We all know that there are enormous changes that need to be made to protect the world as we know it. Perhaps the most difficult change that needs to be made is how we as humans behave in regard to climate change and other pressing environmental issues. Tackling this issue is something that climate change advocates and behavioral scientists alike have been scratching their heads over for years. Trying to convince humanity as a whole to make changes in their daily lives when we have all become so comfortable in our routines is like asking a pig to fly. Luckily, our incredibly talented friends at the Rare Center for Behavior & the Environment gathered nearly 400 of the smartest and most talented people they know at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. to talk about this monumental issue.
The guest lineup for this event had everyone from Harvard Professor Cass Sunstein to Saturday Night Live cast member Alex Moffat and many in between. The morning started off with a Climate Meditation led by Dr. Kate Marvel, a climate scientist from NASA and Columbia University. Following that we heard from Andrew Revkin from the National Geographic Society, Dr. Katherine Wilkinson from Drawdown and Dr. Kate Marvel on their innovative ways to identify climate solutions. Referring to human behavior, Dr. Marvel said,
“I’m a physicist, I know what happens when you heat up water, I know what happens when you heat up air. I don’t know what happens when you heat up people.”
Following Dr. Marvel was AG Saño, who introduced us to the reality of climate change and the impacts that it has had on his friends and family. AG shared with us photographs that he took of the destruction left by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. His personal story made the impact of climate change seem abruptly more real and personal. AG has since continued to make climate change refugee stories more personal through his artwork and photography.
Next up we had an incredible line up of professors, Elke Weber of Princeton, Bob Frank of Cornell, Shahzeen Attari of Indiana, and Eric Johnson of Columbia. These professors enlightened the crowd on their ideas of behavior change and introduced the audience to topics such as loss aversion, query theory, information vs motivation deficit, and the necessity for “the hard questions”. The four then participated in a mock game show entitled, “Prove It!” to which the audience then decided who the most innovative thinker was of the four contestants.
During our lunch break, we enjoyed a variety of vegan and vegetarian meal options in order to reduce the impact the event had on the planet. I had the pleasure of talking with two other students that were attending the event from Johns Hopkins University who shared with me that at other similar events they have been to, the RSVP forms they filled out specifically asked if they wanted a meal that contained meat, rather than asking if they were vegetarian/vegan. We talked about how this simple change in the way the option was presented likely heavily influenced the decisions people made. Also on our break, we chatted with local vendors and startup businesses that were attempting to change the way that people think about their impact. A small company called Don Bugito introduced us to the future of protein-packed snacks made from insects! Other cool projects included a company called Joro that is working on tracking your impact through purchases with your bank account and the Northwest Institute shared their eco-challenge materials to encourage individuals to make small changes every day to create a huge difference for the planet.
After lunch we enjoyed hearing from Opower’s Alex Laskey, Toast CEO Robert Wilson, Chris Graves from Ogilvy’s Center for Behavioral Science and Chief Behavioral Officer at Maritz Charlotte Blank about how their businesses can support behavior change through educating their employees and shifting the way they advertise. Charlotte Blank stated, “Don’t just do it, test it.” Referring to the idea that many companies have of getting stuck in the mindset that just because it didn’t work for one company doesn’t mean it won’t work for another. All of these individuals expressed the power of innovation and shaking things up!
Following these last few speakers Rare awarded hard-working individuals who have made a serious impact all across the world with the presentation of their Solution Search winners. 1 Million Women, an all women, Australia based group, focused on reducing energy consumption and Solar Sisters, a sub-Sahara African group of women focused on empowering women to become renewable energy entrepreneurs, both won monetary awards to help with furthering their projects. Rare also presented the winners of their Design Challenge which was a project in which teams competed to design a solution to promote INOVA employees using carpooling as a regular part of their commute to work. All of the projects and solutions presented were incredibly inspiring as they were really pushing back against the social norms that we so desperately need to change to make real change.
As the final presentation for the event Rare’s own president and CEO, Brett Jenks gave an eye-opening speech in which he presented seven behaviors that if just 10 percent of Americans adopted, the U.S. would make the Paris Agreement reduction in emissions goals achievable. Those goals were:
- Adopt a plant-rich diet
- Buy carbon offsets
- Contract green energy
- Don’t waste food
- Electric vehicles, buy one!
- Fly one less time
- Get engaged politically
At the beginning of his talk, Brett stated: “There is nothing you can do.” He expressed the need for collective change rather than individual change. Following this, he explained that when he says that there is nothing an individual can do, he means we cannot do it as individuals alone. He talks about the need to create communities and work together to create change. When he said just 10 percent of Americans needed to adopt these behaviors, the room was shocked. Just 10 percent of Americans is such a small number and to think that just 10 percent can make that big of a difference was incredible to think about. He ended with this, “The change is already happening, everywhere we look. Today, we’re keeping that movement going.”
The day was jam-packed with stories aimed to empower every person in attendance to make a change and inspire others to make a change. Seeing how many people across the world have committed their lives to empower individual change is something I never thought I’d see. I would highly encourage any of you reading this post to do your research on these people and these projects that I mentioned and see what you can do to help.
Check out Rare’s website for links to all of the exciting things you read about here!
