New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior: Promoting Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community‐Based Social Marketing

TLDR

Sustainable behavior programs often rely on limited psychological models, and psychological insights are rarely made accessible to environmental program designers, creating obstacles to effective interventions. The article proposes community‑based social marketing as a process to make psychological knowledge relevant and accessible to environmental program designers. The authors describe community‑based social marketing and illustrate its use through two case studies of program planners implementing the approach.

Abstract

Most programs to foster sustainable behavior continue to be based upon modelsof behavior change that psychological research has found to be limited. Although psychology has much to contribute to the design of effective programs to foster sustainable behavior, little attention has been paid to ensuring that psychological knowledge is accessible to those who design environmental programs. This article presents a process, community‐based social marketing, that attempts to make psychological knowledge relevant and accessible to theseindividuals. Further, it provides two case studies in which program planners have utilized this approach to deliver their initiatives. Finally, it reflects on the obstacles that exist to incorporating psychological expertise into programs to promote sustainable behavior.