[Newleaf] moving ahead with the sustainability pledge

[Roger Guzowski]

Hi everyone.  Great to see so much New Leaf activity over the summer.
 
Just one quick word of caution on the sustainability pledge.
 
If you are doing the pledge as an education tool to make people aware of ways to be more sustainable at Hampshire, I would say to go forward with it.  Though I would suggest it take the form of a checklist or display table rather than a pledge.  In whatever form it takes, I think it's a great idea at orientation to make new (and returning) students aware about all of the opportunities to live more sustainably at and around Hampshire.
 
However, if you are envisioning the pledge to drive behavior change, I would suggest doing something else.  We have done a number of pledges at the other schools over the years (around Focus the Nation, Earth Day, etc.) and I would suggest that the results from a behavior change standpoint have been underwhelming at best. 
 
There are often barriers (perceived or legitimate) that prevent certain people from adopting sustainable behaviors.  My experience has been that to get sustainable behavior change, we need to identify and work on strategically removing those barriers (i.e. systematically overcoming the excuses).  A pledge can be a part of that, but my experience is that a pledge alone will not overcome those barriers, at least not for long. 
 
Here's my concern.  This is going to be one of your first activities of the year.  As such, it is not just a stand alone activity, but also something that is going to help you attract and retain new members.  As such, I think you want your early activities to be positive momentum builders.  My experience with pledges (if you are expecting them to drive behavior change - which I think is implied by the very term pledge) is that folks end up disappointed in the results.  I don't think you want your lead-off activity to be something that someone might perceive as disappointing.  I think there are other opportunities or ways to proceed with this that might help both from a results standpoint and from a membership standpoint.
 
If you're still meeting over the summer, I would love to meet with you and share some ideas for orientation and the fall semester.  
 
Roger Guzowski
Five College Recycling Manager
cell:  413-658-5558
rguzowski at fivecolleges.edu

________________________________

From: newleaf-bounces at lists.hampshire.edu on behalf of Rebecca Simone Siegel
Sent: Tue 7/5/2011 7:34 AM
To: newleaf at lists.hampshire.edu
Subject: [Newleaf] moving ahead with the sustainability pledge





Hi Folks,
I think that the first step with the sustainability pledge is to figure out
content.  I thought we could make a list of all the things it could include.
So, what do YOU think should be on it?

Here are the suggestions that we have so far:
- leave your car home and only use the zipcars and buses
-reusable mugs for coffee/tea (which also gets you a discount)
- not bringing a mini fridge
- bringing your own water bottle instead of buying bottled water
- buying used things
- turning off lights and power strips,
-biking a lot at hampshire
- using reusable bags
-keeping the heat at a reasonable level
- using cold water for laundry


-Rebecca
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