One Size Does NOT Fit All: Tailoring Effective Environmental Outreach

POSTED ON August 13th, 2018 BY Nancy Roberts

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a magic brochure template? Something that we could just pour your content into and, voila! outreach campaign launched. Just stick it in the mail and all will be well. We wish effective environmental behavior change worked like that, but, unfortunately, one “size” of outreach plan, not matter how magical, does not work for all. Each situation is different and requires a custom approach that takes into account the problem, the environment (cultural, social, political, and yes, natural) and the desired and feasible solution.

The Gigantic team’s presentation at the 2018 California Resource Recovery Association Conference gave examples of outreach campaigns that provided tailored approaches to the challenge at hand. Outreach aimed at “everyone” will effectively reach no one. If you want to maximize impact, do your research and start with the best “low hanging fruit” — this will provide immediate results and data for future phases.

Choosing the Right Style for THAT Guy

Kas described our work with a concerned citizens’ coalition in Marin County with a mission of reducing the use of environmental toxins – pesticides – by county residents. The group’s call to action was to encourage the uptake of Integrated Pest Management practices (IPM) to replace toxic chemicals. IPM requires knowledge, planning, special tools, and yes, awareness to become a workable solution. Our survey indicated that the people most likely to use chemical pesticides were males who valued speed and effectiveness over safety. See the presentation below to see how we targeted THAT guy to raise awareness of this smart, if challenging, alternative.

Butting in on Cigarette Butt Litter

Meghan presented two litter-reduction case studies that highlighted the challenge when the desired environmental solution – providing a safe and easy way to dispose properly of cigarette butts – clashes with the public health solution – discouraging smoking by not providing ashtrays at transit shelters. No easy answers there!

Finding A Well-Cut Solution

Nancy presented on Gigantic’s ongoing work with the City of San Rafael to understand and address the very specific needs of a district of the city where illegal dumping had become a big and expensive problem. What at first seemed like a simple brochure need turned into a research project to understand the real barriers that this low-income, high-density community experienced when faced with what to do with a bulky item that was no longer needed.

Here is the CRRA presentation covering the above topics. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to talk about how we can custom-tailor an outreach campaign for you.