Unlocking Greener Pastures
What brands need to know about human nature & the hidden frictions in sustainable actions.
"Arguments about climate change are really arguments about what we can think." James Bridie
The unspoken problem with climate change is that everyone struggles to get their heads round it. Like the internet or Taylor Swift's stardom, climate change is what’s known as a "hyperobject": something so vast, sprawling and surrounding that it becomes unknowable to the human mind. We are all part of it, we experience it every day and yet it is a void of understanding.
We could spend time waxing lyrical about the ways this void has been manipulated by those seeking profit from its existence, but we'll leave that to a less hopeful agency. What’s more urgent is that we admit our shortcomings and try to do something about them.
Because while climate change is a complex scientific phenomenon, it is also a human phenomenon, involving the thoughts, feelings and actions of every individual on the planet today. When brands start to consider it as a human issue with human solutions, the fog of understanding begins to clear and hope for a better future can rear its handsome head.
Mind the gap
The word ‘gap’ features remarkably often when speaking about sustainability. The ‘gap’ between what needs to happen and what is happening. The ‘gap’ between what people say they want and what they actually do. The ‘gap’ between what our sustainability clients hope to achieve and what they feel they are really able to...
These gaps result from a state of paralysis fuelled by uncertainty of how to act in line with values while trying to live sustainably.
We are all driven by different belief systems, but what unites humans is that we thrive when we are able to live and breathe our values day-to-day, even in the smallest ways; that could be tapping into the need for security by cuddling up to your cat, or realising the need for excitement by switching on a new TV series, and these become habits. However, when it comes to acting sustainably things get messy, as most people haven’t yet figured out how to translate their values into the ‘right’ behaviours, and so choose the easier route: reverting to the status quo.
A few factors to consider that lead to paralysis on the part of everyday people:
.Doom & Gloom.
A sense of pessimism surrounds climate change, with apocalyptic messages from exasperated scientists repeatedly blazoned across our screens. When combined with our instincts to cherry pick more optimistic views of reality, this is a sure-fire recipe for inaction.
.Lack of Leadership.
It's unclear to many what the best course of action is right now, other than to set distant and brittle targets. With lack of leadership at national levels, consumers are wondering who to trust.
.Greenwashing.
In a recent global study, One to Minute Midnight found that only a quarter (28%) of the public felt confidently familiar with the concept of greenwashing, which is remarkable considering the longevity of the term coined in the 1980s.
This isn’t necessarily just an issue of public education. It’s been found that strict new greenwashing laws are encouraging corporations to believe the best course of action is to step away from engaging with sustainability altogether, rather than get caught out.
We can’t afford to settle for this.
So how do we, and brands, break the paralysis and stop the gaps from growing?
Getting the people going
So, let’s talk solutions. It's clear that we need to help people feel more empowered to make positive lifestyle changes, and here is where a deep exploration of their environment matters.
We always approached the world from a human-up rather than a brand-down perspective. Let's learn how Capability, Opportunity and Motivation work together to create new behaviors.
This framework can help unpack people’s potential to adopt more sustainable habits, so let's talk about how it works.
.Capability.
Psychological and physical capacity to engage in more sustainable actions
This includes the basic knowledge and skills to carry out actions – like knowing how to set your washing machine to operate on a lower temperature, but also having the mental space to take on new behaviors.
Those with a very high Capability will pay attention to the benefits of eco-conscious activity and weigh these against the traditional behaviours they are trying to move away from.
Only 40% say they have enough headspace to think about how to behave more sustainably in daily life
The advance of technology is a big part of restricting Capability. A specific example is our lack of hands-on knowledge about the devices we use, how they're made, and what happens when we're done with them, but it's not exclusive to this category. We've become more disconnected from the stuff we use generally, and thus unable to make responsible decisions over their use, maintenance and end-of-life.
The Amsterdam-based phone manufacturer Fairphone are a great example of how this can be realized. Since their early days raising awareness for the damage created by conflict minerals in the electronics sector, this disruptive brand has prioritised supply chain transparency and proactive user education on their phones’ design, materials and inner-workings, ensuring their customers feel empowered to make repairs and care for their devices for longer. Questioning industry standars led them to win the ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Climate Action’ at the Global Mobile Awards.
.Opportunity.
How well our environment facilitates sustainable actions
Our ability to do something new is not only determined by our own faculties – it relies on conditions that empower us to do so. These can be very person-specific, such as having the disposable income available to invest in solar panels, but also more cultural, like owning solar panels becoming a desirable home aesthetic.
Restructuring people’s environment is no easy ask, but inspiration can be taken from Renault’s transformation of the hamlet of Appy into the ‘first 100% electric vehicle town in France’. By providing every household with their electric ZOE model and installing a central public charging point, Renault challenged assumptions that electric vehicles are only fit for large cities. A documentary series about the project captured how the residents of Appy – all of whom had previously objected to electric – were won over not just by the cars’ qualities, but by the physical reshaping of their town and the shared experiences that rewrote the norms of car ownership.
Only 33% say that people around them are trying to behave more sustainably in their daily lives
.Motivation.
How much energy we put towards actions
The final dimension is, arguably, the most crucial. Because let’s face it, you can be eco-aware and do absolutely nothing about it. You can also be put in the best possible position to act sustainably and choose to look the other way. For all brands' efforts to create messaging that leads to action, we know it's not easy.
In order to act, we need to energise our decision-making. This comes through relating good actions to good feelings, aligning these actions with our sense of identity and trusting in our own effectiveness at making a difference. When these all fall into place we will feel motivated to proceed, and once that Motivation becomes ingrained we can start to build long-lasting habits.
Trainline’s ‘I Came By Train’ campaign, which urged commuters to save on CO2 by pledging a journey by train rather than driving, is a great example of how to Motivate in a targeted manner. What stands out is the contemporary tone of voice the booking platform uses, with a Craig David soundtracked ad and ‘Being lit is for influencers not forests’ and one of the selection options under reasons to pledge is ‘It’s getting hot in here’. It’s an on-the-nose appeal to the cultural identity of Gen Zs and Millennials from what is typically a universal brand, aligning sustainable travel choices with this audiences’ tastes and sense of humour. The emotional connection this builds makes consumers more enthusiastic about train travel.
Only 39% say that they get a positive feeling when they behave sustainably in their daily life
Stepping back
Capability, Opportunity and Motivation are not distinct layers. They interact with each other and at their best work to create more buy-in for sustainable behaviors, and eventually habits. When rooted in deep understanding of human Values and Values lived in a category, they can lead to less paralysis and more action. This is exactly what spurs us on at One Minute to Midnight to keep digging deeper and thinking bigger about how we can rewrite business-as-usual and make the human the heartbeat of sustainable transformation.
We have offices in New York City and London, we work all over the world, and we’re growing all the time. Things are changing fast. Keep up to date on LinkedIn or drop us a line!
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