Behaviour change
A change in what people do, influenced by capabilities, opportunities and motivations.
Example
Reliable public transport can make a travel change easier to sustain.
The catch
Information alone cannot remove practical barriers.
In more depth
Behaviour change, explained.
Behaviour change sticks when the easy option and the low-carbon option become the same thing. Defaults, prices and convenience tend to shift habits further than leaflets, and so does a visible social norm. Households enrolled in a renewable tariff by default stay on it more often than those asked to opt in, because most people keep whatever is already set.
Changes differ in weight. One-off decisions, such as replacing a gas boiler or choosing where to live, often outweigh many small daily habits. Moral licensing can also intrude, when one green act seems to excuse a less green one later. The term covers organisations as well as individuals, so a council rewriting its procurement rules counts as behaviour change at scale.