Philadelphia Livable Neighborhood Program:

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Livable Neighborhood Water Stewardship
Program A Success Story in Behavior Change and
Public Participation
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The Need

• Government agencies achieved success in
  regulating pollution sources from industry.
• Next frontier in environmental protection
  daunting. EPA refers to as non point source
  pollution. Many small behaviors of individuals
  major contributor to water and air pollution
  today.
• Lang Marsh, former Oregon Director of
  Environmental Quality states Voluntary behavior
  change is the next big playing field for
  environmental improvement.

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• From a systems point of view have moved from
  first to second order change. Have picked low
  hanging fruit and must find ways to get to higher
  branches.
• Namely to empower the public to voluntarily
  change behaviors causing pollution.
• How do we develop programs that change behavior?
• Then, how do we engage people to participate in
  these programs?
• Lastly, how do we measure if the program is
  successful?

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Empowerment Institute Research and Practitioner
Experience

• 25 years research on tools for individual,
  community and organizational empowerment.
• 15 years research applied to environmental
  behavior change and public participation.
• Contracts with dozens of US and European local,
  state and federal government agencies.
• Worked with over 150,000 people and five thousand
  neighborhood-based groups in 16 countries.

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• Tools applied to address range of issues
  including non-point source water and air
  pollution, resource conservation, climate change,
  neighborhood revitalization, urban livability and
  emergency preparedness.
• One academic research study described tools as
  unsurpassed in changing behavior.
• What have we learned?
• Will describe two of our behavior change and
  public participation programs Household EcoTeam
  Program and Livable Neighborhood Water
  Stewardship Program.

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Empowerment Model

• Pathology to Vision
• Static to Organic Growth
• Awareness to Behavior Change

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Program Design History

• Social Marketing Research
• Barriers to action created design agenda
• Where do I start?
• Which are the important actions?
• How do I take the actions?
• Will it make a difference?

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Household EcoTeamProgram Methodology

• Distinct Topic Areas Garbage, Water, Energy,
  Transportation, Purchasing and Empowering Others
• Carefully crafted actions in easy-to-use recipe
  format
• Peer support group of 5 to 8 households
• Self-directed meeting guides
• Trained volunteer coach

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US AnnualizedHousehold Program Results

• 20,000 people achieved the following savings
• 40 reduction in solid waste
• 32 reduction in water
• 12 reduction in energy
• 8 reduction in VMT
• 15 reduction in CO2 emissions
• 255 financial savings

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Long Term Behavior Change

• 7 longitudinal studies university, market
  research firm and 5 cities.
• All indicated long-term behavior change.
• Two-year academic study 22 actions taken, 21
  sustained, 1 discontinued, 3 new.
• 53 of participants transferred learning to
  workplace.
• Program diffused to 16 countries with
  participation of over 120,000 people with similar
  results.

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Public Participation Delivery Platform

• Research discovered neighborhoods
• Neighbor-to-neighbor selling points
• 1. environmental improvement
• 2. neighborhood livability
• 3. community building
• Between 20 to 30 participation rate depending
  on community
• Strategy to scale up social diffusion

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Social Diffusion Research

• Early Adopters - 15
• Early Majority - 35
• Late Majority - 35
• Laggards - 15

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Progression into Water Stewardship Program

• Behavior change and public participation model
  adapted to address different environmental and
  societal needs.
• Keynoted this conference two years ago and
  discovered one such need was behavior change for
  residential NPS water pollution.
• Encouraged by EPA and several state agencies to
  adapt our behavior change model to this issue.

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• Received funding from the National Fish and
  Wildlife Foundation to develop a residential NPS
  behavior change and public participation program.
• Partnered with several local governments and non
  profits to develop a pilot for the Chesapeake Bay
  watershed.
• Established 4 research questions.

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Research Questions

• Could we build a behavior change program around
  NPS water pollution?
• Could we attract volunteer Team Leaders willing
  to apply our neighborhood recruitment strategy?
• Would they be successful in recruiting
  neighbors into a water program?
• Could we train Team Leaders to run a program
  that achieves behavior change?

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Program Design

• Workbook Program with 3 Topic Areas water
  quality, water conservation, helping out
  (empowering others, volunteering and community
  advocacy)
• Actions 10 to 12 per topic area (32 in total).
• Meeting Format Neighbors form teams of 5 to 8
  households from block and meet 4 times over 2
  months to carry out the actions they choose.

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• Lifestyle Assessment generates household
  behavior change metrics
• Team Leader Training and Coaching Volunteer Team
  Leaders taught to apply EI tools of meeting
  facilitation and coaching.
• Partner Capacity Building directly implemented
  pilot. Next step is training partners in program
  implementation and management.

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Livable Neighborhood Water Stewardship Program
Results

• The 12 neighborhood pilot teams averaged 8
  households.
• Each household on average took 10 behavior change
  actions.
• Of neighbors who came to the initial information
  meeting 94 joined.
• Overall, 43 of all neighbors invited joined the
  team.

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• A less measurable feature was the social capital
  built.
• Program participants met their neighbors and
  began acting as a community, often for the first
  time to build more socially cohesive, safer and
  healthier neighborhoods.
• They were transformed from residents to neighbors
  and neighbors to engaged citizens.

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Participant Feedback

• My neighbors responded very enthusiastically to
  the invitation to join a Water Stewardship Team
  and were ready to move into action immediately.
  Our team of 10 neighbors was very diverse, with
  renters and homeowners alike answering the call.
  
• Kate Walters, Alexandria, VA

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Participant Feedback

• We enjoyed getting to know each other better. We
  liked the individualized nature of the program,
  which encouraged us to choose the actions each of
  us wanted. We found the workbook easy to use
  because the actions were laid out step-by-step.
• Laurie Huber, Falls Church, VA

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Participant Feedback

• My neighbors joined for a wide variety of
  reasons. One because the program was so well
  laid out and fun, why wouldnt I want to join?
  Another for the support network to help her
  follow through with her water actions. Our team
  rated getting to know each other better very
  highly.
• Stacey Churchill, Fredericksburg, VA

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Partner Feedback

• "Our river conservation group has struggled for
  years to engage and motivate citizens in NPS
  control activities. The Livable Neighborhood
  Water Stewardship Program is the first tool we
  have found that really works. We believe it holds
  great promise for helping communities achieve
  quantitative NPS reductions.
• John Tippett, Executive Director,
• Friends of the Rappahannock

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Partner Feedback

• "Measuring the impact of outreach about NPS
  pollution is a challenge for local governments.
  The Water Stewardship Program allowed us to track
  exactly what changes people made in their
  lifestyle, and estimate the pollution reduction.
  It's definitely an exciting new tool for
  behavioral change. And one of its unique
  features is how much fun people have.
• Aileen Winquist, Environmental PlannerArlington
  County Dept. of Environmental Services

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A Success Story in Behavior Change and Public
Participation

• A proven empowerment methodology was successfully
  adapted to address residential non point source
  pollution resulting in measurable and significant
  behavior change and public participation.
• A new environmental ethic was successfully
  introduced a water friendly lifestyle.
• Based on need and success, government agencies
  and watershed organizations are bringing this new
  tool to their community.

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Livable Neighborhood Water Stewardship
Program Behavior Change and Public
Participation Workshop
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For Further Information

• Empowerment Institute
• PO Box 428
• Woodstock, NY 12498
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email dgershon_at_empowermentinstitute.net
• Website www.empowermentinstitute.net