Nudge and Sustainability
Nudge theory, a concept popularized by economist Richard Thaler, has the potential to be a powerful tool for promoting sustainability. At its core, nudge theory is about understanding human behavior and using that knowledge to help people make better decisions. By designing interventions that are both subtle and effective, we can help promote sustainability and create a better world for all. The concept has been widely applied in a range of settings, from encouraging people to save more for retirement to promoting healthier eating habits. But when it comes to sustainability, the potential benefits are particularly compelling.
Now, imagine a university that wants to reduce its carbon footprint. One of the biggest challenges in achieving this goal is getting people to change their habits — from turning off lights when leaving a room to reducing the amount of paper they use. For instance, rather than simply encouraging people to use less paper, the university could provide double-sided printers as the default option, making it easier for people to reduce their paper use without even thinking about it. An interesting case study is represented by The University of Malta, which has reduced paper use by establishing a default of having students digitally submit assignments and research ethics applications.
Of course, the potential of nudge theory is not limited to universities. Businesses, governments, and other organizations could all benefit from taking a more nudge-based approach to sustainability. From encouraging people to use public transportation to promoting energy-efficient appliances, there are countless opportunities to use small interventions to promote big changes.
Make it Attractive
Over time, experts have identified four categories of nudges that can help encourage behavior change. These categories can be remembered by the acronym EAST, which stands for Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely.
“Make it Easy” and “Make it Attractive” are the most commonly used strategies to promote energy conservation. Our group has decided to focus on the latter, as we find it more compelling and better suited to the design challenge we will be working on. But what “Make it Attractive” means?
According to The little book of Green Nudges, it refers to:
“Attract attention to a sustainable option by using messaging that is personalized or relevant for your specific target audience. Make sustainable actions or infrastructure stand out with visual cues and leverage motivation by emphasizing the positives and using incentives.”
As a matter of fact, humans are more likely to adopt a behavior when it captures their attention or aligns with their motivations and beliefs. Since we have limited attention and mental capacity, we tend to be drawn towards stimuli that stand out, are engaging, and relevant to us. This could include seeing our names and being attracted to bright, contrasting colors
An interesting case study was designed in 2011 by Pelle G. Hansen and his students from Roskilde University in the streets of Copenhagen. They offered pedestrians free candies, and then counted the number of wrappers found on the street, garbage cans, side streets, and bicycle baskets. The researchers then placed green footprints leading to bins, gave out candies again, and repeated the counting exercise. The outcome was a remarkable 46% reduction in wrappers found on the streets.
Another way to get the user’s attention is to present messages in a positive frame. This is because people tend to find messages that inspire feelings of pride, fun, and humor more compelling than messages that make them feel guilty. People are also driven by desires to save money, have fun, stay healthy, and socialize.
Highlighting co-benefits and using smart incentives can also encourage behavior change. People can be motivated by financial rewards and savings, including ‘gamified’ approaches. Non-monetary incentives, such as public recognition, can also encourage sustainable behavior.
The effectiveness of this strategy is demonstrated by a remarkable research conducted in America, where people who played a game competing with others to be more sustainable consumed less energy for several months after playing the game:
“In Study 1, playing our new sustainability game significantly reduced people’s household electricity consumption six months after the game. In Study 2, playing the game led to increased self-reports of household efforts to save energy and perceived importance of sustainability. In both studies, high-energy consumers changed their environmental behaviors and attitudes the most. The research demonstrates that it is possible to induce a long-term change of habits in the sustainability domain. It also shows that neither attitude change nor conscious implementation intentions are necessary for behavior change”.
Does PoliMi use nudges?
We searched through the areas and constructions of Politecnico di Milano’s design district, Campus Bovisa Durando, to find potential applications of nudge theory. Nonetheless, we didn’t come across any practical examples that could influence the behavior patterns of individuals who visit the university.
Given the lack of institutional applications, we focused our analysis on a particular context that we personally experienced during our time at PoliMi. In fact, each of us has at least once faced the choice of taking the elevator rather than the stairs to reach the upper floors.
After carrying out a participant observation for approximately an hour and conducting several interviews, we gathered data that helped us gain insights into why students opt to use the elevator instead of the stairs.
Stakeholders and Insights
As stakeholders we selected students because, for sure, they use the university space every day and, therefore, main users of elevator and stairs. In the research we wanted to differentiate students initially between women and men, and also if they where alone or in a group.
After a first part of observation where we noticed that the most of the people prefer to use elevator instead of the stairs we moved to a participant observation.
On a sample of 62 people, 39 (63%) decided to use the elevator while 23 (37%) the stairs.
Only the 2,5% of the students took the elevator to reach the first floor.
In contrast, 97,5% to arrive at the second.
We also analized the behaviours of singles and groups and considering that the elevator did 19 trips we underlined that the 79% took it in group while the 21% by himself.
We decided to interview some student to understand the reasons why they prefer to use the elevator instead of the stairs or if there are precisely daily moments in which they prefer it, if their behaviour changes based on whether they are in a group or alone and lastly what can motivate them to choose the more sustainable choice.
We underlined 5 different insights:
- Students primarily prefer to use the elevator instead of the stairs due to their laziness. Secondary, transportation of heavy loads, such as scale models, should lead to take the elevator.
- Interviewees typically take the elevator to reach the second floor, but prefer to take the stairs when going to the first floor.
- The choice of an individual can be influenced by the group they are with. For instance, if most of the group prefers to take the stairs, then the other individuals in the group are likely to follow their lead.
- If a person is used to taking the stairs but the majority of their group wants to take the elevator, they will continue to use the stairs.
- The most important factor that motivates students to use the stairs is physical activity.
Opportunities
The absence of a nudge leaves room for various opportunities for improvement, mostly aimed at encouraging the use of stairs and reducing unnecessary lift usage. Although the energy consumption of the lift is not catastrophic, reducing its usage could result in substantial energy and cost savings over time.
As a school service for students, it is difficult to encourage reduced lift usage since the benefits are collective rather than individual. Therefore, our primary challenge is to provide a “reward” for students who choose not to use the lift when it is not necessary. The reward could take different forms, such as aesthetic, participatory, functional, or playful, in order to create engagement and indirectly encourage students to adopt more sustainable behavior.
