Behavior Change is something that I think a lot about.  More specifically I think about what has to happen in order for behavior change to happen.  What event, what thought, what person will tip the scale? 

For me personally I am most interested in how this applies to environmental sustainability although the same exact principal could be applied to any number of issues in politics, government, civil rights, etc etc.  Often times we are faced with things that we are unhappy about or thing are not right, but what actually has to happen for the scale to tip from passive to active response?

What has to go on the other end, to tip the scale? 

Many people seem to argue that consciousness is what will do it.  Simply educating ourselves, learning about environmental impacts, and being introduced to alternative strategies will do it. 

Perhaps… Some years ago my (now) husband and I traveled to China for several months.  Upon returning home we made immediate changes in our lifestyle to drastically cut down on the amount of waste we generate.  We made a new years resolution – no plastic bags.  If we went to the store and did not have a reusable bag, we had to either buy a cloth bag, only buy what we could carry, or go home.  It was amazing how many bags we ended up with and how quickly we learned.  The year following we did the same with paper coffee cups.  This is a clear example of consciousness leading to behavior change.  However, I would argue we are in the small minority of people that would actually do this. 

More and more I find myself at events with people nodding their heads in agreement that something must be done to change the way we live, they get up from their seats with the intention of changing the world, but by the time they leave the room, it’s back to old habits.  It appears that even though there is the consciousness, there is a counter-consciousness that gets in the way of tipping the scale.  Both a retreating to old habits, and of common excuses (me using one less plastic bag isn’t really going to change the world.) 

I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area where in 2009 the city of San Francisco made it mandatory for people to compost.  In the Bay Area the vast majority of the population already had the consciousness, but it took the city government to actually tip the scale. 

San Francisco, in many ways, can be put in the same category as myself – the minority that’s actually going to do something.  Just about every other American city not only allows the use of plastic bags and styrofoam containers, but thrives on them.  (Also things outlawed in SF.) None the less, in San Francisco the force from the other side, not from consciousness, but from the law, has caused the scale to tip. 

Personal consciousness and enforced law are two ways to get about behavior change.  Are there others?  It seems that for most people we’ll have to wait a long time for their consciousness to topple the excuses holding up change, and likewise a long time for government to create the change that is necessary to mandate behavior change. 

So in the mean time, how can we make this scale tip?  What event, what thought, what experience, what person has to step on the scale in order for us to tip to take action?