Finalising the First Round of the weiter_wirken Project: Experts Shed Light on How CSOs Can Benefit From Behavioural Know-How

• @WWirken

What hinders people from living up to their good intentions to eat more plant-based foods, drive less or reduce waste? Questions like this are ever relevant when it comes to endorsing more sustainable lifestyles. As part of the final event of the first round of our weiter_wirken project, 50 representatives from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the scientific community discussed how findings from behavioural research can contribute to close the intention-action gap.

Dr. Heinrich Bottermann, State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) opened the event with a welcoming speech. The panel included: Prof. Dr. Christoph Harff (Hochschule Hamm-Lippstadt), Bernd Draser (Ecosign – Akademie für Gestaltung), Manfred Belle (Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Eine Welt Netz NRW e.V.) and Dr. Jacinta Kellermann (Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V.)

The expert panel addressed questions such as, how the intention-action gap occurs in the first place, what methods are available to overcome it, and what are the main challenges from the perspective of CSOs.

The second half of the event was used to deep-dive into the topics of behaviour change models and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. Dr. Konrad Götz (ISOE – Institut für sozial-ökologische Forschung) introduced the audience to the behavioural model COM-B and demonstrated how it can be applied in practise, using the example of sustainable mobility. Erik Schäffer (ISPO – Institut für Sozialforschung, Praxisberatung und Organisationsentwicklung) explained how organisations can best measure the success of their behaviour change interventions and which aspects to consider.

Are you a CSO looking to increase your positive impact toward a sustainable, fair, and inclusive future? Behaviour change knowledge might be just the right asset for that!

To keep up to date with the latest weiter_wirken news, including information about the 2022 round, make sure to sign up to our newsletter or check the weiter_wirken website.

weiter_wirken is a cooperation project between the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), ecosign / Akademie für Gestaltung and the Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

For further questions, please contact Jennifer Wiegard.