By Andrew Mitchell
Consultant Jim Hoggan knows that people can change their ways and bring about political change — providing you can explain what’s at stake in the clearest possible terms.
Successful examples include acid rain laws, and the international movement to ban CFCs and restore the ozone layer. Global warming has also hit a tipping point, with the majority of Canadians now ranking it a priority issue.
“But the issues of global warming and climate change are a relatively easy sell, because people can see it happening,” said Hoggan. “They don’t always understand the whole mechanism of it, but at least they’re on the same page.”
The concept of sustainability, he says, is a lot more challenging.
Hoggan gave a presentation in Whistler Saturday, Dec. 16, on Communicating Sustainability, by invitation of the Whistler Forum for Dialogue. Despite the snow more than 20 people turned out, including representatives from the municipality, Tourism Whistler, Whistler-Blackcomb, Lil’wat Nation, AWARE, and the Whistler 2020 working groups.
Hoggan has spent almost two years conducting research on the best way to communicate sustainability, on behalf of the David Suzuki Foundation’s campaign for Sustainability within a Generation, and with the funding of more than a dozen other organizations and corporate partners.
The research included working groups, 600 surveys directed towards high profile Canadians in various fields, and a wider online poll of 2,500 Canadians.
The results, presented at the Globe 2006 conference in March, were revealing: over 90 per cent of people polled believe our lifestyle is a threat to future generations, while more than eight in ten believe government should enact stricter laws and regulations to make the economy more sustainable. On the other side of the coin, many Canadians support strong laws and regulations to protect the environment but do not take any forward actions themselves, or believe other Canadians want the same things they do.
The research also shows that there is a problem with the term sustainability itself — few people are familiar with it and those that are generally define it in the same way. Other issues facing the sustainability concept are the fact that people do not trust most messages, and the decline of credibility for environmentalists, politicians and businesses. Another obstacle is that people do not change their activities until they become socially accepted, such as blue box recycling programs.
Still, finding a consensus on the issue is not impossible — more than 80 per cent of Canadians backed the idea of sustainability and ranked it as a national priority once they were given a presentation explaining it in detail.
There lies the challenge, explains Hoggan. How do you explain such a complex concept of sustainability without getting drowned out or losing the audience?
“In truth there is a disconnect between the environment and the public… that has prevented the movement from graduating into the mainstream of North America,” said Hoggan. “There is a perception among people that environmentalists wake up and think of ways to get them more concerned… with the result that people start to tune them out.
“The good news is that people were quick to back the notion of sustainability when you can give a fast overview of what you’re talking about.”
Hoggan divides public perception into four groups — atheists, heathens, the choir and the congregation. According to the survey, just two per cent of people are atheists, or people who understand the idea of sustainability but believe economic growth should be the most important driver for government. Although that’s a small percentage, Hoggan says this group has been given a disproportionately large voice in the public debate.
The heathens, representing about 16 per cent of Canadians, are not familiar with sustainability, and do not see sustainable concepts as a priority.
On the flipside, the choir — people who understand sustainability and consider it a priority — only represent about 15 per cent of survey respondents.
The biggest group, at 67 per cent, is the congregation. These are the people who would see sustainability as a priority but are not familiar with it, says Hoggan.
“The key (for sustainability) is to focus on the congregation — talking to the people who agree with you, or will never agree, will not help,” he said.
Selling sustainability to the congregation won’t be easy, but Hoggan believes that it will be possible if it can be explained and demonstrated using plain language and specific examples.
“It needs to be helpful, you need to show the benefits, and relate the concept to every day life. And we have to let Canadians know that they’re not alone in this, that the whole world is concerned by this issue and that a lot of other countries are doing things to be more sustainable. It’s hard to get people to do anything if they think other people don’t care. It has to matter.”
Hoggan pointed to an example of a hotel that used two different signs for its towel reuse program. One sign said “save the environment”, while another said “save the environment, everyone does it”. The second sign got a bigger response.
The next step for Whistler’s own sustainability strategy, Whistler 2020, is to provide people with simple ideas they can use. The municipality is putting out a column every two weeks showing people how sustainable principles can be applied to different actions, as well as leading by example by ensuring municipal decisions and purchases meet sustainable criteria.
Whistler can lead by example, says Hoggan. “Through things like the Olympics and Whistler’s position in the world, everybody will be watching to see what Whistler does.”
