How to Save the World | The Psychology & Science of Environmental Behavior

Do individual behaviors make a difference? We are often asked to take personal action to help the planet like eating less meat and riding more bikes—but many decree individual behavior as limited and naive in the face of powerful companies and governments. So, how does mass change really come about? There’s more to it than a simple individual-vs-system dichotomy. The core mechanism of how change unfolds through societies is by people — our sensitivities to groups, perceptions, trends, and imitation and the social trends that are passed from human to human that lead to bigger systems changes such as laws, taxes, technologies, and urban design, are carried on the back of human behaviors. Jan Willem Bolderdijk is an associate professor and researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He studies how small groups of people influence bigger systems with respect to sustainability and climate change. Jan's research papers here: Minority influence in climate change mitigation “How do you know someone's vegan?” They won't always tell you. An empirical test of the do-gooder's dilemma Why going green feels good How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action. Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at katiepatrick.com Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action. You might enjoy joining their communities and events. Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Thank you to Jordan, Nader, Mike, Gary, Alex, Ben, Dee, and Ian for contributing! Xx Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn Book a 90-minute idea-storming call with me: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yS92c0mg1q07ss

Are you getting sick of messages of climate doom and dystopia? There’s another way to talk about the future. In this episode, I'm chatting with Professor Joshua D. Wright on his fascinating research into the power of the “environmental imagination” and how it drives both practical behavior change as well as political action. It’s about communicating “solutions” instead of “problems” – and it makes a dramatic difference to how people respond to the information, form groups, and lead movements. The effect of thinking of an alternative world is more subtle and nuanced than it seems. I think this might be the first research investigating the effect that looking at, and thinking about, ecotopian futures has on our pro-environmental behavior. I have a hunch that this research might be part of a growing zeitgeist of people moving out of overwhelm and into empowerment and agency over the future of our planet. Find his paper here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494420306885 Sign up to my group, The Imagine Project at katiepatrick.com/imagine - we've got a group on Discord and a monthly Zoom devoted to building a movement of imagining a better world. How to Save the World is a Podcast About the Psychology of What Gets People To Take On Sustainable Behavior and Climate Action. Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to get magnitudes more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product. Sign up for Katie's free behavior and gamification design course at katiepatrick.com Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action. You might enjoy joining their communities and events. Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Thank you to Jordan, Nader, Mike, Gary, Alex, Ben, Dee, and Ian for contributing! Xx Follow on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn Book a 90-minute idea-storming call with Katie: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yS92c0mg1q07ss

What is environmental leadership? Everyone who is trying to improve the world needs to activate people to do things they have not done before – and every time you are trying to persuade people (especially many people) you are practicing the art of environmental leadership. In this episode, I go through 14 specific things you need to do in order to activate a group of people to make change happen. These techniques are based on the social science of group dynamic theory, social network analysis, social imitation, tipping points, behavioral science, and good ol' human bonding.  There are many climate and sustainability-themed groups that meet regularly to learn, talk, and network. These groups are nice, but this style of group fails at implementing the core principles that can make a group a powerful force for change.  You've probably heard that famous quote by Margaret Mead, "Never think that a small group of people can't change the world. It is in fact, the only thing that ever has." By implementing the 14 techniques in this podcast, you'll be able to step up as an environmental leader of a group (even if it's just a group of a few friends), activate other humans around you, and have the kind of influence in the world you want to have. You might be surprised at how quickly it works! I may host an environmental leadership workshop sometime soon. Send me a DM or email at kp@helloworlde.com if you like the sound of it!  Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon This podcast is supported by our friends at Earth Hacks who run environmental hackathons, Conservation X Labs who promote community-driven open tech development for conservation, and Climate Designers - a network of designers who use their creative skills for climate action. You might enjoy joining their communities and events. Sign up to katiepatrick.com for more free environmental gamification and behavior design resources. Follow me on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, and LinkedIn Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Book a 90-minute idea-storming call with Katie: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yS92c0mg1q07ss

In order to build a new world, we must first imagine what it will be. In the episode, I created a guided meditation you can use to enter a deep state of relaxation which allows you to experience different brain frequencies that bring out new creative ideas, visions, and inspiration that isn't possible while using your regular "busy" executive functioning style of thinking. Take a quiet 35 minutes of uninterrupted time to listen to this meditation. The meditation will take you through a body scan followed by a guided story that will help unlock your creative energy and shine a light on how you'll use it to transform the world.  This meditation is part of my work to launch The IMAGINE Project. Its mission is to kick off a movement to help people imagine the world we DO want (instead of worrying about the one we don't). Sign up to get a free Earth Imagination Kit at http://katiepatrick.com/imagine and get an invitation to join the community and monthly group Zoom calls. Email or DM me your thoughts, ideas, and feedback about this meditation (and the podcast in general) and time at kp@helloworlde.com - I'd love to hear from you. 

In this episode, we're chatting with Professor Jaap Ham. He's a leading cognitive scientist who researches how people respond to seeing their electricity use displayed with colored lights that glow red if you used too much electricity, or green if you are saving energy (also known as "persuasive technology" or "ambient signaling"). His research has shown that colored light is one of the most effective ways to influence people to change their behavior: red=bad, yellow=ok, green=good. Then why aren't we using colored light as a design tool to encourage more pro-environmental behavior? The evidence suggests that we should be.  Professor Ham also studies how robotic cats help people to change their energy consumption. The toy cat smiles when you use less, and frowns when you use more – evidence shows it’s a surprisingly powerful way to change behavior. Jaap Ham joined us for our first monthly Fitbit for the Planet video hangout for this episode. Sign up to join the live group calls at katiepatrick.com/fitbit. Follow Jaap Ham's research here and his LinkedIn Follow Katie Patrick Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon katiepatrick.com Twitter @katiepatrick Instagram @katiepatrickhello LinkedIn Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Thank you to Jordan, Nader, Mike, Gary, Alex, Ben, Dee, and Ian for contributing! Xx

In this episode, I talk about an important initiative by a group called Green Roofs for Healthy Cities to create a $500 million dollar fund that will be used to build and maintain new green roofs for schools across America. This bill will create thousands of green jobs, introduce thousands of children to eco-building design, and have big environmental results for energy efficiency in schools.   If we want to see biophilic eco-cities take hold, we all need to support initiatives like this that will help make hundreds of green roof projects happen.  I supported the campaign by following the prompts on this page and sending a letter to my local congressperson, https://greenroofs.org/advocacy.  I know it's easy not to fill out these kinds of political forms - but it's ALSO easy actually click it and send it - and it will make a difference. Please share this episode and share the link to the green roofs advocacy letter. Let's make these hundreds - or even thousands - of new green roofs happen! Wouldn't that be amazing to see it come true? It could change a generation. **CLICK HERE AND FILL IT OUT** - >  https://greenroofs.org/advocacy Follow Green Roofs for Healthy Cities https://twitter.com/grhcna https://www.instagram.com/grhcna/

What does your creativity have to do with saving the planet? Everything. In this bonus episode, I share a free audiobook chapter from my book, How to Save the World, called Your Creative Genius Zone. It's about how we need your vision, innovation, and your creative genius to uncover the many ideas and epic problem-solving it's going to take to genuinely build a new world. The future of the planet lies in the hands of those who can take on the long and complex quest of re-designing the future – and it's going to take every thread of creative thinking we have to get there.  Get the full audiobook from Audible https://adbl.co/32HrO2D Or the digital package PDF + MP3 files https://katiepatrick.gumroad.com/l/NTLXy

In this episode, we’re talking with Naomi Augustine-Yee about her recent work as Innovation Lead at Magic Leap. If you aren't familiar with Magic Leap, they make those headsets where you can see a visualization of augmented reality superimposed over the real world. I think she has worked on one of THE most interesting “Fitbit for the Planet” styles of technology projects. She and her team created a real-time digital twin of the city of Los Angeles. That means anyone can put on a Magic Leap headset and “see” the entire city of LA, along with the real flows of data, as they are happing in real-time – like air pollution, traffic, kilowatt-hours, and water use – all as if you were looking at the city re-created on a boardroom table.  We can also use AR to create an immersive experience of an alternative world. We can create AR experiences that visualize what a better eco-friendly futuristic world could look like in a way that is much more salient, inspiring, and impactful than a 2D picture or video might be. Check out the blog article on my Medium page to see the pictures she’s created - they are quite wonderful. Naomi joined us for our first monthly Fitbit for the Planet video hangout for this episode. Sign up to join the live group calls at katiepatrick.com/fitbit. Follow Naomi Augustine-Yee Twitter @GST_naomi LinkedIn naomiaugustine.com Follow Katie Patrick Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon katiepatrick.com Twitter @katiepatrick Instagram @katiepatrickhello LinkedIn Support the podcast Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Thank you to Jordan, Nader, Mike, Gary, Alex, Ben, Dee, and Ian for contributing! Xx

Applying game design principles to environmental change projects can lead to powerful results. Game designers practice the art of engaging players and getting them motivated and intensely focused on achieving a goal. Here is a free chapter of the audiobook version of my book, How to Save the World on game design. It's the largest chapter in my book and dives into how to apply twelve different gamification techniques to environmental programs as well as the evidence of how these techniques have succeeded in creating pro-environmental change.  Get the full audiobook from Audible https://adbl.co/32HrO2D Or the digital package PDF + MP3 files https://katiepatrick.gumroad.com/l/NTLXy

If you want to save the Earth, you need to think like a game designer.  In this episode, I sat down with Jesse Schell, author of the canonical game design textbook, The Art of Game Design, and asked him how he would go about saving the planet as a game designer. Jesse is a Distinguished Professor of Experience Design at Carnegie Mellon University and the CEO of Schell Games. Think about these qualities :  peak motivation, obsessive focus, a drive to win, life-long mastery of a complex skill, desire for epic planetary-wide quests — it all sounds like a pretty good skill set to save our real planet, right?  Manifesting these emotions listed above is the craft that game designers specialize in.  People who specialize in game design are a treasure-trove of design-thinking insight about how to get people into a state of obsessive flow, hack into human happiness, and pique the reward system of the brain. I love Jesse’s book The Art of Game Design because when I read it a few years ago, I asked myself “how would l apply all this game design thinking to climate change, plastic waste, or eating less meat”?  Reading a game design textbook through the eyes of an environmentalist opened my imagination when thinking of ideas for environmental change, in a way that nothing else really has. Jesse joined us for our monthly Fitbit for the Planet video hangout for this episode. Sign up to join the live monthly group calls at katiepatrick.com/fitbit. Read the blog article about this episode. Follow Jesse Schell Get a copy of The Art of Game Design on Amazon Jesseschell.com Twitter @jesseschell Follow Katie Patrick Get a copy of How to Save the World on Amazon katiepatrick.com Twitter @katiepatrick Instagram @katiepatrickhello LinkedIn Contribute a monthly donation at patreon.com/katiepatrick to help me continue to make these episodes possible. Book a 90-minute idea-storming call with Katie: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yS92c0mg1q07ss