“Climate change cannot be fought from conference tables alone; it has to be fought from the dinner tables in every home.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi was right on point while sharing India’s viewpoint on how behaviour change can tackle climate change. The enormity of the ask makes climate change everybody’s business, especially for those who live in our fast-growing cities.
Given that most of those who dine on tables (read urban consumers) follow an energy-guzzling high-consumption lifestyle, it is here that change should start. There are enough studies that have routinely shown that urban carbon footprints are significantly higher than rural areas. In fact, emissions by urban Indians are as high as 16 times when compared to their rural counterparts. This disproportionate contribution in exacerbating climate calamity and adversities make urban centres the first target for focused behaviour change initiatives.
Experience has shown that local bodies can play a significant role in fostering behaviour change. Gram Panchayats played a pivotal role in the success of the Total Sanitation Campaign, making village after village Open Defecation Free. Similarly, urban bodies too can play a similar role in pushing climate-conscious behaviours of the city folks.
Today, Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) are the most local structure of the organisation in city neighbourhoods. How can the RWA nudge residents for climate-positive behaviour?
One is by leveraging social identity. The behavioural science behind this argument is that social identity gives a sense of belongingness and pride to a group and therefore the behaviour becomes associated with the identity. In the US, the ‘Don’t mess with Texas’ campaign for preventing littering in public spaces remains the most successful experiment that leveraged social identity to bring about change. The campaign was anchored in the wild and aggressive identity of Texans. To gain approval and identify with the identity, people conformed to the group’s belief of ‘no littering’.
‘Open Defecation Free’ became the coveted tag under ‘Swachh Bharat’ and the new social identity accelerated construction and toilet use by the villagers. ‘Zero Carbon’ or ‘Carbon Positive’ could similarly be the new identities that groups aspire for. Phayeng Village in Manipur was the first village to be tagged as carbon positive. Last year, Palli in Jammu became the first carbon-neutral panchayat. Learning from such successful initiatives and adaptations for replicating them in urban settings would be required. This thinking is also reflected in the mass movement envisaged under the mission Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE).
The second way can be promoting new social norms around resource conservation and sustainable practices. People evaluate their behaviours against that of the group and adapt their behaviour to conform to the group norm. Experiments have shown that mailing home energy reports to households comparing one’s energy use to that of the neighbourhood leads to reduced energy use.
Messages like “most of our guests reuse their towels” evokes social norms resulting in guests reusing towels during their hotel stay. Informing of what is commonly done or is responsible can facilitate sustainable behaviours. RWAs can foster new conservation and lifestyle norms centred around the principles of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ for nudging individuals. They can put pictures of residents engaged in sustainable practices in common and frequently used areas viz parks, highlighting it as positive behaviour, a social norm. For example, a message like “almost 75 percent of our residents take a reusable bag for shopping” can be a good nudge for reducing the use of plastic or paper bags at shops. Another one, “almost all young people take stairs to climb down”, may nudge adolescents and young adults for not using lifts in condominiums – altering a behaviour associated with higher status.
Thirdly, using important life events to usher behavioural change. It is more likely that people will act towards a goal after some kind of significant milestone. This could be a new year, marriage, birth of a child, or purchase of a new house. People may tend to rectify past mistakes and start anew when landmarks symbolise new beginnings. There is a higher probability of starting and continuing such new behaviour — exercise, diet, eating healthy, or living sustainably. RWAs can leverage these fresh starts for fostering conservation ethos amongst the residents. These could be urging residents to adopt trees equal to years of marriage on one’s anniversary or buying only five-star consumer goods when moving into a new house. Or for that matter-meatless Mondays or taking bus-to-office or joining a car-pool. A family of three — a couple with one child — gives us at least four fresh starts, three birthdays and an anniversary. The use of social media to spread the news of such change can bolster such efforts.
There already exists the architecture for engaging communities in the decentralisation of climate governance and conservation action. RWAs and the like can be urban vectors for behavioural interventions catalyzing sustainable lifestyles in the cities. However, making such institutions aware of the need to go beyond regular maintenance of the neighbourhood requires resources, incentives, and capacity building. There are already existing government schemes that could bootstrap these efforts.
Under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) incentive-based scheme, 69 RWAs and Group Housing Societies have been declared ‘Zero Waste Colonies.’ Given that more of the community means less of ‘sarkar’, it makes sense for the state to invest in the win-win outlook. The carbon-positive or carbon-neutral tag doesn’t seem to be that distant. RWAs who contribute to moving towards a truly sustainable lifestyle could be incentivised by providing a discount on municipal fees, reduced electricity tariffs for amenities provided in the neighbourhood, etc.
This will ensure that conservation conversations also take place in our drawing rooms and dining tables and take shape in terms of actions on the ground, every day.
Dharmendra Chandurkar is the Co-founder and Chief Knowledge Officer of Sambodhi Research, a multidisciplinary research organisation offering data-driven insights to national and global social development organisations. Views expressed are personal.
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