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.
No comments:
Post a Comment