Campus

   

     

These pictures were all taken in different parts of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) campus. These are some examples of prompts that NTU use to encourage environmental friendly behaviours. The prompts come in the form of friendly reminders, stickers etc.

Importance and relevance of this green practice

Simple acts like turning off the tap or switching off air-con after use seem like almost a no-brainer. However, people still often do not bother with such “simple” environmental friendly acts. This may be due to various reasons. One – People may feel that their own individual effort is not likely to make any significant difference toward the “conservation of the environment”. Although research has shown that the main cause of pollution is organisations and not individuals (Science Daily, 2007). It is important to understand that organisations like NTU also comprise of individuals, and if each individual in an organisation plays their own part, the organisation can actually reduce their pollution significantly. Two – The inconvenience of separating one’s trash or switching off an electrical appliance far outweigh the short-term benefits.

Thoughtless acts like not turning off tap could also be attributed to the concept of “diffusion of responsibility”, whereby individuals may push their environmental responsibility to other people around them. This would then become a vicious cycle when everybody does the same. Since the bins, water and air-conditioner are all commonly shared in the school campus. These may also unfortunately result in the Tragic of the commons (TOC), which may lead to people wasting resources for fear of being disadvantaged. However, I reckon such thinking do not operate consciously. As such prompts could be useful to deter such unconscious evils.

Additionally, reminders like ‘Switch off’, ‘Use water wisely’ also provide clear instructions on how they can be more pro-environmental. As such, people will not have the excuse that they do not know how. Since these reminders are everywhere in the school compound, there is a possibility that these constant reminders will actually lead to actual internalization of the encouraged behaviours.

Other than encouraging the target behaviours like turning off tap, or switching off air-con, these prompts can also result in indirect behavioural changes. For example, the reminder in the toilet that reminds people that tap water is drinkable can lead to two indirect types of behavioural changes. One – People will buy less bottled water since the taps offer free water. This will lead to less plastic pollution. Two – Since the tap water is safe to drink, people are less likely to boil the water for safety reason. This reduces energy and electricity usage; lesser carbon footprints.

Challenges and Suggestions

Just telling people what to do is not enough, people also want and need to know the rationales. As such I reckon that the prompts can be even more effective if they include the ‘rationale or reason why people should engage in the encouraged behaviours. For example, people should also be educated that not all kinds of waste are biodegradable, therefore separating waste into plastic and paper categories will ensure that the plastic waste (non-biodegradable) can be put into other uses.

People may also not be so enthusiastic to engage in these encouraged behaviours because they do not perceive and feel any direct impact of their actions (or lack of actions) yet. It is not as if the world is going to explode if they don’t off the tap right? Even though switching the air-con does reduce the energy consumption, but it really does not benefit the person directly, immediately and significantly. This illustrates people’s temporal discounting whereby they are more driven by short term benefits.Finally, people are usually not motivated for actions when the effort, attention, inconvenience far outweighs the incentive.

There are two possible solutions to this. One – Provide rewards for pro-environmental acts. However this is not likely to be a long term solution, since it may only change one’s behaviour but not attitude (which is more important). Two – Using rules or law enforcement to make environmental behaviours mandatory. However, this may raise ethical concerns.