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Call for Abstracts and Proposals: 3rd Annual CMB Symposium, February 15 – 17, 2012
* * * Submission Deadline: December 5, 2011 * * *

The Garrison Institute’s Climate, Mind and Behavior Initiative invites you to submit an abstract, oral presentation proposal or poster presentation proposal to be presented at the 3rd annual Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium, Feb. 15-17, 2012. The Symposium will provide a unique opportunity to present and discuss insights from the social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences and their application to pro-environmental programs, policies, and technologies. Presentations should feature new research or innovative thinking concerning the human dimensions of energy, climate, or sustainability practices. This year’s symposium will be organized around a set of themes which are listed below.  Each theme is followed by a short list of theme-related questions.  The questions are provided to illustrate some of the underlying questions associated with each theme but are not meant to be an exhaustive list.

Please note that presenters are expected to stay for the duration of the Symposium.

Symposium Themes:

1. Strategies for Individual and Organizational Change: What do the social, behavior and cognitive sciences  tell us about strategies for changing the thinking, decision-making, and behaviors of individuals and organizations? What are the cognitive, behavioral, social, and cultural factors that create opportunities for change or that maintain the status quo? How might these ideas be applied to energy and climate issues?  Which strategies work best in residential spaces (multi-family and single family; owner occupied and rented space, etc) and which work best in commercial building spaces?  How can cities use these insights?
2. Persistence of Change: Do different types of behavior-change strategies generate more or less persistent types of behaviors? How can behaviors that result in energy/carbon savings be sustained and be built upon over time? How can those behaviors be converted to new societal norms and cultural practices?
3. Diversity and Current Practices: What are the current practices of Americans with regard to climate, energy and sustainability at home, at work, at school, elsewhere? How do these practices vary by region, state, city, climate, age, culture, income, education, political leanings, etc?
4. Nudges and Cognitive Biases: What are the cognitive biases and other barriers (such as inconvenience) that currently impede more sustainable behaviors and attitudes and what are effective ways of overcoming these in residential and commercial building space, cities, and elsewhere?
5. Climate Denial and the Politicization of Climate Change: How can we understand and address climate denial? Do we need to convince people that climate change is occurring in order to address it? How can we understand the politicization of climate change? Why has belief in scientific evidence of climate change declined even as the evidence that it is occurring mounts?
6. Communications and Information: What are the best ways of framing the messages that we are trying to communicate? How might framing vary across population segments and what are the best framing strategies for different types of behaviors? Who are trusted sources of information for different audiences? What are the most effective messages for different audiences? When does information actually shift behaviors rather than simply changing attitudes? Which media are most effective when the goal is to change behaviors rather than attitudes? What are the best communications strategies for cities, and building owners, operators and managers?
7. Knowledge, Myths and Misperceptions about Sustainable Practices: What do people believe about the direct and indirect impacts of their behavior, from energy consumption to food purchasing? How does knowledge influence practices? Is there a gap and does it vary by practice?
8. Attitudes, Opinions and Beliefs about Climate Change: What do Americans currently think about climate change? What makes for a climate citizen versus a climate skeptic? How do attitudes vary across diverse segments of the population? To what degree do we need to change people’s attitudes and thinking to address climate change?
9. Policy: What policies have influenced the actions of utilities, developers, service providers, cities, manufacturers, consumers, to facilitate climate solutions, and how? What social and environmental policies and/or financial instruments need to be in place to motivate positive choice and long term behavior change?
10. Historical Examples: What can we learn from historical efforts at creating social change? What has been successful and why? What is applicable to issues of sustainability?
11. The Connection between Well-being and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: What is the relationship between pro-social behavior and pro-environmental behavior? Does increasing connectedness to nature and shifting away from a material orientation relate to an increase in subjective well-being and happiness (and concurrently a decrease in carbon use?)
12. Consumer Culture: How do we shift toward more sustainable behaviors in a consumer society? What are the societal factors that influence consumptive behavior? How can small budget environmental campaigns compete against large budget advertizing campaigns to consume unnecessary products?
13. Sustainability Practices and Opportunities in Commercial and Multi-family Residential Buildings: What are the energy use practices and savings opportunities in commercial buildings and multi-family residential buildings? How does it vary across different types of commercial buildings and within the same type of building? What are the unique challenges posed by different owner/occupant relationships? How are energy use cultures different in small commercial buildings versus large commercial buildings? How much savings are associated with occupant behavior versus operator behavior versus technologies? What are important dimensions of organizational culture that can be reshaped to facilitate change?
14. Evaluation and Measurement: How can we better quantify, track and evaluate behavior change programs?
15. Size and Scale of Potential Savings: How large and how fast can behavior-based approaches generate energy/carbon savings and other measures of sustainability?
16. Inflection Points: What are the most important inflection points- Points in times and contexts in which results are more likely to be achieved (i.e. people may be more receptive when they are moving or remodeling)?
17. Positive Deviance: What can we learn from lead user and human factors work to inform positive deviance and behavior change strategies? Does the positive deviance approach change behaviors only, or does it also have broader impacts on attitudes and values?
18. Relationship between Attitudes and Practices: What is the relationship between attitudes and practices? How does this relationship vary depending on the behaviors that are in question? When is there a gap and when isn’t there a gap? How can we account for the gap when it exists?
19. Sense of Place: How does “sense of place” figure into CMB’s work? Should urban/suburban/rural populations be approached differently to conserve energy? Or is region-specific climate change impact information more important?
20. Picture of a Sustainable Society: What does a successful transition to a more sustainable society look like? What are the most important behaviors that will be changed? How might the picture of a sustainable society vary across regions and across different segments of the population? What would the “mix” look like? What will people’s lives look like in a sustainable society?
21. The Relationship between Technology and Behavior and Rebound: How can the benefits of technological changes be optimized through the use of complementary behavior change approaches? How do behavioral approaches affect/reduce rebound effects.

 

Symposium Information:

The Symposium is intended to be an interdisciplinary forum of researchers focused on developing a scientifically-rooted understanding of the social, behavioral and cognitive determinants of energy-related practices, policies, and decision-making. Presentation proposals can include quantitative and qualitative research and can be rooted in theory-driven or practice-driven approaches to understanding.  Proposals will be evaluated based on their ability to lend innovative ideas and insights concerning: current patterns of behaviors and their causes, strategies for shifting current practices, and mechanisms for creating a larger cultural transition toward a more sustainable society.

Agenda:

The Symposium will include four different types of sessions: plenary talks, panel presentations, concurrent breakout sessions and poster presentation sessions. Please indicate with your submission which type of session you are targeting.

Audience:

There will be approximately 100 people attending the CMB Symposium. All presenters are expected to stay for the duration of the Symposium. Symposium participants will include researchers, public leaders and policymakers, prominent journalists, funders, and environmental practitioners.

Symposium Rates:

$250 for presenters (includes room, board and program fee)

$350 for non-presenters (includes room, board and program fee)

 

Submission Information:

Please click here to submit your abstract/proposal.

Deadline: December 5, 2011

 

The Garrison Institute | 14 Mary’s Way, Route 9D, Garrison, New York 10524
Tel. 845.424.4800 | climatechange@garrisoninstitute.org