Are Workplaces the Key to Sustainable Cities?
Overview
Our accelerating climate crisis, hastened by government inaction, necessitates creative solutions. Against this backdrop, sustainable cities — powered through renewable energy sources — are emerging as a counterpoint to national passivity. Leveraging insights from behavioral science, local governments can help promote environmentally conscious behavior, conducive to the development of sustainable cities. In this endeavor, workplaces – inherent to both cities and individual’s lives and consisting of systems of social and hierarchical organization – are crucial facilitators.
Psychological barriers to individual sustainability
Despite ubiquitous sociocultural messaging about the importance of sustainability and enclaves of “green” citizens, widespread pro-environmental action remains unrealized.
Psychologically this can be explained by two cognitive mechanisms inherent in human decision-making.
Temporal discounting, the predisposition of individuals to undervalue delayed relative to present rewards, renders environmentally friendly behavior less rewarding [1]. In so far as the dire ramifications of environmental inaction seem distant, “acting [sustainably] represents a trade-off between short-term and long-term benefits,” [2] one which individuals interpret as being of limited value and subsequently do not make.
Analogously, participation in sustainable practices presents a cognitively non-linear process. Substantiated by construal level theory, the correlation between micro actions (e.g. water conservation) and macro-environmental damage (e.g. climate change) is tangential in most people’s minds. This is because ideas distant from individuals — be that temporally, spatially, socially, or psychologically — are viewed in a more abstract and detached manner [3]. Thus, on a cognitive level, we misconstrue the interrelationship between individual and collective sustainability.
Together, these cognitive mechanisms reduce the personal immediacy of our climate crisis, and therefore engagement with sustainable behavior.
References
[1] Why People Aren’t Motivated to Address Climate Change. (2018). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-to-address-climate-change
[2] Story, G., Vlaev, I., Seymour, B., Darzi, A., & Dolan, R. (2014). Does temporal discounting explain unhealthy behavior? A systematic review and reinforcement learning perspective. Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience, 8. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076
[3] Cairns, Kate & Harvey, Joan & Heidrich, Oliver. (2014). Psychological factors to motivate sustainable behaviors. Proceedings of the ICE – Urban Design and Planning. 167. 165-174. 10.1680/udap.14.00001
[4] Bossuyt, D. M., & Savini, F. (2018). Urban sustainability and political parties: Eco-development in Stockholm and Amsterdam. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(6), 1006–1026.https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654417746172
[5] New Survey Shows Urgent Demand for Employer Focus on Sustainability. (2014). Sustainable Brands.https://sustainablebrands.com/read/organizational-change/new-survey-shows-urgent-demand-for-employer-focus-on-sustainability
[6] Young, W., Davis, M., McNeill, I., Malhotra, B., Russel, R., Unsworth, K., Clegg, C. (2015). Changing Behavior: Successful Environmental Programmes in the Workplace. Business Strategy and the Environment. Bus. Strat. Env. 24, 689–703
[7] Building a sustainable future. (2019). https://www.apa.org.https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/05/cover-sustainable-future
[8] Building a sustainable future. (2019). https://www.apa.org.https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/05/cover-sustainable-future
[9] 15 ways to use behavioral science in sustainability – Landscape News. (2019). Landscape News.https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/34990/15-ways-to-use-behavioral-science-in-sustainability/
[10] Sussman, R., Chikumbo, M. (2016) Behavior Change Programs: Status and Impact. (2016). ACEEE. https://aceee.org/research-report/b1601
[11] Young, W., Davis, M., McNeill, I., Malhotra, B., Russel, R., Unsworth, K., Clegg, C. (2015). Changing Behavior: Successful Environmental Programmes in the Workplace. Business Strategy and the Environment. Bus. Strat. Env. 24, 689–703
About the Author
Rizina Yadav
Rizina is a student at Stanford University studying Public Policy and Psychology. She’s interested in global development and education, particularly how public policy and psychology can be leveraged to improve the quality of secondary and higher education. At Stanford, she’s the Editor-in-Chief of The Cutting Edge, an educational research journal.
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