Fairfax County established Transportation Demand Management (TDM) requirements (“proffers”) for new development that would have significant traffic impacts. For buildings within the urban centre of Tysons, trips had to be reduced between 25% and 65% during peak hours, depending on the size of the building and its proximity to the Metrorail stations. The county proffers required large new properties to annually monitor trips, conduct tenant commuting surveys, and show that they were meeting their trip reduction goals. They also had to conduct surveys every three years. Over seven years, 13 such developments generated 63% fewer trips, which was 34% beyond their goals. For the office buildings, this was likely at least partly a result of more people working from home during the COVID pandemic.
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France provides financial incentives to local travel authorities (LTAs), employers and employees to promote carpooling. It also funds the development of carpooling infrastructure, ridesharing platforms that make it much easier to carpool, and fraud prevention mechanisms. This case study covers the formative research and early implementation in Paris of France’s National Daily Carpooling Plan.
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Coolfood – World Resources Institute’s (WRI) initiative for curbing diet-related emissions – provides the food service industry with the tools and expertise to reduce emissions by 25% by 2030, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
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Smart Trips Austin encourages residents of Austin Texas, USA to take multi-modal transportation options (walk, bike, ride transit, and share rides) more often, rather than drive alone. The program focuses on personal interactions — educating individuals on their options and overcoming barriers to multi-modal travel. Smart Trips reinforces this new information using community-based programs such as learn-to-ride classes, transit instruction, and group walking activities. Initially, the program targeted residential neighbourhoods of Austin Texas; each year a different area was targeted. In 2020 the program expanded to city-wide and began to segment using a Stages of Change approach. In 2021, it started targeting residents who had recently moved to or around Austin. Smart Trips Austin averaged a participation rate of 5-10% of households contacted, a 5-10% reduction in drive-alone trips among participants (about 41,000 vehicle trips per year), and a corresponding 5-10% increase in active and shared trips. This account of the program was designated a Landmark case study in 2023, making the City of Austin one of the few governments with more than one program designation.
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The Fridge Night programme offers simple, practical solutions to help people be more resourceful with and enjoy eating the food they have at home, thereby reducing food waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Participants pledge to use up expiring perishables one evening a week for a month, and complete weekly challenges. They are sent reminders and tips. In return, they save time and money and get tools for easily planning meals with leftovers.
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According to Second Harvest, almost 60% (35.5 million metric tonnes) of food produced in Canada is wasted annually. Roughly 32% (1.2 million tonnes) is still edible. The app informs users about local food nearing its best before date, often discounted by 50% or more. While some items may only be usable for a day or two, others can last for weeks – especially if frozen or cooked. The Flashfood app enables food stores to sell food that would otherwise be thrown out, while reducing their carbon footprint. Consumers are able buy food that they would otherwise deem too expensive.
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What if you want to move away from gas and oil, but rent, are about to move, or can’t afford solar panels? If your energy supplier has not already pledged to go green, you have few options. The co-ownership of wind farms engages and makes it practical for more homeowners and renters to buy wind-generated power.
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Liftshare is a social enterprise that has worked with over 700 of the UK’s largest employers to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicle trips using carsharing, active transportation and public transit when commuting for work. With an online community of over 1 million members, it is estimated that Liftshare members have avoided the release of 300 million kg / 300,000 tonnes of commuter carbon emissions (averaging 50 million kg / 50,000 tonnes per year). In 2020, Liftshare launched Mobilityways, a sister platform that enables employers to evidence, track, plan and change their commuter emissions via a set of tools / modules that work seamlessly together.
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As climate change leads to more drought situations, it will be important to understand how to best promote water conservation. Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Water Smart Landscapes (WSL) program pays homeowners to replace their non-native, ornamental lawns with plants and landscapes that use less water because they are better adapted to their dry climate. It is one of the longest running “cash for grass” policies. Designated a Landmark case study by our climate change peer review panel in 2022.
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This innovative social marketing approach changed the energy use behaviours of low-income renters in Brisbane, Australia, through meaningful gamification. The gamified experience promoted desired behaviours and reduced undesired ones, all carefully chosen using McKenzie-Mohr's cbsm guidelines for selecting behaviors. The Reduce Your Juice program was designed to be fun, easy and impactful. On the exterior, it appears as a simple, fun and easy experience of games and gamified activities, communications, community, and rewards. However, below the surface lies a sophisticated intervention developed through the application of formative research and theory and implemented by a team of multi-disciplinary experts from the energy, social marketing, behaviour change, digital insights & technology, research, and social sectors. Designated a Landmark case study by our Building Energy peer review panel in 2022.
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Chicago was the first U.S. city to require building owners to prominently post a building’s energy performance rating, and to share that that rating with potential buyers and/or renters. While the rating system was being introduced, ComEd and Peoples Gas ran extensive complementary incentive and rebate programs that enabled building owners and managers to make energy improvements at little to no cost. Designated a Landmark case study in 2022 by our climate change peer review panel.
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What makes a great cycling city? How did the medium-sized City of Copenhagen get its citizens to cycle to work / school 49% of the time? While topography and climate are significant influencers, safety, supportive infrastructure, and promotion also played key roles. Copenhagen increased cycling by making it safer, easier, and more convenient. This case illustrates the power of piloting alternative enhancements on an ongoing basis to further reduce barriers and increase benefits, based on regular surveys, traffic data and safety data. It also features a transparent planning process - the Bicycle Account – a research, evaluation, promotion, and citizen engagement tool used every two years since 1996. Designated a Landmark case study by our Transportation peer selection panel in 2022.
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Paris is an inspiration for large cities around the world, having reduced car traffic in its core (Ile de France) from a mode share of 12.8% in 2010 to 6% in 2020. How did Paris get to be one of the cities in the world with the lowest mode share for single occupant vehicles? The city is comparatively dense and has one of the top subways in the world. But what is most striking about its transformation is the increase in cycling and walking during this period – they increased from 55.4% in 2010 to 68% in 2020. Numerous programs offered by three levels of government explicitly prioritized bicycles over cars and reduced on-street car parking to make room for bike lanes. They taxed and restricted more polluting vehicles, and gradually phased them out, while providing a conversion bonus for the purchase or lease of electric-assisted bicycles and cargo bikes. In addition, car ads had to include messages promoting greener methods of transportation, and incentives were provided for bike repairs and tune-ups. Designated a Landmark case study by our sustainable transportation peer review and selection panel in 2022.
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While many people in Germany say they would use green energy if presented with a choice, very few consumers do so. In contrast, most people have been using green energy in a few German municipalities where citizens have had to opt out for non-renewable energy supplies rather than having to opt-in to get renewable ones. This case study also illustrates the connection between green power choices and clean air / environmental health, and the value of randomized control trials (RCTs) for measuring program impacts. Designated a Landmark case study by our Building Energy peer review panel in 2022.
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About 75% of food waste goes to landfill, where it becomes one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions at 10% of total emissions. Too Good to Go turns food waste into a win-win situation for everyone, by creating jobs, generating revenue, reducing food waste, and diminishing environmental impacts. At its most basic, the app is a marketplace for surplus food. It enables you to see what extra food is likely to be available that day from nearby bakeries, stores, and restaurants - fresh food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day because it would no longer be considered fresh and salable. Using the app, you can buy a ‘magic bag’ meal for roughly one third of what you would normally pay, then pick it up at the vendor’s closing time. As of June 2022, a total of 141 million bags had been sold, eliminating 775 million lb. (about 387,500 US tons) of CO2 emissions. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 88.5 million bags were sold, eliminating the equivalent of 973.5 million pounds (about 486,800 US tons) of CO2 emissions per year.
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This scoping review examined 17 interventions for reducing road traffic accidents (RTAs) among young adults. It provides evidence that RTAs can be reduced among young adults and novice drivers using a wide range of simple interventions ranging from simulators and training to incentives.
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As global warming continues, ambient temperatures will pose an increasingly critical barrier in more and more areas to choosing walking, cycling and other active transportation modes. Accordingly, it will be important to develop and promote routes and portions of routes that will be comfortable for walking and/or cycling in hot weather.
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Meta-analyses of fifty systematic reviews found strong evidence for the effectiveness of promoting contraceptive choice and use through: motivational interviewing, contraceptive counselling, psychosocial interventions, school-based education, and interventions promoting contraceptive access, demand-generation interventions (community and facility based, financial mechanisms and mass media), and mobile phone message interventions.
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This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on improving antiretroviral adherence among HIV-infected pregnant women. The study calls for combining a device reminder with other intervention methods.
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Rather than trying to convince people that climate change is not remote, it is more effective to highlight that many people see climate change as already happening.
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This study identifies six household food waste segments: no food waste; trust in date labels; safety first; occasional wasters; overpurchasers and overpreparers; and family first. These segments differ in their sociodemographic and purchase profiles.
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This study identifies four distinct Australian consumer groups driven by different perceptions of food packaging. Although food waste is one of the largest environmental and societal issues of our day, consumers perceive packaging waste as more serious. Societal awareness of the environmental impact food waste has is clearly low and requires further work.
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Combining (1) priming for self-reflection and (2) artistic visualizations instead of graphs may mitigate political divisions in viewers perceived relevance of climate change
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Threatening climate change messaging (i.e. telling things as they are) may promote action. This study found that after repeated threatening messages, fear and intentions increased initially but plateaued at around six exposures, whereas personal issue salience and personal efficacy increased linearly.
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Drawing on a nationally representative survey (n = 1,011) conducted from April 18 to May 1, 2023, this report describes Americans' beliefs and attitudes about global warming.
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To reduce energy demand, norm interventions may be more effective for shifting behaviors, and information interventions may be more effective for promoting the avoidance of targeted behaviors. Based on a review of 584 empirical papers.
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Normative feedback in the form of multi-level reference groups can have a significant positive effect on occupants' behavior change and energy savings in shared spaces,
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This study found appliance-specific feedback to be a powerful tool to curb electricity consumption. While the largest reductions in consumption occurred when social comparisons were made with identifiable neighbors, a comparison with the average user is likely the most practical in most situations. The interventions were especially effective when targeted at high baseline users.
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Multicomponent interventions, particularly those incorporating sit-stand workstations for all participants, are effective at reducing workplace sedentary time. Based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 RCTs involving 1894 patients.
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