The Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) method of outreach and education was created to produce lasting and sustainable changes in the actions people take everyday. Historically, many costly and time-intensive programs fail to drive behavior change due to only addressing economic incentives or attitude change through increased information. Many campaigns have too broad a scope with not enough focus, and with mixed results. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, the author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior-An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing, created the CBSM method to address the psychological motivations and barriers that influence people to behave differently. CBSM encourages program administrators to take a systematic, empirical approach to behavior change, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of their program dollars. CBSM uses a five-step method to effectively change a behavior. These steps include:
- Selecting Behaviors (determine a behavior which should be promoted)
- Identifying Barriers and Benefits (identify those barriers that would inhibit the selected behavior and what would motivate them to act)
- Developing Strategies (identify techniques to encourage the community to change behaviors)
- Piloting (testing social marketing strategies on a small portion of the community before implementing it on a larger scale
- Implementation and Evaluation (after the large scale implementation of the program, continue to evaluate its success)
SSDN Collaboration Project:
SSDN strives to improve the sustainability in the Southeastern U.S.. To do this, members understand that activating individuals to lead the change is essential. Therefore, any projects or programs that are developed by sustainability offices must include a plan to reach citizens, and foster a community culture that embodies sustainability. To increase their understanding on how to do just this, SSDN members participated in a collaborative project that empowered SSDN members to learn about the CBSM method, collectively create strategies, and to collectively implement CBSM projects in their communities.
Participating communities included:
- Estevan Baza, City of Oldsmar, Florida
- Wendell Hardin + Helen Peplowski, City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- Katrina Locke + Becky O’Keefe, Volusia County, Florida
- Marcus Carson, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
- Emily Barrett, Town of Cary, North Carolina
- Peter Nierengarten + Lee Porter, City of Fayetteville, Arkansas
The consulting group Action Research delivered a series of interactive webinars that provided in-depth guidance, best practices, standardized tools, and customized technical feedback to participating communities.
Read about participant campaigns and results in the FULL CASE STUDY.
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SSDN's "Get to Know your Network" Call - All SSDN members are invited to join a call to learn about SSDN and what it means to participate in a growing, active network. Members will share what you would like to learn through the network, and learn about SSDN goals, culture, and ways to plug into all that is going on in the network. Staff will also provide quick tutorials of the network online tools southeastsdn.org, usdn.org and the online newsletter. The call will close with a peer to peer discussion of what you are each striving for and wrestling with in your sustainability offices. Thursday, August 18 at 11am EST. call number = 530-881-1212, meeting ID = 581-382-689. Email Meg with any questions.
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Sustainability and Comprehensive Planning Survey - At the 2016 annual meeting in Atlanta, several SSDN members gathered to discuss the need for a greater understanding about what cities and counties are doing related to integrating sustainability, or elements of sustainability, into the comprehensive planning process and into the plans themselves. To assist with this effort, members developed a short survey to gain a better understanding of what members are currently doing related to this matter. Please spend a few minutes and take this survey - it will be open until the end of next week. Staff plans to help process this information, research other community efforts and develop this content into a case study, and potentially a work group with longer-term efforts around assisting members with these efforts.
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Webinar Series - Cities and the Transformation of the Utility Industry
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Efficient Cities Network (ECN) announce a webinar series that will address key issues facing cities as the electric utility industry undergoes profound changes in technologies, customer preferences, energy resource markets and environmental regulations. Webinar dates and topics follow (all webinars begin at 2pm CST):
August 2 - Utility industry transformation: Impacts and opportunities for cities
September 20 - City/Utility partnerships: Minneapolis case study
October 25 - Meeting climate change goals with energy efficiency
December 6 - Serving all customers with utility energy efficiency programs
To register for the first webinars, please click here. For more information please contact Dan York.
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Jobs and Opportunities
Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Newark, NJ - The City of Newark is seeking a dynamic individual to lead Newark's sustainability agenda. This opportunity is open until filled, and more information on the position and application instructions is found here.
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