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One Change encourages everyone to join 350.org’s 10:10:10 Global Work Party. From solar panels to community gardens, 350.org is encouraging people to hold events on October 10, 2010 that help reduce CO2 emissions and show world leaders that climate action can’t wait, as well as highlight the individuals, businesses and communities taking positive action to tackle climate change.

As part of 10:10:10, One Change would like to remind everyone to check their tire pressure and invite people to attend one of several fuel efficiency clinics taking place at Canadian Tire locations across Ontario. Participants will receive a free digital tire gauge making even easier to check tire pressure every month. Canadian drivers waste enough fuel each year to fill 257 Olympic size swimming pools simply because their tires are under-inflated. As part of 10:10:10, One Change has challenged its staff to make this day the day they check their car tire pressure!

We encourage you to join this celebration of solutions. Register your event at or tcktcktck.org

After successfully launching Project Porchlight in Ottawa South, the not-for-prfoit organization One Change has expanded its Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) campaign across Canada into the United States.

One Change’s newest campaign “Simple Actions Matter” focuses on fuel efficiency. Building on the success of Project Porchlight and the participation of community volunteers, free keychain tire gauges will be delivered to communities across North America. This small gesture will help to bring awareness and individual action on personal vehicle efficiency and can save you up to 5% of your annual fuel costs! A series of on-site pressure clinics and public events will roll out in the summer and autumn of 2009, with a new set of energy, automotive and retail partners and sponsors.

I was pleased to join Stuart Hickox, Executive Director of One Change to launch this worthwhile campaign at Canadian Tire at Bank and Heron.

For more information, please visit www.onechange.org or call (613) 232-5892.

* source:www.davidmcguinty.com/

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu, more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, is credited with this prophetic statement. The original Chinese script has also been translated as “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet,” but either way, the importance of this quotation for social change remains constant:

The beginning of any social change begins from an understanding of where we are, and requires us to make a simple, purposeful action.

“Psst!”

That is the loudest headline I’ve heard in a long time. It is also the key to the newest social marketing initiative of Onechange.org.

This campaign relies on the same principle espoused by Lao-Tzu and paraphrased by onechange.org:

simple actions matter.

The “Psst!” is a call to action. It is the forced whisper you hear in a library that EVERYONE hears. It gets your attention, even in print.

It is also the sound of air escaping from your tires. The escaping air means that tire pressure drops, and when your tires are under inflated, your fuel economy drops. This is an enormous environmental campaign to reduce fuel consumption that relies on the very simple action required of each of us: keep your tires inflated properly.

I should note that this campaign employs a very diverse marketing mix: from celebrity/politician endorsement, to news stories (and morning TV appearances), to billboards, to corporate partnership (Canadian Tire), to freebies (digital tire guages), public workshops, bus advertising, flyers, public speaking, and a host of other media that is visible to the driving public. Moreover, it is being tested in three Canadian markets before rolling out nationally. These folks are not marketing novices.

Invariably, there are stats that support the campaign:

If every Canadian driver checked and maintained proper tire pressure on a regular basis, each year we’d save over $600 million on fuel, cut 1.4 million tons of CO2, and prevent traffic accidents.

This organization also brought you Project Porchlight, where energy efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs have been given to homeowners DOOR TO DOOR across North America with the request that the incandescent bulbs on their porchlight could be replaced. This simple action would benefit the environment and the homeowner: less energy is used, the bulbs last longer, and the cost to the homeowner was ZERO.

Of course, this notion of taking stock of a problem, and identifying a simple action that can be taken to directly address the problem is the foundation of all meaningful social movements.

Sometimes, the simple actions are dangerous and require courage, however innocuous they may seem. Take for example, the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees because of a need for firewood grew into a movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy in Kenya.

Meaningful social change demands action, of that there is no doubt.

However, the enormous goals of societal behavior change should not be daunting. These movements often rely on very simple individual action that become infectious and affirming, and can also be in the best interests of the initiator.

I, for one, will be checking my tires.

View article as a PDF.

Social Delta
Marketing for a Better World

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