This study was conducted by the NetBalance Foundation on behalf of EPA Victoria, amongst others.

This is a good read – a paper making the case for examining and intervening onto the ‘behavoural landscape’ rather than focusing on values alone (see Weathercocks post for a link to the counter argument).

 From abstract:

Editors’Summary: Individual behavior impacts the environment, but what impacts individual behavior? Effective laws and regulations, strong financial incentives and penalties, social pressure, and the like leave little room for personal values to influence behavior. It is only when these contextual influences are weak that personal factors are likely to play a larger role. Paul Stern therefore argues that the best way to change behavior depends on the behavior and its

context and that interventions in the context are more effective than targeting individuals directly with verbal appeals, information, or other efforts to change attitudes or beliefs. And because a variety of factors influence behavior, creative approaches involving multiple influences on behavior offer the greatest potential for change.

A bunch of interesting snippets from a newspaper report on the August 2008 (US) APAs conference on environment and behaviour.

This is a 2007 supplementary study on public water and climate change perceptions, building on the longrunning (1992) and comprehensive ‘Who Cares About the Environment’ study by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change.