Key findings
- University College Cork installed cup washers on campus that boosted reusable cup use by 20% 🥤 Tweet
- Tongji University in China encouraged students to sort garbage and recycling using an arcade-style waste sorting machine 🕹️ Tweet
- The University of Bath logged shower durations on campus and used this data in social norm messages to reduce water waste 🚿 Tweet
The book is UNEP’s first on behavioural science and nudge theory, which focuses on human actions and how to change them, and was drafted with The Behavioural Insights Team and GRID-Arendal. It contains 40 ready-made nudges – simple measures that make it easier to make green choices – which university campuses can deploy to encourage students and staff to embrace more sustainable behaviours. Nudging can be a powerful tool at universities, especially when deployed alongside strategies like decarbonizing and divesting from fossil fuels. UNEP will be sharing insights from the publication at the World Academic Summit with leaders of some of the world’s top universities.
The Little Book of Green Nudges contains evidence-based guidance on implementing nudges, centered around techniques such as resetting default options, changing the framing of choices, and harnessing social influence. It also includes case studies of nudging interventions rolled out at universities from Thailand to Kenya, Finland and Colombia.
Examples of nudges recommended in the book include:
- Food: Using appealing descriptions for plant-based dishes, for example “spicy chickpea curry”. A study in a university cafeteria found that describing vegetables in indulgent terms resulted in 25 per cent more diners choosing them.
- Recycling: Making recycling bins eye-catching and easy to use. One study found that bins with specialized lids increased the recycling rate for beverage containers by 34 per cent.
- Waste: In cafeterias, offering smaller plates and no trays, to discourage food waste. A study conducted in a university dining hall found that going trayless led to a significant decrease in solid waste.
- Transport: Encouraging cycling by making it easier to park bicycles, while at the same time making it more of a hassle to park cars, for instance by requiring people to frequently reapply for car parking permits.
- Sharing: Setting up a system to share leftover food from meetings or events. A group of students at one university set up a food-sharing group that has prevented more than 7,000 kg of food from going to waste.
