Final Blog (Wow!)

Social Marketing:

Our trayless dining campaign, as it was our first social marketing campaign, did not follow all of the steps exactly for a social marketing campaign. At the beginning, we started out with the general campaign purpose of reducing waste. To achieve this end, we chose to focus on the use of trays in the dining halls. By doing a bit of research, we found out that trays actually contribute to a great deal to food waste and use a lot of water, as well as detergents. We thought that removing trays from the two dining halls would help us reduce the waste produced by saving both food and water. Further on in the campaign, however, we learned that our dishwashing systems are not operated the same way as those of other schools. Apparently the dishwashers are run almost constantly, meaning that going trayless wouldn't actually save water. This was a shame to find out because we had thought reducing water use would be a great benefit to going trayless and had used it as one of our reasons in trying to get our peers to accept this change. I suppose this whole problem could have been avoided if we had taken a closer look at our dining halls from the get-go, but alas, we did not. This certainly shook up our campaign a bit when our opposition realized we were advocating for something with reasons that weren't completely true.

For the audience, we had decided Dining Services was our primary audience and students and the administration were our secondary audience. Although we knew Dining Services would be the final say in the removal of trays, we didn't realize at the beginning how important and necessary Dining Services would consider student support. I think we were under the impression that if we were convincing enough, that Dining Services would just take away the trays and force students to adjust. This was not the case.

We also addressed the issue of our competition. We thought our biggest competition would be athletes, who might use a lot of cups/plates, and any other students that would find going trayless to be a big inconvenience and bother, mainly freshmen and sophomores. I don't think we realized then that our competition would also be students that felt personally affronted by our move to take away their trays (about which they would write in our conservative publication...) and especially Dining Services, which would have to make a lot of adjustments to accommodate this change.

I think we were a bit more disorganized in the area of campaign objectives. I hate to say it, but I think we, me included, were overly optimistic that we would quickly be able to get rid of trays once we presented our compelling arguments to Dining Services and the student body. At one point, I know our goal was to have some trial trayless days before Thanksgiving break and to have trays completely removed by the time we got back. This did not happen. We underestimated all the work that Dining Services would have to go through to remove trays and how much positive response from students they would need to commit to this change. From the onset, we did not have the most realistic objective and we did not set out a very specific timeline to accomplish our goal. These are things we should have considered further at the beginning, as the objective is one of the most crucial parts of a social marketing campaign. It's hard to fulfill objectives when the objectives aren't fully developed.

For the marketing mix step of the campaign I think we had a lot of ideas that were never carried out. We thought a lot about the ways we could promote the behavior change of going trayless, like having signs before students got to the stacks of trays or having stickers with convincing facts on the trays or making a sort of art display with the trays. This type of advertising, however, never came to fruition. A lot of students knew about our campaign more from the facebook group we created or from word of mouth/students that complained in The Primary Source.

Our implementation plan was rocky as well. We didn't have a set plan from the onset, but the first thing we decided to do was gather the facts from other schools that had gone trayless. We then used this information as support in our facebook group, which we invited everyone we knew to. Surprisingly, this resulted in over 1200 students joining the group (and then there were the few vocal students that chose to criticize our campaign and some that addressed legitimate concerns on the wall). Based on these results, we thought we would schedule a meeting with the director of Dining Services, but who knew how hard it would be to get her in a meeting?? We were only able to score a meeting with her right before the last class, but in the meeting a few lovely students from class showed up with our very professional-looking and well-researched proposal. Apparently there were very few questions she asked to which our classmates didn't have a response, so that was positive news. Thanks to one student in our class, we've also gotten some of our Senate involved in this campaign as well. At this point I guess we're just waiting to see how Dining Services will proceed and if they'll implement our recommended trial period next semester. We still plan to have an ad hoc committee with the Senate working on this campaign for next semester, so it'll be interesting to see what they can accomplish if Dining Services still doesn't budge.

By the end of class we hadn't really thought much about an evaluation plan for our campaign considering it was about as much as we could do just to present our information to Patti. This is something that'll need to be addressed once trayless dining finally goes into effect. An ideal evaluation plan I think would involve getting the data about food waste produced during a week with trays (as in, before trayless dining is implemented) and comparing it with the data about food waste once trays are removed. If somehow the process of dishwashing is changed so that the water is not always running, it would be important to collect data on water usage as well. If the data show that there is a significant enough reduction in food waste (and possibly water waste) with the removal of trays, then we will know our campaign has been successful. Additionally, it may be important to look at how going trayless affects Dining Services' energy/water/food bills.

Psychology:

In this course I've learned a lot about behavior and the psychology of it. I don't think I ever realized before how hard it can be to change a behavior to which you've become accustomed. I've certainly learned this through the behavior challenges we did. Although I was shocked the week we did the zero waste challenge about how difficult it was to avoid producing waste, I don't think I've changed my behavior all that much in that respect. It's certainly something I need to work on, but it's also something I often neglect to think about. I have a greater awareness of this issue now, but with my own shortcomings in committing to a drastic behavior change relating to waste, I can understand how it may be difficult for some people to automatically embrace the changes I advocate. And from what I've learned in class, there really is a certain way to approach someone about changing their behaviors without preaching or making them upset. I'm still working on this one, as I tend to get very impassioned about issues and then strike!, but I realize that I would get much better results if I would approach people differently. There are ways to either put spins on things so that people accept them (appealing to their values) or to sort of convince them to do it for you (it's what good friends do!).

It seems to me that empathy has a lot to do with how you approach people about behavior change. If you can try to put yourself in their position to see why they behave as they do, it will help you to understand them rather than immediately accusing them of wrongdoing, which can turn them off completely. No one likes feeling bad because they are or aren't doing such-and-such an action, and this is something I know I need to keep in mind so that I can approach the situation differently. Perspectives are key.

Cognitive dissonance was also an important concept we talked about. Dallase, you gave me a name for that feeling which I truly detest! But I understand now that it's important to reflect when I experience this feeling so that I know why I'm feeling it. It probably means I'm acting out of line with my values, so it's really something to watch out for. (Beware of cognitive dissonance...)

Environmental Literacy:

Coming into class I definitely had an awareness of environmental issues, but I soon realized that it was rather limited. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, senior year of high school I pretty much became a champion for recycling. It wasn't until we talked about the issue in class that it came to my attention that reducing our consumption of recyclable goods should be the focus rather than simply recycling. I never realized that any of the three R's should have a greater priority than any of the others, but it certainly makes sense why reducing is better than reusing, which trumps recycling.

Additionally, the zero waste challenge and the clothing conscience activity made me think about things I had never thought about before. It was a shock to realize how much waste one person can produce in a week; I really tried that week to limit my waste production (besides the candy!) so I know that usually I produce much more waste. It was great to have a hands-on experience with waste to gain an awareness of our own contribution to what ends up in landfills. It really is the packaging that gets you.

The clothing conscience activity brought light to the issue of sweatshops and clothes miles, both of which I had never given much thought. It was sort of awful to realize just how much of all of our clothes, and mine especially, were probably made in sweatshops. The carbon footprint of my clothing was also something astounding. In the same vein, we also talked a lot in class about food miles and how it's often better to eat locally, though Scott told us of a particular instance where getting food trucked from farther away was actually better for the environment than getting it from a local farm. I felt like there were a lot of food issues we touched upon in class which I had all but ignored before. In general, I think the class helped me understand the environmental impact of some of the seemingly benign actions we carry out each day.

Critical Thinking:

Along with environmental literacy, I realized there is not necessarily an easy answer to the question of which action is more environmentally friendly, hence critical thinking. There is still a lot of debate surrounding some of the issues so it's often necessary to look into them and decide for yourself. For sources, I think that research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals is especially reliable. I also think that reputable news sources, like The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often have articles with reliable information. But it's tricky because sometimes the author of an article may be affiliated with this or that environmental agency or industry, which can reveal biases in the article. Especially with publications from environmental organizations, which may and probably do contain reliable information, there has to be concern about whether the publication takes a completely objective look at the issue or if it seems to be influenced by something else.

To determine if information sources are accurate or biased it is necessary to look not only into the authors and their affiliations, but also to look for where they got the information they are using. Do their statistics come from a governmental agency or from a company study? It is crucial to look at the funding for whichever group conducted the research as well. Is research about the environmental effects of meat production being paid for by a meat company? It is important to take all of these factors into account and to then evaluate the source for objectivity and reliability.

Community Building:

I think it’s really important to have a supportive and like-minded community to create environmental change. The challenges facing us seem much less daunting if you know there is a group of people that want to work to tackle them. There is often the feeling that one person can’t accomplish much on his/her own, so it’s encouraging to be involved with a community that shares your same ideas/values. Also, with a community there is always general discourse surrounding whatever brings you together, so it’s a great opportunity to share ideas. Additionally, I’ve found that in communities like this there may be pressure, but in a good way, to get involved; sometimes we all need that extra push to participate in things outside of school and work, which can seem difficult enough on their own.

This year I decided I wanted to get involved in creating environmental change so I joined the campus group ECO. I’ve mentioned this before, but we’ve been working on the Leadership Campaign, which aims to pass legislation in Massachusetts relating to clean energy. It’s been great working with this group because we all share a passion for the environment and so we always have ideas floating around about things we want to do. Likewise, our class served as a supportive community. I thought it was helpful to hear what everyone was doing on a personal level to be environmentally conscious. It was comforting to know that some of my peers are struggling with the same issues of how to reduce their environmental impact/how to address the environmental problems we are confronted with. Besides coming together as a class to address/discuss some environmental issues, I think we also rocked the campus boat, as Dallase would say. Now there's more of a buzz in the air (going trayless!).

I do think I will continue to shift from saying to doing. It would be hard to live a life in contention with my values, as cognitive dissonance would be a constant reminder that something wasn't right. Although I do seek to live an environmentally conscious life, I recognize that that is not easy. In fact, some behaviors are downright hard to change and even now I am somewhat reluctant to start tackling them. However, I think maintaining involvement in ECO will help keep me motivated. I also feel a personal obligation to do my part for our world and I don't see that dissipating anytime soon. For me, this class has been inspiring and our discussions have ignited many sparks in my mind about things I can do. That should keep me motivated I think.

Thank you Dallase and Tina for this class. I really enjoyed it and your enthusiasm was wonderfully contagious.

Clothing Conscience

This week, to bring attention to the issue of where and how clothing is made, we wore badges that stated how far our clothes have traveled, what percentage were made in sweatshops, and what percentage were second-hand. Although the information on my badge was a very rough estimate, it was probably more or less true. It was difficult to find out for sure which companies used sweatshops, but it's probably safe to say that the majority of my clothes were made in them. Additionally, I can't think of any item of clothing I have that was made near Boston; most were made in Vietnam and China.

I had never given much consideration at all to clothing and to where and how it's made, so this behavior challenge revealed a lot to me, but as I've learned to expect, along with awareness came frustration. Although I knew sweatshops existed and could imagine that some of my clothes were made in them, I never realized how much of my clothing probably was. Also, even though I knew of sweatshops, it's hard to connect the clothes you see in the store with the person that is actually making them, with someone that is very real and underpaid and that must suffer working in dangerous and unhealthy conditions just to produce some T-shirts, etc.
In fact, what's even more upsetting is that the workers making my clothes could be even younger than me, which is truly appalling.

To think that we as consumers so often ignore these issues of human rights is kind of ridiculous. We are so separated from the process that all we see and really consider is the final product. I would compare it to the meat people see in the supermarkets and how far removed it is from the living and breathing animal it once was. Since I adjusted my own thinking about meat to recognize that this or that steak was once an animal that probably lived a life of misery and cruelty, it's hard to bear the thought of eating it. Despite their similarities, I still had not changed the way I thought about clothing, or products in general, and it's hard to say if I have yet.
I've grown so accustomed to living a life of consumption, not necessarily tremendous, but the average (which in the U.S. is more than average) that it's hard to change your views so drastically on something you've accepted for so long. While I had to make a conscious decision to give up meat back in the eighth grade, in my opinion that's much easier to do than to give up buying products made in sweatshops, since it seems so many companies use them. I guess, as the anti-trayless people would say, it's inconvenient. I'm not sure how difficult (or how expensive) it might be to find clothes not made in sweatshops and that is produced relatively locally, which was another issue this challenge addressed--the carbon footprint of our clothes, something I had previously neglected to think about.

In any case, even with this knowledge in mind, when I went to Urban Outfitters on Friday to buy some gifts, I ended up trying some clothes on (naturally), even though I know they use sweatshops. I didn't end up buying anything, but that's more because of the fact that I shouldn't be buying clothes right before Christmas than because of how the clothes were made. Here, I think, is a perfect example of cognitive dissonance. I would have bought something from there (and honestly likely will in the future) even though I know that the way the clothes is made is not right, that by buying them, I am effectively supporting this system of unjust labor.

And what's up with that? How could someone ignore a truth like that that's just staring them in the face? It's because I know this type of thing is happening, but I don't really know. I've never seen a sweatshop or known someone that's worked in one or personally heard of people negatively affected by them. Of course I know all of this exists, but I don't think it's sunk in deep enough. But it's something I'll have to work on and struggle with. And that's what these challenges are all about I think, coming to realize a truth that should make you think differently about an accepted behavior so that you can work to change it for environmental justice, for human justice.
And to finally get to the part about other people's reactions to the badge I was wearing. Surprisingly a lot more people seemed to notice the badge than the bag of waste, probably because it was right in front of them. I had a lot of people ask what it said, but I felt like people more or less read it and then were like "oh" or something of that sort. Perhaps I should have pushed it farther, as in itself it wasn't necessarily a catalyst for discussion. Some people maybe thought the statistic that 95% of my clothing were made in sweatshops (rough estimate) was alarming, but I think it's pretty realistic, and it's realistic to think that most of their clothes were probably made in sweatshops as well. I did try to start a discussion about it the other night, but I don't think people were in the mood to talk about it then (think after midnight on Friday). I probably brought it up too awkwardly, as it's sort of difficult to casually bring up sweatshops but I do recall someone saying something to the effect of "well, at least they have jobs." And that's a sad reality to consider, to think that a job working in a sweatshop is the best that is available to some people.

I honestly still don't know a tremendous amount about sweatshops, though I get the basic idea. And while it's insufferable, to only be vaguely cognizant of this problem is not enough to cause behavioral change. Unless you really internalize it and see how it conflicts with your moral values, there's probably nothing you will change. Examining this issue frustrated me not because it's yet another thing to seriously think about, but because I've been living my life as if this issue did not exist even though I'm well aware that it does.

I was talking to a girl in my class about this challenge and she said she knew Nike used sweatshops and that it was "bad", but conceded that she "really likes Nikes." And here it is again, a testament to the fact that behavioral change is not so easy even when you know (some) facts. I think for most of us this sort of drastic behavioral change is something that almost necessitates a personal experience, because until then it's hardly real to us. And maybe we'd have to seek such an understanding out for ourselves, but it's clear that we should rock the boat on this one.

Thanksgiving: Introducing My Eco-Self to my Family

So Thanksgiving was interesting. Before we all sat down to eat, I made a little announcement introducing my eco-self. I'm fairly certain that most of my family knows that I've become increasingly interested in environmental issues, but I just put it out there again. One of my aunts immediately mentioned an idea she had had recently about human-powered gyms and then her son, my cousin, said there were already some in existence; my aunt thought there must be a way that gyms could be completely sustainable. Now I'm not sure if I had ever heard of human-powered gyms before, though it sounded somewhat familiar, but it truly is a great idea. Why not harness human energy and use it to generate electricity? My aunt also mentioned someone she knew that was building some sort of "green" building and that we should check it out.

During dinner, I brought up a few other things, or else we stumbled upon them in conversation anyway. We got to the subject of bags and my uncle was saying how first they were told to use paper bags, then they were told to use plastic to save trees, but now they're told not to use plastic either and instead to use reusable bags. For some reason, I felt he connected me with the people that are telling consumers to do this or that, as in, why can't you guys just make up your minds? Another part of his comment, I felt, was the whole aspect of, "well, you've been wrong before." I don't think this was necessarily a jab at me, though I can understand his frustration with the competing advice that's constantly doled out about how to be green.

My uncle also brought up the recent leak of emails about the UN's climate change research. For a conservative like my uncle, who I may have had reason to suspect was already skeptical of global warming, this could cement any doubt he may have had. Really, this leak could not have come at a worse time, particularly with Copenhagen just around the corner. Though I don't know much about these emails, just that they indicate there may have been some manipulation of data (though we don't know if that's true), I do know that for those already skeptical of climate change and the science surrounding it, that this could seal the deal for them. It's really upsetting to think that just the word "leak", attached to the emails pertaining to climate research, has the ability to immediately shed so much doubt on this environmental reality that we've been trying to get people to accept.

At dinner, I also talked about sleeping out with the Leadership Campaign as a show of our refusal to use dirty electricity. So that same uncle asked why I didn't sleep out every night. I'm not actually sure what I said to that, I think my aunt may have said something about how the electricity was going to be used anyway, and then there was a bit of discourse about that, but I did mention our receptive meeting with the governor. Sometimes my family gets to joking with me about my passion for the environment, but I know that they are supportive of me. I thought it was really great to have dialogue with my family about some environmental issues. Even if everyone isn't in agreement with whatever measures the environmental movement is championing, discussion at least gets people thinking. It was also interesting to get a different perspective on some of these things which I have already accepted, such as using reusable bags, but which not everyone has caught on to.

After dinner, I was hanging out with my cousins and one of them, my uncle's son, said something about how it must have been fun to get the third degree for being a hippy. And then I had to think, am I really a hippy? Yes, there are a lot of things I think we should be doing for the environment and I'm trying to do some of them, but there's so much more that I could be doing. Sometimes I think I'm too idealistic, as in, nagging my mom constantly about remembering to bring her reusable bags to the store won't end environmental destruction and won't stop climate change. There are times when, in retrospect, I realize I've been sitting on my high horse calling for my family or friends to do this or that. And I'm starting to wonder how radical I appear, because radicals get a bad rep and I don't want people to brush me off because they think I'm some left-wing extremist.

So...Thanksgiving dinner was enlightening and gave me a lot of food for thought (excuse the corny joke). But it really is something to think about, how I come across to others. My friends may joke, calling me an eco-terrorist, but there is always some truth to jokes. So maybe I'll tone it down, maybe. In any case, I know that my family, and even my friends (and my uncle, who just happens to love arguing), support me and that's great to know.

Zero Waste Challenge

Looking at my bag...well, I'm a bit ashamed. Here is what is contains: paper towel, some floss, a few pieces of toilet paper (for the runny nose), Carmel Creams wrapper, Hershey's chocolate bar wrapper, Sour Patch Kids wrapper, Milky Way wrapper (gosh, this is pathetic), a creamsicle wrapper, and a little paper cup. That's pretty much it. But first, let me say that I don't usually eat this much candy. As I explained before, the Carmel Creams were an impulse buy, then one day I got really hungry and the only food we had in our room were chocolate bars. And the Sour Patch Kids, well, my friend bought them so I thought I could get out of putting the wrapper in my bag, but because I mostly ate them they made me add it. And the Milky Way, well another impulse buy I guess. But the little paper cup--when I went to buy the cider for our potluck, there was a little old woman at a table with milk who asked if I wanted to hear about Jersey cows. Now, I mean, I wasn't particularly interested, but how can you refuse a little old woman? So I said sure, and then she asked me what kind of milk I drank and proceeded to pour me a sample of it. I swear there was nothing I could do, and then she directed me to a trash can, but I knew it was my waste to keep. Shucks!

As you can see, this whole challenge has made me feel like I need to justify all of my actions. I feel guilty looking at my bag, knowing I could have done a better job. Towards the end of the week, it seems to have become a more realistic collection of the waste I normally produce in a week (though, substitute the candy wrappers with tissues and cotton pads). In any case, as I mentioned before, waste is everywhere, it's ubiquitous. It's surprising to me how difficult it is to go through a day trying to produce as little waste as possible. It really was a challenge, and for me, the lesson was well-received. I realized just how cognizant you have to be to limit the amount of waste you produce. I'm actually kind of disgusted to think that I, one person, produced even that much waste in a week, and what's worse is that it would usually be even more than that. And I don't think I'm all that different from other people, so if we're all producing that much waste, that's a LOT of waste that going to end up in a landfill somewhere.

I was also surprised by the fact that even though I had my bag openly displayed on the back of my backpack, no one stopped me to ask what it was about. I did tell all of my friends about the challenge, and they would call me out on waste that I had produced, but other than that... I do think I caught someone staring at it from afar wondering what it was, but no one approached me about it. For me, openly displaying it served as a great deterrent to producing waste. I was especially embarrassed about the candy wrappers, but I managed to mostly conceal them behind the paper towel (is that cheating??).

This challenge was eye-opening for me. Before, I never thought about all the waste I produce. I mean, I know I use a lot of tissues but I didn't think about all of the other sources of waste. Thankfully, there is composting in the dining hall and behind Miller; those types of resources are incredibly helpful in trying to produce zero waste. I'm interested to see how the challenge went for the other students. When I met up with my group on Saturday, I saw two of the bags which contained very little--clearly people hard at work. The best way I can see for me to produce less waste, I think, is eating fewer snacks. Or buying snacks in bulk. I don't think I could be a handkerchief-user, though; my roommate described them as being "crusty rags" and my own perception of them isn't very favorable. That takes true dedication. I'll just resolve myself to use fewer tissues I think.

Quick Update on Zero Waste Challenge

So, the zero waste challenge, really not so easy...It's only Wednesday (technically Thursday morning) and I've already realized how much of a conscious effort you need to make to try to reduce the waste you produce. I literally have not used a new tissue since Monday night (kind of gross) even though I'm normally a huge tissue-user (we also ran out of tissues, but I haven't gone to buy any more). Additionally, on Tuesday I had an impulse buy at the vending machine in my dorm. After consuming my Caramel Creams, yes Caramel Creams, I realized the waste that I had created in my rash decision. Not only that, but my roommate found it hilarious that I would have to carry around a Caramel Creams wrapper in the bag all week, broadcasting to everyone that I ate that embarrassing snack--pathetic! But it certainly made me think, and then I promptly forgot at dinner tonight when I grabbed an orange creamsicle from the dining hall. Added another wrapper and a wooden stick to my bag, jeez...

You really can't let your guard down, that's something I've learned. There's packaging absolutely everywhere! We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Communication

I don't think the importance of good communication can be overstated. When thinking about communication, the swapping of information isn't the only thing that comes to mind, but also how things are relayed. For instance, two different people could give the same exact speech but the presentation of it will be the key to determining if the audience is engaged and/or excited. Of course, a monotonous tone or an overall lack of enthusiasm is no way to convey information to someone if you want them to take note. You need to be animated and show that you yourself are interested; it can even help to make hand gestures to keep the audience in tune with what you're saying. And in high school they always emphasize eye contact when giving speeches, which is exactly right. After all, it's really not all that interesting to watch someone that is looking down and reading word for word off a paper.

Now communication plays a huge role in any kind of movement, and so it does in environmental movements. Not only does communication within the group lead to cohesion and a united front, but communication to outsiders can also get them excited to join the cause if done properly. As we talked about in class, as students concerned about the environment, we can't preach to other students about the values of, say, going trayless, but we can inform them of the benefits and also try to appeal to them in other ways that will make them understand why it is important. This is something that is more difficult than it seems and which I expect we will probably struggle with. One of the most important things to do is to keep our audience in mind. If we forget that, then any communicating we do may be in vain.

On another note, I'd like to share some of what I think is an amazing piece of writing that my senior year English teacher, Mr. MacEachern, wrote when we asked him to write his own college essay (he wrote about his experience in and after college). His writings are the kind that I think always touch you in some way. Here is a brief excerpt: "So, what is my point. I don't know and I am probably not going to get into your college as a result. I am here because I happened to choose BC and my sideburns were too long and I bought a Boston Globe one day. So many things seem left to chance. But I guess it is in those chances that our life exists." To me, this is really powerful, especially coming from a person for whom I have tremendous respect. He manages to seamlessly incorporate humor into a sort of philosophical discussion. This is something that I consider good communication, because it truly affects the audience, at least it did me. The whole essay is really much better than that one excerpt (you can't get the whole picture), but nevertheless, I aspire to be able to communicate the way Mr. Mac does here.