Introducing behaviour changes towards sustainable food consumption

Introducing behaviour changes towards sustainable food
consumption
By Kate Power, Copenhagen Resource Institute (CRI)
3 December 2010
Key words: habits, norms and values, “make the sustainable choice the easy choice”, motivational
alliances with health
Food choices are deeply embedded in social norms, personal values, habits and aspirations;
intervening to change dietary behaviour is a difficult and controversial area. The overlap between
healthy diets and sustainable diets is a useful starting point. Social norms will need to
change if European diets are to become environmentally sustainable.
Our behaviour is motivated by a mix of social-psychological drivers (social norms, values, attitudes,
identity, habits etc) and infrastructural drivers (prices, regulations, availability, technology, advertising
etc). Changing behaviour is notoriously challenging, and changing food habits is particularly difficult,
partly because food tends to be such an emotive issue, bound up with our cultural and personal perceptions
of what a ‘normal’ diet is. Social norms do change over time, as with attitudes to drinkdriving,
or smoking; such changes in normal practices can be lead by governments, as well as being
promoted by businesses and civil society.
Which behaviour changes are needed?
Suggested key behaviour goals (Defra, 2007) are:
• a diet with less environmental impact (less meat and dairy);
• less food waste at home;
• purchasing sustainable fish;
• purchasing more seasonal and local food;
• purchasing more certified food e.g. organic.
Meat and dairy products have the biggest environmental burden, accounting for about half of all foodrelated
emissions. However, the technical abatement available today could only cut the total environmental
impact from livestock production by about 20% – in order to achieve more significant reductions
in environmental impacts, a reduction in consumption of meat and dairy is necessary (see also
KU on “Food and GHG”). It may not be possible for developed countries to reduce the impacts from
food consumption by 80%, the figure suggested by the Committee on Climate Change (2008) because
food is essential in a way that, (for example) private cars are not.
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INTRODUCING BEHAVIOUR CHANGES
Defra´s research indicates that adopting a low-impact diet is unpopular with most people, and that
reducing dairy consumption is even less popular than eating less meat; there are strong habits, values
and social norms around consuming animal products. It is easier to change people’s purchasing
habits than their diets; reducing food waste and buying more seasonal and local food is generally a
more acceptable goal than eating a low-impact diet. People are eating out more; interventions need
to address sustainable eating at restaurants as well as in the home.
How can behaviour be changed?
Consumers need more than information in order to change their behaviour – sustainable choices can
be promoted through infrastructure and pricing policies, as well as promoting social norms that make
sustainable choices normal and desirable for mainstream society.
Studying past successes in promoting sustainable behaviour (e.g. NCC and SDC 2006) shows that
green consumers on their own are rarely able to change mainstream product markets – choice editing
by regulators, retailers and manufacturers has driven the change in most cases.
Make it realistic for people to change:
• Remove barriers to sustainable behaviour: governments (and businesses) can ensure that prices
are affordable, products are easily available, and that information is simple and clear.
• Use choice-editing: the process of removing the least sustainable products from the market place,
so that consumers are left to choose from a range of more sustainable products. For example,
governments can ban damaging products or ingredients (e.g. inefficient light bulbs), or enforce
minimum standards for products (e.g. efficiency standards for washing machines); businesses can
choose to not stock the least sustainable products (e.g. fish that are listed as endangered species).
This approach ensures that the responsibility for achieving sustainable consumption is not
entirely borne by consumers.
Target groups / communities rather than individuals:
• People act, learn and change as part of their social groups rather than as individuals: changing
what is socially acceptable (e.g. by targeting workplaces, schools, etc) makes it easier for people
to adopt new behaviours.
• When acting as part of a group, people are reassured that their actions will make a difference.
• Community-based social marketing can be effective at changing behaviour, through removing
barriers to change (practical and social) and highlighting the benefits.
Target more effectively:
• Different people respond to different messengers, so a range of messengers is required e.g.
governments, businesses, charities, media.
• Using consumer segmentation models (see e.g. Defra 2008) may help with selecting appropriate
interventions for various target audiences.
• Clarify confusing issues, such as the over-focus on “food miles” (the impact of production, storage
or domestic transport may be more significant, depending on the product).
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KATE POWER, CRI
• Focus on the most significant environmental improvement that can be made: by switching between
food categories (i.e. less meat and dairy, more vegetables) rather than switching within
categories.
Policy instruments and strategies
Most existing policy focuses on efficient production, although there are some policy interventions
aimed at changing consumer behaviour:
• Certified food labelling e.g. organic; locally produced.
• Food waste campaigns e.g. “Love Food Hate Waste” in the UK.
• Sustainable fish consumption e.g. Marine Stewardship Council, an international NGO.
Key options can be promoted by all stakeholders:
• For high-impact food-categories, promote the concept of “less but better” – e.g. higher quality
meat and dairy products, consumed in lower quantities.
• Promote synergies between healthy diets and low-impact diets. This could protect profitability for
producers and retailers.
• Promote choice-editing for sustainable products e.g. sustainable fish.
Governments can influence consumer behaviour through: pricing, promoting sustainable social
norms, national / regional standards, legislation, information, leadership, regulating advertising, supporting
civil society and industry initiatives.
• Serve healthy, sustainable food throughout the public sector e.g. meals in schools, prisons, hospitals,
authority offices, events.
• Differentiated VAT e.g. higher for high-impact food, lower for eco-labelled food.
Businesses / food retailers can influence consumer choice through: pricing, availability, information
and labelling, choice-editing.
• Reducing impact of ready meals and packaged food.
• Limiting offers on high-impact food categories and perishable items.
Civil society can influence consumer behaviour through: campaigns, practical projects (e.g. community
gardens), information, standards and monitoring (e.g. Fair Trade Foundation), increasing public
acceptance of policies.
• Civil society has an important role to play in promoting new social norms that facilitate behaviour
and culture change through their campaigning work e.g. the shift towards dolphin-friendly tuna: following
an NGO-led consumer boycott of tuna products in the late 1980s, over 90% of tuna sold in
the UK is now “dolphin friendly”.
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INTRODUCING BEHAVIOUR CHANGES
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Community-based social marketing: www.cbsm.com
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