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Background on the Interventions Curriculum
Background on the Interventions Curriculum
This curriculum is the culmination of many collaborative efforts at ASU over the last several years, including a Spring 2020 Course that produced 4 intervention projects to be implemented on campus. The original course was a 400/500 level cross-listed offering, drawing on students from primarily sustainability degree programs in addition to a few other backgrounds. Students worked with campus stakeholders (for example, in dining services) to develop an intervention to address a sustainable consumption challenge on campus in order to meet the campus sustainability goals. To facilitate this process, the course curriculum explored behavior change theories and intervention techniques that students could use in designing their intervention materials and procedures to promote sustainability.
Beyond the original course, this material also informed a workshop hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The workshop provided an overview of the curriculum and supported participants to initiate the development of interventions to promote sustainability on their own campuses. Though the contents of the workshop are covered throughout this course, you may be interested in exploring the workshop recording, slides, participant workbook, and chat notes. You may want to especially engage with the workbook as a way to document your evolving plans about your intervention.
Intervention Project Examples
Intervention Project Examples
The 4 projects developed through the original course are referenced throughout the modules in this course to provide examples for future learners. Students used the intervention web (see right) to iteratively design their interventions for implementation. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 the projects were not able to be implemented, however the students developed summary videos of their projects such as this. The four projects focused on the following sustainability challenges:
Reducing food waste in the union dining hall
Reducing food waste in the union dining hall
Behavioral Objective: To prompt dining hall visitors to be conscious of amount of food they take in order to reduce food waste
Target Group: Customers of a main campus dining hall, particularly those that might be picky eaters or diners in a hurry
Intervention Technique: Place signs near plates and serving stations with targeted messages that encourage mindfulness of meal selection and highlight the negative consequences of food waste in order to promote conscious selection of food and reduction of potential food waste
Increasing plant-based meal choices in the residence halls
Increasing plant-based meal choices in the residence halls
Behavioral Objective: To encourage dining hall visitors to select options from a plant-based meal station
Target Group: Visitors of a residential dining hall, typically first- and second-year students, particularly those who rarely or never select plant-based options
Intervention Technique: Active tabling intervention outside of the dining hall in which the intervention team uses dynamic social norms (supported by information pamphlets) to help dining hall visitors realize the discrepancies between their goals (eating, healthy, nutritious food) and their existing behaviors (eating non-plant-based foods that are not as healthy or nutritious) and nudge them to commit to selecting a plant-based meal option
Promoting the use of reusable cups at the union convenience store
Promoting the use of reusable cups at the union convenience store
Behavioral Objective: To support customers at a convenience market to purchase and consistently use reusable cups for beverage purchases
Target Group: Frequent visitors to the convenience market, particularly those who might forget their reusable cup but are motivated to use one
Intervention Technique: Strategically place signage that uses positive reinforcement to encourage reusable cup usage, specifically through using a coupon to receive a free cup and scanning a QR code to receive regular reminders to bring their cup when heading to campus
Encouraging composting in the union dining hall
Encouraging composting in the union dining hall
Behavioral Objective: To increase the awareness of customers of campus restaurants of compost sorting bins in dining areas and support them to use these bins
Target Group: First-year students dining at campus restaurants who choose to eat their food in the dining area
Intervention Technique: Table tents will be placed on tables in the dining area with messages that alert customers of composting options, use dynamic social norms to encourage the behavior, and provide a map to the nearest composting stations
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