SOCIAL MARKETING FOR SUSTAINABILITY - THE CASE OF RESIDENTIAL ENERGY-CONSERVATION

While the technologies presently exist to cut carbon emissions dramatically, all sectors of the economy have been slow to adopt them. This lack of success is due in part to the assumptions that change agents have made in designing social marketing campaigns to promote energy conservation. Social marketing campaigns have primarily utilized the 'rational-economic model' of human behaviour. This model of human behaviour is psychologically naive and campaigns based on it have been ineffective. It is possible, however, to design a social marketing campaign based on social psychological principles that has a much higher likelihood of success. This article introduces social psychological variables that are relevant to residential energy conservation and illustrates how the author trains home auditors to utilize them.