Spreading Success Beyond the Laboratory: Applying the RE-AIM Framework for Effective Environmental Communication Interventions at Scale

Abstract

The RE-AIM framework, created by Russell Glasgow and colleagues, addresses five major factors involved with sustained population-level effectiveness of public health interventions – Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance. In this article, I illustrate how the framework might be applied to the context of an environmental communication intervention, and discuss how the framework needs to be adapted to important differences between this context and the context of public health interventions. Following that, I discuss how research practices of environmental communication scholars should be changed in light of the insights given by the RE-AIM framework. Finally, I address several criticisms that might be raised by those who are skeptical that using the RE-AIM framework for environmental communication studies will be worth the effort. I conclude that all scholars interested in the applied side of environmental communication should change their perspective and research practices based on the RE-AIM framework.