Engaging the Public in Resource Management

Twenty four local authority officers attended Integrated Skills latest webinar featuring as our main presenter Trewin Restorick, founder and CEO of the award-winning charity Hubbub UK (www.hubbub.org.uk) which transforms the way environmental messages are communicated by bringing people and organisations together as a force for good.

Hubbub’s quirky and innovative campaigns are cleverly thought-through in order to encourage the public to ask their own questions and are creatively delivered using the tools of 21st century marketeers.

View Trewin’s presentation here.

The Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy will demand a step-change in public behaviour. For local authorities, where recycling performance has levelled off in recent years and resources for waste education are stretched, attendees heard how local authorities can engage with the public in creative, cost-effective ways?

Stuart Henshaw also presented Integrated Skills’ Bin2Day Smartphone app and discussed how engaging the public is a key element of improving service quality.

View Stuart’s Presentation here.

 

 

Q&A with Trewin Restorick

Q.1 What challenges do you face in getting your message over in the face of public apathy?

Our campaigns are informed by what is of interest and importance to people.  This often means that we don’t focus on an environmental message as we have found that this is a better way to overcome apathy and lack of interest.

Q.2 How do you and your clients evaluate and measure the success of your initiatives?

We have a theory of change model that is used for all our evaluation.  This measures changes in values, behaviour and actions as well as wider impact such as engagement on social media/with key stakeholders/etc.  We usually work with an external evaluation agency who take this model and create an evaluation framework that is appropriate for the campaign we are delivering.

Q.3 Do you feel that by starting with ‘easy to recycle’ initiatives (e.g. cup bins) you can influence individual’s behaviour to the more ‘high effort’ initiatives (e.g. beach clean ups, engagement in community projects etc.)?

Any change to behaviour is difficult so I don’t think there are any ‘easy to recycle’ initiatives.  Any campaign has to be carefully constructed using proven behaviour change techniques, strong design and compelling communications.

Q.4 Have you found that engagement in initiatives is higher across certain age bands or socio-economic groups?

Our campaigns using different techniques to address different audiences and age groups.  Unfortunately there isn’t a one size fits all.

Q.5 Gandhi (which other waste management events do you get to mention Gandhi?) recognised that the key to his success in changing public  (and political) opinion was making his events/marches/campaigns newsworthy. To what extent do you aim to get to the individual  versus designing a campaign which will attract media attention?

Media attention is important (particularly social media) as it is indicative as to whether the campaign is gaining traction, a positive response and engagement.  Obviously any media campaign has to be backed up with a system that is easy-to-use, reliable and authentic.