06.20.12
SC Johnson in undertaking two efforts focused on closing the persistent gap between families' environmental aspirations and their everyday choices: the SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program and SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge.
The SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program is a groundbreaking research project studying how to inspire behavior change around sustainable choices.
Over the next five years, the SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program will bring together academics, environmentalists and consumers to identify what drives behavior change around a number of sustainable actions.
SC Johnson is teaming up in this effort with behavior-change experts Robert Cialdini, Ph.D, Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, and Vladas Griskevicius, Ph.D., University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor of Marketing. Insights gained will ultimately be shared with the public so that everyone can use and benefit from the findings about what motivates sustainable behaviors.
Notes Cialdini, "This study, at this scale, has never been done before and is something we can all learn from – businesses, environmentalists, academics and families, alike. We are all a part of this community, looking to revolutionize sustainable behavior so it becomes a social norm."
The Sustainable Behavior Change Program's initial research will dovetail with the SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge. The Challenge will focus on increasing curbside recycling in 50 communities across the United States. The effort will also promote local recycling activity and offer incentives to participants.
"Recycling is the most accepted of sustainable consumer behaviors, and yet the rates still have a lot of room for improvement," added Johnson.
The SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program is a groundbreaking research project studying how to inspire behavior change around sustainable choices.
The SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge, in partnership with Recyclebank, is a consumer action initiative designed to incent waste reduction in communities across the U.S. This initiative is one way SC Johnson is working toward its goal of becoming landfill neutral by eliminating or diverting 480 million pounds of waste from landfills, which is greater than its US waste footprint.
SC Johnson intends to achieve this goal by reducing its own waste through reduced product packaging, operational changes and consumer engagement.
SC Johnson intends to achieve this goal by reducing its own waste through reduced product packaging, operational changes and consumer engagement.
"We have to figure out how to make sustainable choices easier and more desirable for families. Companies need to offer responsible products and operate sustainably. But importantly, consumers also need to demand, and then choose, green options," said Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson,in a press statemnet. "We certainly don't have all the answers at SC Johnson, but we're continuously working for improvement in our own efforts, and we think we can also help gather insights and drive action that helps catalyze change."
Over the next five years, the SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program will bring together academics, environmentalists and consumers to identify what drives behavior change around a number of sustainable actions.
Overlaying consumer-action programs—the first being the SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge for waste reduction—the Sustainable Behavior Change Program will test different message techniques across communities to understand what drives behavior changes, especially around recycling, and ways to incent it.
SC Johnson is teaming up in this effort with behavior-change experts Robert Cialdini, Ph.D, Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, and Vladas Griskevicius, Ph.D., University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor of Marketing. Insights gained will ultimately be shared with the public so that everyone can use and benefit from the findings about what motivates sustainable behaviors.
Notes Cialdini, "This study, at this scale, has never been done before and is something we can all learn from – businesses, environmentalists, academics and families, alike. We are all a part of this community, looking to revolutionize sustainable behavior so it becomes a social norm."
The Sustainable Behavior Change Program's initial research will dovetail with the SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge. The Challenge will focus on increasing curbside recycling in 50 communities across the United States. The effort will also promote local recycling activity and offer incentives to participants.
"Recycling is the most accepted of sustainable consumer behaviors, and yet the rates still have a lot of room for improvement," added Johnson.
Ultimately, the SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge aims to increase consumers' recycling and contribute to the company's goal to become landfill neutral by 2016. The SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program will further the impact of this effort by gathering and analyzing research about recycling behaviors throughout the program.