where they want to go, companies canuse the power o their brands to helpnormalise our behaviour wash at30, less is more (with concentrateddetergents or energy-ecient lightbulbs), healthy choices, better lives,and so on.

Designing in sustainability and

dithering politicians

Sometimes its not even necessary toask or even inorm consumers; build itin sustainability inside, as it were,and dont get too het up i people dontknow exactly what those benets are allabout. How many ordinary citizens havethe rst clue what Intel Inside means,even as they eel vaguely good that thelatest gizmo that theyre splashing outon oers them that reassurance.

COmpANIESCAN USETHE pOwER OfTHEIR

BRANDSTO HELp

NORmALISEOUR BEHAVIOUR.


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And thats about as good as it gets at

the moment as politicians dither andshort-termism rules supreme in ourcapital markets. What we need to do isto build aspirational armies o citizen-consumers who no longer eel theneed to get cynical at the idea o smallactions, big dierence. Its all aboutscale, as explained by John Thgersen,Proessor o Economic Psychology at the

Aarhus School o Business and SocialScience in Denmark:

One o the reasons why people arepassive is that they eel no one elseis doing anything. When it comes toclimate change, your contribution isso small it doesnt really matter. Whatmatters is what other people do. Iyou dont perceive that many people

are also saving energy, then youeel a bit o a sucker because yourelosing something without helping theproblem.

In that regard, things have moved ona long way rom the I Will I You Willmessage that the UKs Roundtable onSustainable Consumption rst cameup with nearly six years ago. Todays

leading brands have a much moredynamic story to tell: We Have,So You Can.

And we certainly need to see todaysstill-ashionable cynicism put aside.Short o the whole global economyimploding in ront o our eyes (which Ican assure you would do very little toenhance the prospect o a genuinelysustainable world), we have to takepeople with us, step by step, not beatthem into submission.

Solitaire Townsend, one o theco-ounders o communicationsconsultancy Futerra, has beenparticularly trenchant in her critiqueo conventional environmentalcampaigning (Environmentalists arevery good at identiying what peopleshoulddesire not what they actuallydodesire), exhorting politicians andbusinesses alike to put the sizzle intosustainability, using humour, creativity,

TODAYSLEADINGBRANDSHAVE A mUCH mORE DYNAmIC

STORYTO TELL:wE HAVE, SO YOU CAN.


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Dysunctional Politicians and the Power o Brands | 35

peer-to-peer messaging and real peoplemaking a real dierence in compelling,

sassy ways: a live, warm-bloodedhuman being is top trumps when itcomes to changing behaviour.

I go with all that as do all o ourcorporate partners and their brands.But not at the expense o some deeperprobing about the scale o the changerequired. As yet, even at its best, were

nowhere near the zone o genuinelysustainable consumption lessunsustainable consumption is still thename o the game.

But I really dont blame companiesor that. Its governments that set therules within which companies operate in terms o regulation, taxation,

incentives, public procurement and soon. Unortunately, governments are soin hock to todays incumbent corporatepower-brokers and so timid in the aceo the utterly predictable whingeingrom trade associations and all thosevested interests who stand to losemost as we innovate our way throughto a dynamic low-carbon, equitableeconomy. The most we can expect osuch dysunctional politicians, whatevertheir party loyalty, is or them not to getin the way o those whove seen whata better uture really looks like. And areseriously intent on making it happen.

Scenarios or 2020

None o this makes it any easier or

leading companies today. I becameeven more aware o this when we

launched our Consumer Futures 2020project together with Unilever and

Sainsburys in October 2011, using ourvery dierent scenarios looking orwardto dierent models o sustainableconsumption in 2020.

Financial circumstances are so toughtoday that worrying about 2020 couldso easily look and eel sel-indulgent:the current mandate or both Unilever

and Sainsburys, shaped as it is by theoverbearing immediacy o now, could soeasily crowd out their uture mandates.But they know it absolutely mustnt,and both Amanda Sourry (Chairman oUnilever UK & Ireland) and Justin King(Chie Executive o Sainsburys) couldnthave been clearer in asserting that ortheir companies there need be no clash

between growth and sustainability. Boththe Unilever Sustainable Living Plan andSainsburys new sustainability plan(20 by 2020) are based on doublingthe size o their businesses while gettingbetter and better at managing social,environmental and wider economicchallenges. Indeed, both arguedstrongly that there is no clash, butthat theyre mutually reinorcing. Notgrowth andsustainability, but growththrough sustainability.

Easily said, but one hell o a thing todeliver. Indeed, sustainable consumptionsounds so reassuring at one level,but dig down a bit deeper, and itre-presents itsel as one o the mostcompelling challenges o our age.


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GOVERNmENTS, NUDGINGAND EffECTIVE SCIENCECHARLES ABRAHAm, pENINSULA COLLEGE Of mEDICINE & DENTISTRY, UNIVERSITY Of EXETER

Humanity aces challenges requiringchanges in our everyday behaviourpatterns at individual and societal levels.We should be optimistic about changebecause we have thrived as a specieslargely because o our capacity to adaptand change our behaviour. Nonetheless,action is needed now. What part cangovernments and scientists play in

this challenge?

Consider two examples. Reductions inCO2 emissions are critical to limitingglobal temperature rises. This requiresa variety o changes in energy usage,including changes in transportation.Transport accounts or approximately23% o current global energy-related

CO2 emissions and nearly three-quarters o these are generated byroad transport. In the US, car travelaccounts or up to 91% o all vehiclekilometres travelled, while in the UK,

car travel accounts or up to 78%o road miles. In the context o lessexpensive cars being mass produced, iwe are to protect our habitat we musteither substantially reduce the distanceswe drive or we must replace internalcombustion engine cars with vehiclesusing green energy.

Obesity is a growing global epidemic.I the current rising trend remainsunchecked, more than 40% o theUK population will be obese by 2050,resulting in a national annual costo 49.9 billion. Obesity reduces lieexpectancy mainly because o theincreased risk o cardiovascular diseaseand diabetes. It is also associated with

an increased likelihood o developingkidney disease, osteoarthritis, severalcancers, hypertension, dementia,asthma and depression. Whileincreasing physical activity can


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Governments, Nudging and Eective Science | 37

contribute much to obesity preventionand weight control, the real challenge isto end over-eating.

These two examples highlight theimportance o behaviour change topolicy ormulation. Transport policy iscritical to meeting emission reductiontargets, which in turn impact on themaintenance o our global habitat.The nancial viability o supportinghealth services is threatened when theyare increasingly burdened by healthproblems resulting rom over-eating.Unsurprisingly, then, governments havebecome increasing concerned with

understanding behaviour change.

Political acknowledgement o the

need or behaviour change

Many governments have taken aninterest in the science o behaviourchange. Here we ocus on recent UKdevelopments. In 2007 the government

commissioned the National Institute orHealth and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to

provide guidance on behaviour changeor the UK National Health Service. A

broad ramework was developed whichis soon to be updated and developed.

More recently, the government hasestablished a Behaviour Insightsteam to integrate evidence-basedbehaviour change interventions acrossgovernment departments. This unithas been strongly infuenced by Thaler

and Sunsteins book Nudge. NUDGE isan acronym that reers to a range odistinct behaviour change techniques.However, the dening eature oa nudge is a change to the choicearchitecture around us that in turnchanges our motivation or decisions.For example, placing conectionerynear supermarket checkouts is a

nudge. Thaler and Sunstein reer toanyone with the power to change theenvironment that prompts decisions,rom doctors to supermarket managersto policy-makers as choice architects.

To help policy-makers employ nudgesand other behaviour change techniquesthe UK Institute or Governmenthas produced a checklist o changeprocesses organised around theacronym MINDSPACE (Messenger,Incentives, Norms, Deaults, Salience,Priming, Aect, Commitments andEgo). Each o these processes canbe translated into specic behaviourchange techniques relevant to particularbehaviours and policies.

In 2011, the Committee on Scienceand Technology o the House o Lords

wE HAVE THRIVEDAS A SpECIES LARGELY

BECAUSE Of OURCApACITYTO

ADApTAND CHANGE

OURBEHAVIOUR.


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undertook an inquiry into behaviourchange which the UK governmentresponded to. The committee made

a variety o recommendations togovernment on how it might: use thebest available evidence on behaviourchange; best communicate withbehaviour scientists; commission large-scale research into the population-level eects o behaviour changeinterventions; ensure that behaviourchange interventions are properly

evaluated so that lessons can belearned; work with industry to bringabout behaviour changes; and tackleissues such as ood labelling, marketingaimed at children and a reduction in

car usage.

Research challenges highlighted by

the House o Lords inquiry

The House o Lords inquiry highlighteda series o challenges or research

into behaviour change. The inquiryconcluded that nudges may not oten

work alone. So the key question is:which nudges may be eective, whenand or whom? And which otherbehaviour change techniques shouldnudges be combined with to optimisetheir eectiveness?

The inquiry also highlighted theimportance o evaluating behaviour

change interventions. I the scienceo behaviour change is to advance,we need to know what works andwhat does not. It is not enough to askparticipants in a behaviour changestudy whether they noticed or likedthe intervention. We need to measurebehaviour beore and aterwardsamong samples who do and do not

receive interventions to assess theireectiveness. While this seems obviousto most scientists, unortunately it is notthe norm in commissioning o behaviourchange interventions. Consequently,the inquiry noted an unortunatedearth o rigorous, long-termevaluations o interventions designedto change behaviour using population-representative samples. Research othis type is required by policy-makersi they are to identiy interventionswhich are ready to be rolled out acrosspopulations. The main implication othis observation is or the unders oresearch. Such trials are very expensiveand require long-term nancial support.Co-operation among unders to identiypotentially eective interventions

worthy o such support and testingis needed.

THE kEYqUESTION IS:

wHICHNUDGES

mAY BE EffECTIVE,wHEN AND fORwHOm?


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Governments, Nudging and Eective Science | 39

Towards a science obehaviour change

The content o behaviour changeinterventions is crucial to theireectiveness. So understandingwhat content is associated witheectiveness or which behavioursis undamental. Unortunately, theabsence o standardised denitions obehaviour change techniques included

in interventions can make it dicultto speciy exactly what was in anintervention and, thereore, impedesaccurate replication.

Nudge, MINDSPACE and other listso approaches to behaviour changeprovide useul pointers to the denitiono core behaviour change techniques.

However, urther progress will dependon systematic analyses o what is

included in more or less eectivebehaviour change interventions and or whom.

Eective behaviour changeinterventions are needed to resolvea variety o global challenges acinghumanity. Politicians are increasinglyaware o the need to use eective

behaviour change interventions topromote national well-being. Thisplaces a responsibility on behaviouralscientists to develop broad andinclusive rameworks to understandchange processes and mechanismsat individual, group, societal andinternational levels. Moreover,we need to match well-specied

behaviour change techniques to thesekey mechanisms o change.

EffECTIVEBEHAVIOURCHANGE

INTERVENTIONS

ARE NEEDED TORESOLVEA

VARIETY Of GLOBALCHALLENGES fACING

HUmANITY.


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40

EXITING THE VALLEYOf DEATHSImON zADEk, INDEpENDENT ADVISOR; SENIOR VISITING fELLOw, GLOBAL GREEN GROwTH INSTITUTE

Start-up companies have named themost dangerous moment in theirdevelopment as the Valley o Death -the moment between proo o conceptand the beginning o mass productionand signicant sales. It is the placewhere most dreams perish in the ace oconservative capital markets that doubtan entrepreneurs abilities to beat

the competition.

Sustainability has reached its own valleyo death. Ater two decades o intenseactivities, we have excellent data onthe nature and scale o the problem,an abundance o cases o successulexperiments, and the growing attentiono political and business leaders. Yet we

cannot leverage our insights, resourcesand passion to contain our productiono carbon, manage the scarcity owater, or dampen the speculativefuctuations in the price and availabilityo basic oodstus. De-materialisedproducts, rentalised markets, renewablepower and sustainability standards areamongst the social innovations that

have provided inspiration and advancesin oering consumers greener choices.Yet whilst our call to arms has been or

transormation, we are, inpractice, celebrating incrementalchanges in the spirit o increasinglydesperate optimism.

Yet although we bemoan the lack

o much-needed speed-to-scale inadvancing the sustainability agenda,scale is something we know a lotabout - in selling mobile phones, goingto war, watching the World Cup, orin catalyzing undamentalism in itsmany orms. Markets, governments,and communities in action have beensocieties three historic instruments or

achieving scale. Business, the worldsmost ashionable vehicle o changeover recent decades across richer


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Exiting the Valley o Death | 41


nations, can in quick time sell billionso packets o crisps, tens o millions o

cars and millions o handguns. I theprice is right, businesses can innovate,produce and deliver, and citizens willturn out en masse and do the rightthing, namely buy. But the logic othe business community has, to date,limited its ability to deliver sustainability-aligned products and services at scale.Todays backward-acing markets, in themain, only reward companies or doingthe right thing on the margin. Despiteexemplary businesses, innovativeproducts, technological advances andthe act that most people do care aboutother people and the planet, mostprots are still made by selling lots ostu that is produced, and then used,in environmentally unsustainable andoten socially-destructive ways.

Government and the power opublic policy

Government, ater religion, is arguablyour most venerable institution or scaledaction or the broader interest - inprinciple, at least. Most obviously, it doesmuch to dene what should not be done,set out through the rule o law. Fiscalpolicy also plays a critical role in drivingconsumer behaviour, with eed-in taris

(or their equivalent) crucial or advancingrenewables, whilst perverse ossil uelsubsidies encourage unsustainableliestyles. Governments have sot as wellas statutory and scal instruments. Thedecline in smoking throughout wealthiernations resulted rom a combination opublic education and a gradual restrictionin social space or exercising the habit.Public education, rom classrooms tobillboards, has played a major role insocialising a deeper, inter-generationalappreciation o sustainability, rom climateto waste to health management. Andgovernments are big spenders, withcontestable public procurement globallyamounting to US$4-5 trillion annually,and some have indeed moved, albeitslowly, in greening this voluminous

purchase o goods and services.

Public policy counts in achieving scale,and so enabling business to do what itdoes best in ways that are sustainabilityaligned. The nexus between businessand government is critical in shapingoptions acing citizens as consumers,voters, employees and investors. Both

together have the power to make orprevent change, complementing

mARkETS, GOVERNmENTS,

ANDCOmmUNITIESIN ACTIONHAVE

BEEN SOCIETIESTHREE

HISTORIC INSTRUmENTSfOR ACHIEVINGSCALE.


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42

each others strengths and osettingeach others weaknesses. The USsenvironmental shortalls can bedirectly attributed to the power obusinesses that benet rom the statusquo, whatever the cost. Meanwhile,Denmarks new government has cometo oce with a mandate to double thecountrys carbon emission reductiontargets to 40% by 2020 and to deliveran energy system powered largely bywind by the same date, providing a

strong domestic basis or building itsnext generation o global exporters.Similarly, the Korean governmentis driving orward with the nationsbusiness community, an integratedgreen economy with every intentiono taking global markets by storm.Brazil and China, also, are leading inshaping domestic policies to incentivise

green business, whilst simultaneouslyadvancing their immediatedevelopment agendas.

Social norms and collective action

Citizens norms o concerns andbehaviour in large part dene thedierence between nations likeDenmark and Korea, and those ailingto progress, such as the US. These arein no small part shaped by governmentsalongside business. Ater all, citizensdid not stand up and demand theinternet, they merely responded tothe increasingly persuasive oer. Yetthis closed loop is not the entire story.Germanys decision to green its powersystem was built on a deep sensibilityo its citizens towards the environment,just as others have tapped nationalsensibilities, including problematic oneslike nationalism and other aspects oidentity. At a ar smaller scale, ater all,support or air trade products rom

coee to cotton was born in Europeschurches, community centres andpolitical movements. Major events canalso be important turning points, suchas Japans recent nuclear disaster.

People, that is, citizens acting together,are our third way o racturing andseeking to replace incumbent social

norms and outcomes that are no longeracceptable. The Arab Spring in Tunisia,Egypt and elsewhere demonstratevividly that people can and do risetogether and say enough, even tothose with the destructive power andthe willingness to exercise it.

OccupyWallStreet - and its thousand

or so companion protests - show usthat people rom every walk o liewill join together, despite their huge

pEOpLEfROm EVERYwALk Of LIfE wILLJOIN TOGETHER,

DESpITE THEIR HUGE

DIffERENCES, TOCHALLENGEwHAT IS JUSTpLAIN wRONG.


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Exiting the Valley o Death | 43


dierences, to challenge what is justplain wrong. But these dramatic casesalso illustrate the potential povertyo social movements that can declareenough, but do not identiy, cohereand secure the next steps. Althoughthese unolding histories are ar romcomplete, the concern rom Cairo to the

City o London is that these catharticsocietal experiments might ail to deliverthe much-needed new economics.There is no sign that the MuslimBrotherhood is concerned with Egyptsdirty and weakened economy. Equally,there is no obvious sign that the US andUK governments are inclined to respondto OccupyWallStreets call or reorm

o the nancial sector, the liebloodor lie-taker o the real economy, withanything but platitudes or worse.

Exiting sustainabilitys valley o deathis not about public policy, businessinitiative, or citizen action it is aboutall three and their dynamic alignmentwith each other. Citizen actions that

create scaled change will be collective,not necessarily on the streets, but associal norms conrmed in bars, taxis,

workplaces and schools, and onlyin the end at the point o purchase.Shaping new social norms that underpincitizens collective action is a taskwhere businesses and governmentshave an important catalyzing role toplay. Government policies are a producto artul politics, occasionally inspired

by crisis and leadership, shaped bybusiness interests, and underpinnedby the ultimate need to satisy thepublic in all but the most despoticcases. And, nally, to achieve scale,progressive businesses will have to helpto create the political space to shapethe right enabling policies, edging toone side their resistant competitors,

and mobilising citizens support inencouraging governments to do theright thing. Only with such alignmentwill public policy play a ulsome role,opening the opportunity or us to exitsustainabilitys valley o death.


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