Green Path Solutions can help you design or improve workplace and community sustainability programs, with emphases on community-based social marketing, community engagement, and participatory research. Sustainability programs are most successful when there is widespread community buy-in and when messaging shows the positive outcomes of sustainable practices instead of dire warnings or threats. I can put my training in Sustainability and Behavior Change to work encouraging your community or your employees to move towards sustainable practices that will benefit them, and us all, directly. Community members respond to being treated as partners, with respect and concern for their needs. No matter how carefully designed and well-intentioned a sustainability program is, it will not be as successful without willing, informed participation.
One of the crucial steps in this process is to identify the barriers to participation, whether they are structural, behavioral, or matters of belief. I can help you identify barriers using observation, focus groups, and other techniques. Once we identify the barriers, the next step is finding the right tools to reduce or eliminate them, one by one. Helping a community overcome the barriers to participation, whether real or perceived, is essential to the success of any sustainability program. Emphasizing and enhancing the benefits of participation to community members—showing them how the program will benefit them directly—are key. Community-based social marketing, participatory research, and other community-oriented approaches bring valuable tools to this process.
Whether you need help reviewing and revising an already-existing program or designing and implementing a new one, allow my knowledge of environmental communication and sustainability program design to work for you. Consulting services can be by the hour or by the project – please contact me to discuss your program needs.