Try a Different Approach
Engagement that works
Philosophy
In order to succeed in creating a Low Carbon Community, our philosophy is that every community needs a central ‘Green Hub’, an organization or department that is a recognized resource on sustainability actions specific for their community.
7 Core Characteristics stand out.
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In order to maximize the results in your community, it needs to be easy for the residents to understand not only what they can do, but how they can do it - in their local community. They need to know what the local policies are, what the local services are, which local businesses are participating, and what local resources are available to them.
They need hyper local guidance.
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Most of the transition to a low carbon community revolves around the fact that we’re going to be asking people to shift their behaviors and their habits. The study of shifting behaviors is well understood and well documented. For the Green Transition Model, we’ve adopted the MINDSPACE framework as a guide to shifting behaviors.
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Most people (there are a few exceptions), will engage in FUN activities and messages versus ‘gloom and doom’ activities/messages. Although this is a key component in the MINDSPACE framework, it is worth calling out separately as it is critical to realizing widespread engagement.
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Depending on your community, you already have 5-20% of the population that believes in and practices sustainable activities. This portion of your community is important in so many ways, but our goal is to engage the remaining 80-95%. We need EVERYONE to shift behaviors independent of their beliefs, their socioeconomic status, their age, their neighborhood, etc. Finding the motivators and the enablers that engage everyone is critical.
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Innovation requires collaboration and collaboration requires strong partnerships and relationships with other groups within the community - from local government to local businesses to local educational systems to other organizations and industry partners (i.e. utilities). Building and maintaining these relationships will allow you to expand your community engagement efforts tenfold
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Many communities already have a number of great organizations that support various sustainable activities. The challenge in most communities is that these organizations are focused on one aspect of sustainability and they act alone. The purpose of the Green Transition Model is not to recreate the wheel or to compete with any existing organization, but rather to ‘connect’ the various organizations.
From the resident’s perspective, they want one point of contact for any sustainability question that they have. Be that one point of contact - Be the ‘Hub’!
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Of course none of this is possible without a solid foundation of an organization that can sustain itself long term. By creating an organization with solid governance, a strong team, and a sustainable funding strategy, the organization can be effective for the next 2-3 decades - the time required to create a low-carbon community.
