Abstract
In recent years within the UK, behaviour change as a policy tool has gained popularity. Concurrently, the role of local authorities in both tackling unsustainability and reducing carbon emissions has become more prominent. This paper describes a recent study in the UK that aims to understand how local authorities are working to tackle unsustainability and encourage pro-environmental behaviour change in the population. Through interviews with local authority sustainability officers from London, this paper reviews the extent of sustainability work currently being undertaken by local authorities to assist residents transition to a more sustainable lifestyle. The study discusses key findings from the interviews, drawing on the commonalities and factors that influence local authority sustainability programmes. The key finding from these interviews is that there is a need for more robust monitoring and evaluation of local authority sustainability programmes. Robust evaluation would improve understanding of the potential contribution that local authority sustainability work could make towards addressing unsustainability and meeting national emission reduction targets. In addition, it would assist the development of the evidence-base on behaviour change interventions and their effectiveness.
Highlights
Over the past decade, the challenge of unsustainability and unsustainable consumption, and by extension climate change as one of the most important symptoms of unsustainability, has fallen increasingly on the individual as a consumer, a principal actor and a lever of change (Cohen et al 1998; Maniates 2001; Sanne 2002; Seyfang 2005; Dobson 2010; Barr et al 2011)
This paper describes a recent study in the UK that aims to understand how local authorities are working to tackle unsustainability and encourage pro-environmental behaviour change in the population
The fourth section will focus on the main finding from the interviews, that there is a lack of monitoring and evaluation of sustainability projects
Summary
The challenge of unsustainability and unsustainable consumption, and by extension climate change as one of the most important symptoms of unsustainability, has fallen increasingly on the individual as a consumer, a principal actor and a lever of change (Cohen et al 1998; Maniates 2001; Sanne 2002; Seyfang 2005; Dobson 2010; Barr et al 2011). The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted
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