Journey 1.5

 This is a project I worked on over the span of a four-week summer programme called Climate-KIC, sponsored by the EIT. It was a group project. My teammates included: Martijn Backer, Tikshala Gothankar and Agnieszka Rzepczyńska. As a group we wanted to focus on behavioural change and the power collective action can have.

Our solution was an app that would calculate an individual’s carbon footprint, connect neighbors/friends/family to each other and allow them to take part in challenges together. Another aspect of the app would give individuals a platform to directly voice their concerns and suggest ideas concerning the climate to their municipality.

We chose to focus the project on the municipality of Amersfoort in the Netherlands. It was chosen in particular due to its size (150,000 inhabitants) and for its open attitude towards climate change mitigation and adaptation action that it has displayed over the last decade.

The illustration above shows a summary of the stakeholders and other elements as well as the interactions between them. It shows the individual (citizen of Amersfoort) and the spheres of influence that (s)he belongs to. The individual decides on its consumption on a daily basis, without having a clear insight into the decisions that people around make, the aim of the project would be to make people feel connected and see that small individual lifestyle changes when made by a group can have a considerable impact.

The municipality is another major stakeholder. The municipality has the challenging ambition (obligation) to take meaningful action regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation. Meanwhile, it depends on the approval of its residents to successfully implement changes.

Local providers of consumer products and services are the third major group of actors involved in this system. They depend on consumer demand and are therefore assumed to base their strategy on this demand. In other words, they may want to exclusively offer sustainable products but have little opportunity to do so if there is no demand for them.

The objective of our project is to bring these three challenges together, in order to tackle them.

Our solution consists of an information campaign aimed at citizens of the municipality. The citizens would be provided with an app (depicted above) that shows them their current carbon footprint and suggests ways to reduce this. It distinguishes itself from similar applications, through a set of unique features, mainly: a gamification element, promotion of collective action, and the possibility of direct communication with the municipality.

Information dissemination
Informing people about the environmental impacts of their purchases is an important step in shifting the consumer behaviour towards sustainability. Therefore, an important part of this project consists of providing citizens with clear and engaging information on the environmental impact of products and services they choose to use.

Personalisation
Focusing on one particular locality will help us provide our users with personalized suggestions. This involves suggestions like buying local products, reach destinations using more climate-neutral transport modes, etc. To keep users motivated, without giving up on their favourites, we provide challenges specific to the sectors that users can manage to reduce their carbon footprint in. For example, if culturally it may take a lot of effort to switch to a vegetarian diet, the user can prioritize lifestyle changes regarding their transport use over changing gastronomical habits.

Building Trust
It is indeed important to instil an individual’s trust in us and in the information provided. Municipalities Collaborating with municipalities has the added advantage of gaining authoritative support when reaching out to the neighbourhood households. Being endorsed by the local municipalities will help individuals believe in the credibility of our solutions. Validating our research and disseminating well-grounded facts will not misinform users. This would be accomplished by our strong network of renowned research organizations.

Gamification
Keeping people motivated is key to ensuring consistent and long-lasting sustainable behaviour. This aspect will entail users to set their challenges corresponding to their prioritized theme. The users will be able to challenge their friends/relatives and neighbours through games, thus contesting with each other to identify the most carbon-neutral citizen. This will help with community development.

Consultancy network
Consultancy points will be available throughout the city, where citizens can ask specific or personalised questions and ask for guidance in making the right choices. These consultancy points will also be a place where feedback for the municipality is collected (e.g. for new cycling paths, waste management changes, etc.).