5 Efficient Ways to Raise Eco-Awareness – Guest post by Diana Smith

No amount of technological advancement is going to change our planet for the better unless we change as well. Still, trying to persuade and convince people can sometimes seem like an uphill battle. This is because people are often quite defensive when it comes to their way of life and no amount of data, shaming or guilt-inducing is going to change that. Instead, you need to try to convince them that green living is in their best interest. Here are five ways in which you can do so with the greatest efficiency.

Present people with the budget-friendliness of green living

One of the things that often slips from people’s minds is the idea that green living is somehow expensive. Sure, it may take a solar panel 7 to 20 years to pay itself off, but what other investment can you install in your household that is capable of paying for its own purchase (regardless of the time-frame)?

Furthermore, no one is forcing you to do something as expensive or dramatic as installing solar panels, when you can just replace your incandescent bulbs with LED ones or your old bathroom fixtures with low-flow ones. Either way, when it comes to raising awareness, you might want to try for a visual comparison and present the utility bill of a household that practices an eco-friendly way of life against that of a standard household.

Show them how effortless it can be

Another misconception that people have about the eco-friendly way of life is that it is something that requires too much effort. Instead, you need to focus on ways in which it makes their life substantially easier. For instance, you can point out that the above-mentioned LED bulb lasts between 25,000 and 50,000 hours, whereas a regular incandescent bulb lasts between 1,000 and 2,000 hours. This means that, by switching to LED solutions, you will have to replace bulbs around your household less often.

Wrap it up in a tech-savvy bundle

Next prejudice that people have about green living is in assuming that in order to live green, one must relinquish the ways of the modern world and live as a hermit of sorts. Needless to say, this kind of assumption is extreme and no short of preposterous. In fact, some of the most planet-friendly options are the most tech-savvy ones. A smart fridge, a smart thermostat and most other smart technology devices are particularly power-friendly. Furthermore, more and more servers are turning towards the idea of green-hosting.

Talk about the green commute

Instead of preaching how their cars are littering the streets and polluting the air, you might want to start stressing the positive sides of carpooling, public transportation, cycling and walking to work. The first two notions are clearly budget-friendly, while the latter two are also great for your health. Remember, always talk about positive sides!

Alternatives to leaflets

The problem with printing flyers and leaflets lies in the fact that, in this way, you are contributing to the deforestation and even causing a havoc with potential litter. Instead, if you aim to spread awareness through promotional materials, you need to make sure that you are giving away something valuable, something your audience will use several times over, as well as something they won’t be willing to discard that easily. One of the best ideas is, therefore, giving out promotional USBs or clothing items (made from organic fibers, of course).

At the end of the day, in order to persuade people, you need to speak the language they understand. First off, don’t frighten them with terrifying statistics and prophesize how our planet is doomed to fail unless we change our wicked ways. People respond to positive emotions far better than they do on negative ones, so talk about the positive changes instead. Second, don’t put an emphasis on how green living can help the planet but how they personally could benefit from these practices. In other words, if you try to focus on how helping the planet also helps them, you are bound to face much better odds of success.