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The Challenge
The issue of sustainability is no longer in the hands of a few passionate protestors but in the realm of the masses. That’s nothing new: our front pages have been telling us this for some time. The challenge we collectively face is how to do something about it, and where to start. If you’re in the energy sector this is particularly important. People naturally expect you to pave the way, and so naturally you come in for criticism.
So consider the case of British Gas. Data from 2008 shows that British Gas creates the lowest carbon emissions per household of the major UK suppliers. But when it came to perception of ‘green-ness’ it’s PowerGen and EDF that were stealing the show.
The task was simple in its outlook, but vast in its ambition. Convince Britons of British Gas’ green credentials, and help Britain to become a more energy efficient country. From a commercial perspective this would help deliver on two key objectives; improve customer retention and help Britain become more energy efficient.
The approach
Galvanising a nation that’s not necessarily convinced about your energy credentials is a daunting challenge, and one that British Gas wasn’t going to shy away from. Simply telling people what British Gas thought wouldn’t be enough. To achieve a lasting success and a positive legacy something else was needed. A social movement.
British Gas believed one of the most effective ways of tacking the issue was to enter the debate from the ground up and promote behavioural change, rather than simply talking about it. The key people to engage with are those who will be most affected by sustainability issues in the future, namely today’s 7-14 year olds. If British Gas could effect small behavioural changes in them, as well as friends and family, it could create a ‘ripple effect’ of sustainable behaviours that could be ‘paid forward’ for generations to come.
The idea
British Gas created a schools and community programme aimed at bringing together schools, children, their family and their friends. The aim of Generation Green was twofold. Firstly to help children become more aware of sustainability issues, and secondly to show them that they have the capacity to create lasting changes by adopting ‘greener’ behaviour.
To encourage participation schools could earn ‘green leaves’ for carrying out simple, environmentally-focused tasks such as calculating their carbon footprint, setting up Eco-Clubs or recycling their mobile phones. These can then be exchanged for energy efficient rewards such as bikes, desktop wind turbines, vegetable growing kits and even solar panels.
Mashing up the on- and offline worlds for maximum engagement
At the heart of Generation Green is a digital hub which brings together the full power of both the online and offline worlds.
Through this hub teachers, children and parents quickly find out about the latest opportunities to earn green leaves as well as get new educational resources. And communication is two-way: people update their news pages, upload photos and suggest new tasks. Something that teachers have now done over a thousand times!
Real-time updates and emails on school activity help fuel the healthy competition that exists between schools in the UK. In turn this feeds further interest in the programme and promotes higher levels of engagement.
Engaging with schools
To engage with the core audience of 7-14 year olds it was vital to build relationships with teachers. Green lesson and assembly plans were developed in partnership with education experts. They provided genuine value to teachers by helping them educate children on sustainability issues alongside the national curriculum. Activities such as creating ‘draught excluder snakes’, or recycling mobile phones would also earn leaves and help edge schools closer to their leaf goals.
Engaging beyond the classroom
In the classroom children were learning about ‘greener behaviour’ but to become a social movement, to build behavioural change as well as attitudinal change it was essential to take Generation Green beyond the school gates.
We discovered that children not only used the internet for games based entertainment and general education, but also to practice new skills before repeating them offline. By building on this insight we created a series of games called ‘Professor Green and the Eco-Rangers’, the unifying theme of which was to defeat the evil energy wasting Baron Fossilosis. Through this series children were taught how to be more environmentally aware at the same time as having fun. Individual game themes ranged from ‘Standby Busters’ (switching off appliances) to ‘Scrappy Valley’ (recycling old materials).
Through leaderboards and environmentally friendly prizes such as solar powered MP4 players and shower timers healthy competition and game repetition has become widespread. Over 11,000 children have played the games since their launch in September 2008. 90% of those children said they’d tell their friends about it. Better still one teacher said that when they go out ‘the children tell the adults “you haven’t turned off the lights”’.
The results
The programme is in its infancy, but already it’s achieved far beyond expectations. Teachers, children and parents have all shown a willingness to engage and participate in this social movement British Gas has created.
In less than 6 months over 30% of all UK schools signed up to the programme, 9,400 light monitors have been appointed in these UK schools and a total of 12,400 lesson plans have been downloaded resulting in 303,000 hours of learning. An estimated 21 million green leaves have been earned and parents have been joining in with 33,000 households completing an Energy Saving Report to learn more about reducing their consumption.
People’s attitudes to British Gas are also changing. According to 2008 TNS data people believe British Gas is more supportive of the community and more caring for the environment, with statistics rising from 5% to 19% and 17% to 23%. The data highlights an increase from 3% to 7% in people recognising British Gas as the greenest supplier. There was a sharp increase in how people perceive British Gas and their anticipation to changing needs which jumped from 6% to 33%. British Gas’s Net Promoter Score also rose from -52 to -42.
British Gas has also seen a positive shift on key brand measure statements (Generation Green Teacher Tracker 2008) with 57% of respondents associating ‘Creating a greener future’ with Generation Green and 62% of respondents stating ‘Teaching the children why the environment matters was one of the most valuable aspects of Generation Green’
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