Blog

Exercise more
Find ways to connect senior management to products, and products to people. Get the CEO to walk the talk with employees and customers by taking your sustainability message into the community. At the very least, corporate leadership will gain a better understanding of the barriers you face when trying to sell stuff.

Spend more time with friends
Identify people who believe in what you are doing and let them tell your story. Authenticity is a rare currency. If you can’t find community influencers (such as faith or service club leaders, teachers or used car salesmen) who really believe in your product (and who are not your staff), think about what this means. Then change.

Eat better
It’s true. You are what you eat. Likewise, the people you include in your marketing team affect your outcome. Pick agencies that understand people. And build a genuine culture of conservation and efficiency internally by selecting creative marketing specialists who are values-driven and are not ashamed to admit it.

Spruce things up
Green is so 2007. Even the neighbors are suggesting that it’s time to rethink the color scheme or pay more attention to the very practical matter of if you have enough chairs for guests (and if they are comfortable). People want things that work well, from brands that complement their values, at a reasonable price. Period.

Avoid wildlife
Leave the polar bears alone. They may look cuddly, but even if you find yourself in the Arctic in 2012 watching the last stranded cub slip off a melting ice flow, there’s nothing you could about it, and the mother would probably kill you if you tried. So, please, disconnect the plight of the polar bear from your product. If you want good mother-child motivation, consider getting to know your customers better. They’re right in your backyard.

Take more risks
No one ever utters: “If only we had built a better web portal” on their death bed. Step outside the comfort zone of traditional marketing by working with local NGOs that can provide new person-to-person channels that can leverage good products and create content for broader, more believable traditional marketing. Real stories sell.

Stop being so negative
Scare tactics and avoidance don’t make your mother-in-law change, and they won’t with consumers. Talk about the positive things you’re doing, and be honest about the bad stuff you’re trying to change. Maybe we will love you for who you are, warts and all. PS – The public is already scared.

Turn off the TV
There’s a deep and powerful undercurrent of longing for genuine connection in communities. Redirect traditional marketing to local engagement that stimulates conversations between neighbors. Use your product as the catalyst to tangible action that people talk about among their peers.

Take a good long look in the mirror
Why are you in this business? Let’s be honest: If making money is your number one priority, this will always be obvious to most people. Therefore you can change your ways or come to terms with the fact that someone will call you and hypocrite when you say you want to save the planet. Because they will be right.

Listen to Mother
The signs are everywhere. Climate change is real. We need to do something about it. This is the year.

Print PDF

November 15, 2011
Ottawa

Good evening, everyone! I’d like to start by thanking the organizers of the Community Corporate Social Responsibility Conference, and particularly the selection panel at the Telfer School of Management at University of Ottawa for selecting One Change for this Social Innovation Enterprise Award. I’m delighted to accept this award on behalf of our volunteer boards and staff, and on behalf of the terrific sponsor of our This Blue Dot campaign, RBC Royal Bank.

As you well know, there’s a lot of negative news these days. And collectively we face huge challenges, the scale that is actually a disincentive to local action. At One Change, we fervently believe that disengagement and resignation are among the greatest threats we face as a society.

So in the midst of all this, it’s just so wonderful to be able to be part of a team that is able to bring together 1) a national corporation like RBC that has shown genuine interest in social innovation and engagement; 2) a progressive municipality like the City of Ottawa; and 3) real people, of all backgrounds, from community organizations.

By bringing these diverse groups together in a safe, positive environment, we can 1) discuss common issues; 2) make a positive experience of grassroots action possible through the sharing of simple, universal first steps; and 3) most importantly, we can strengthen community networks and create sustained momentum toward achieving so many more positive things together.

This kind of work is not possible without the support of enlightened, trusting sponsors and partners. So RBC and the City of Ottawa deserve another word of thanks. But tonight I accept this Social Innovation Enterprise award on behalf of the 15,000 One Change volunteers from Yukon to New Jersey who have given their time and energy to carrying a tangible first step and an empowering message into their communities: Simple actions matter!

Thank you.

Print PDF

It’s funny what you end up talking about at Hallowe’en parties. A friend dressed as Sasquatch sidled over to me, drink in hand, and let out a pathetic sigh – his shoulders slouched. He looked beat; I wasn’t sure if he was playing the part of the dejected man beast, or if he was truly exhausted. It was the latter. Apparently, he’d been losing a lot of sleep because of a late-night rhythmic banging he’d hear through his condo walls at all hours of night. I wasn’t sure where this was going.

My friend’s bedroom backs onto his neighbor’s laundry room. She has three kids and does her wash after midnight “to save money.” She must be tired as well because the load is always unbalanced. Hence the thump, thump, thump, thump.

Sasquatch thought he would share his tale of woe because he wanted me to know that he thought Smart Meters and time-of-use billing were really dumb. They were making him miserable and his life hairy.

Click here to read more of this article at Marketing: Green.

Print PDF

Last month’s column about community-based social marketing (CBSM) generated a lot of mail. Most people agreed that what’s needed is more innovative experimentation in the field, and that best practices for this new green marketing approach would evolve through real-life testing. I have to share one comment about my assertion that we can’t wait for perfect circumstances before running CBSM projects: “That would be like waiting for all the planets to align to help float your boat.” Nicely put.

Speaking of water, here are some other insights from the world of what we’re calling “CBSM in Practice.” We are in the second stage of a pilot program on residential water conservation. In 2010, we explored how to motivate people to fix toilet leaks. If you haven’t heard, 20% of toilets leak all the time, up to 120 gallons per day, flushing up to $250/year on a municipal water bill. In case you’re a visual thinker: In Canada, that’s like 11 minutes of Niagara Falls of wasted drinking water. Every day. We figured that since we were able to generate a very successful CFL lighting campaign (Project Porchlight) based on a promised savings of $50 over five years, these toilet stats would really resonate.

And so far, it seems to be working!

Click here to read more of this article at Marketing: Green.

Print PDF

I always feel a bit deflated when I meet someone and they ask, “How’s your bulb organization?” or refer to me to others as “The Bulb Guy.”
“You guys hand out CFL bulbs, right?”

Okay, so maybe that’s how One Change started — by getting neighbors and friends to ring doorbells and give out bulbs as a simple action to help people save money and cut pollution. And we have moved a lot of bulbs: 3.8 million so far, with the help of 14,000 volunteers in over 1,200 communities from Old Crow, Yukon, to Newark, N.J. Oh, plus 160,000 digital tire gauges and (very shortly) 40,000 water conservation kits. I’m a bit worried about becoming known as the “toilet dude.” More on this another time.

What people go on to ask after I share these statistics is, “Why do thousands of people of all backgrounds gladly volunteer to attend training sessions and wear brightly colored t-shirts to knock on doors to hand out little things?”

The answer is pretty simple and can be summed up in a comment I hear regularly at training events and volunteer appreciation parties in New Jersey.

“Thank you for letting me volunteer. It’s not often our community opens up like this. It’s great to be able to talk to my neighbors and to do something so positive.”

Click here to read more of this article at Marketing: Green.

Print PDF

September 1974 was a memorable month for me. Nixon got a pardon, everyone was talking about the price of gas, and I started school. The one-room schoolhouse across the field from my rural home in Winsloe, Prince Edward Island, had just been closed so I was among the first cohort to be loaded onto a big orange bus for the four-mile ride into Charlottetown, the capital, to the brand new consolidated school.

In addition to the remnants of intense separation anxiety I’ve irrationally re-lived every September since, I remember a few key details of that time: the itchy feel of rayon pressed against my face as a teacher consoled me with a tight hug, the sense of amazement at sparkling ceramic water fountains at kid height, and the checkerboard lawn. The lawn still teaches.

Just across the street from the school playground, a one-story red brick bungalow was surrounded by the nicest grass. It probably stood out for me because some of my neighbors still had hoof-pocked pasture for a yard, but even in this relatively prosperous downtown community, this lawn was different. It was more like a golf course, with short-cropped blue-green grass cut in perfect lines and brushed to look like a giant game surface. It defied the surrounding normal lawns in its unabashed perfection, and we kids knew without being told: stay off. Had we strayed, we would certainly have been betrayed by our own truant footprints.

In fact, over the six years I attended that elementary school, I never saw anyone on that lawn, or even attending to it. That is, until this week — 37 years later. While on vacation last week in PEI, I decided to drive my little grade-one son past his dad’s old school. Lots about the neighborhood had changed, but the checkerboard lawn was exactly the same. And there was Don Smith, treading lightly behind a behemoth brush mower. We pulled over immediately and I jumped out of the car for a chat.

Click here to read more of this article at Marketing: Green.

Print PDF

Vuntut Gwitch’in Chief Norma Kassi leaned across the table in Old Crow and looked me straight in the eye. “We are seeing extreme climate change here. Our land is burning. Our rivers are rising. And the caribou didn’t come this year.”

I had prefaced the meeting with the First Nation leader and four other council members in the high Arctic Yukon community by saying that at One Change we always try to accommodate the primary concerns of the people in communities we engage, and adapt our language accordingly. I’d listed “saving money,” “cutting energy use,” and “environment” as examples. In that order.

In an instant, I was reminded why I’d started One Change five years ago. What Chief Kassi was firmly but politely saying was, “It’s about the planet, stupid.”

Old Crow is a fly-in community of 400 on the Porcupine River, a two-hour flight north of Whitehorse, Yukon. It is the oldest consistently-inhabited community in North America, first established over 10,000 years ago when there was a land bridge across the Bering Strait.

For generations, the Vuntut Gwitch’in people have relied upon predictable patterns of weather and migration to sustain themselves and their resilient culture. It’s only in the last 60 years that electricity has been part of the community. “We kids used to jump up and flick the switch on and off when the teacher left the room,” said Gladys Netro, Executive Director of the community. “The electric light was so exciting!” I noticed a while later in the community store that basic CFL bulbs cost $26 each.

Now a bank of diesel generators out by the landing strip keep the lights on. Diesel has to be flown in to keep a town full of incandescent bulbs burning (the only bulbs people can afford). There’s a great deal of concern about pollution from diesel, but also a strong undercurrent of resentment about the lack of self sufficiency that comes with relying on this technology. And efficiency comes at a premium. Because all construction materials have to be flown in, a small three-room house can cost $250,000. Chief Kassi says the number one thing that could benefit the community is better insulation.

“We used to go to the woods to get logs to build our homes, and make clay putty to fill in the cracks. We used to stuff moss between the poles … and we were quite comfortable,” she added.

“What we need now is action and one-to-one education, particularly with the younger generation. We need to go into people’s homes and show them how to improve them. Our number one priority is to take care of the environment — to keep the land where the caribou walk and the water the fish swim in clean. Everything ties together in a circle. If there’s a community that can adapt to climate change and show others how to be self sufficient, it’s Old Crow.”

Stuart Hickox is in Yukon with other One Change staff as part of an energy efficiency listening tour sponsored by Yukon Energy and Yukon Electrical Company Limited. Findings from meetings with community leaders and people at community events will inform the development of a Yukon-wide energy conservation plan.

Print PDF

Today is World Water Day.

“Says who?” you may ask. March 22 was designated WWD by the United Nations General Assembly in 1992. Back then, there was a lot more hope that awareness-building declarations could generate change – in this case, protection of a precious (if often taken for granted) resource. Since each of us is 70% water, perhaps it’s worth taking a day to reflect and raise a glass. The sad thing is, since 1992, the state of world water has worsened. We need more than declaration days to solve this.

But before you shed a tear (waste not, want not!), there’s a lot you can do on World Water Day, and every day, to cut water use. Motivation starts with some facts. Solutions can often be simple.

• In North America, up to 25% of toilets leak. In Canada alone, that’s 1.8 billion litres of treated drinking water wasted every day. To put that in perspective, imagine you’re gazing over the railing at Niagara Falls. Now imagine standing there silently observing for 11 minutes. That’s how much drinking water is wasted every day in Canada – all through silent, leaking toilets. Find out how to diagnose and repair a leak here.
• Leaving a tap running while brushing your teeth can waste up to 10 litres per minute.
• See more tips here.

It’s wonderful to have international declarations and awareness campaigns. We may all have water in common, but North Americans waste the most. So let’s focus on that. Simple actions that anyone can take can drastically cut water use and make a critical global issue of UN importance relevant and personal at home.

If we can get everyone engaged in local actions, we have the basis for global dialogue and consensus. I’ll drink to that!

Print PDF

A timely post about “green” given today is St. Patrick’s Day…

An interesting article called ‘How green is your wallet?’ was featured this week in The Globe & Mail (a major Canadian daily). What caught my attention was the fact that green consumer behaviour is motivated by more than environment. Money and social norms also play a key role. A very exciting and promising stat was the percentage of the population (Canadian) that used low-flow shower heads in 1991 compared to 2009 – increased from 28% to 63% – that’s terrific! And those who used low-flow toilets in 1991 to 2009 went from 9% to 42% (good; not great).

All of the other statistics presented looked at changes from 2007 levels to 2009 levels; which, not surprisingly showed only nominal changes:

• lowered the thermostat over night during winter: rose from 55% to 61% from 2007 to 2099
• homes that have at least one halogen light (although the graphic was of a CFL): no change of 35% from 2007 to 2009
• drank primarily bottled water: down from 31% in 2007 to 24% in 2009 (meaning more people were drinking tap water over (plastic) bottled water

How can you compare behaviour change of water conservation (low-flow toilets and shower heads) compared over an 18 year period to the other behaviour changes listed over only a TWO year periods? Why weren’t the stats compared to 1991 levels as the baseline?

The whole point of the article was to highlight that people are driven to positive change only when there is a cash incentive or net-negative cost impact on individuals’ wallets—as illustrated by a dramatic change in behaviour from 2007 to 2009 in the use of recycled or reusable bags for grocery shopping: a sharp rise from 30% to 49%. [Most provinces in Canada started to charge for plastic grocery bags in 2009 ($0.05 per plastic bag)].

This news mirrors what One Change experiences in our community programs. We harness the power of community networks to deliver free, tangible items that people recognize have value. These items trigger an action (like changing a bulb) that changes self-perception and provides an experience that stimulates a conversation and new social norms between neighbours. We don’t ask for money from those we talk to, but people recognize that we’re helping them save. All we ask is a commitment to the action in appreciation of their time to listen. When this approach is coupled (and timed) with other programs and traditional marketing outreach programs offered by governments, utilities and others with a vested interested in the change in behaviour of their customers (to conserve energy, water or fuel)—that is when significant change can happen over a short period of time.

So, it’s not just about environment. It’s about engagement—and savings—and so much more. We can get the job done if we are sensitive to the fact that not everybody is motivated to save the planet. Saving money is ok too.

Print PDF

One Change founder and president Stuart Hickox recently visited Whitehorse to encourage Yukoners to help define the Yukon’s future energy needs by attending and voicing their input at Yukon Energy Corporation’s energy kick-off and upcoming energy charrette.

The three-day charrette is a series of consultations aimed at building consensus at a community level toward an energy plan for the Yukon. In addition to the charette planned for March 7-9 in Whitehorse, Yukon Energy Corporation will be holding a series of community workshops.

While Stuart was in the Yukon he delivered presentations to three high school classes, including a grade 11 experiential science class, to give students some background on energy in the Yukon and how important it is for them to be part of the solution by participating in the charrette and taking simple actions.

One Change applauds this tremendous opportunity for the community to help shape the future for energy in the Yukon.

Print PDF