Monitor behaviour change initiatives
Successful behaviour change programs follow a common pathway. First, understand your audience, work out your strategies using a range of behaviour change tools, evaluate and review your achievements.
Use your evaluation to identify what changes are being made in your workplace, how well you are doing and what results you are achieving.
Keep track of success
Measuring relevant data on resource use such as:
- amount of total waste produced (materials recycled plus waste sent to landfill)
- how paper use per staff member has declined
- how recycled paper use has increased
- how electricity and water use has decreased.
Measuring how many people are involved in the program by recording:
- how many staff have committed to the program and how many have stayed involved over time
- the number of queries
- suggestions or ideas provided from staff
- complaints or negative feedback from staff.
Use different methods to measure your success:
- Use a staff survey to assess staff attitudes and behaviours around the environment
- Gather feedback by asking people to keep diaries, conducting interviews or focus groups, keeping minutes and notes from workshops and meetings, reviewing comments people have made.
- Measure progress with developing formal documents such as policies and agreements.
- Record progress, initiatives and achievements by taking photographs and videos.
- Interview management to gain their feedback. Find out if the initiatives were seen as cost effective, if they thought the program was well managed and their views on the activities. This will also help management to engage in the program for environmental improvement.
- Meet regularly with people in your office or your 'green team' to discuss the program and talk about ways to improve it.
Communicate your results to staff and management to show the successes the program has had and to gain support for the next phase.
