S IMPLY C OMMITTED S USTAINABLE B EHAVIOR C HANGE C AMPAIGN Methods At 10 outreach events, our team encouraged 424 people to commit to a specific and attainable sustainable behavior. Participants wrote their commitment on a whiteboard, signed their name, and we took a picture of them with their commitment. We posted these photos on Facebook, allowing participants to tag themselves and share publicly the commitment they’ve made. Purpose The goal of the Simply Committed campaign is to encourage individuals at UCSC to think about what sustainability means to them, to thoughtfully engage them in living more environmentally conscious lives, and to broaden their knowledge of and participation in sustainability opportunities, projects, and community at UCSC. Why it Works Studies on effective personal behavior change strategies for resource conservation have suggested that explicit, signed commitments are more effective in actually sustaining changed behavior and have fewer drawbacks than incentive-based conservation strategies. ¹ Next Steps In order to increase the percentage of people who participate out of the total number of people we speak to at events, we are working to make the campaign more streamlined, with ready-to-use commitments that still allow for the specificity, tangibility, and personalization for each participant. We are also working to create a better system for following up with participants right after the event and checking in with them a month later to hear how it’s going. Finally, we are also looking into ways to make the campaign more public through web platforms. Want to join our team? Contact Shauna Casey at Results 1. Richard D. Katzev and Anton U. Pardini. “The Comparative Effectiveness of Reward and Commitment Approaches in Motivating Community Recycling.” Journal of Environmental Systems Volume 17.2 ( ): Print. 122 Pledges 10 Tabling Events 424 People received sustainability message 122 of the 424 people we spoke to during events where we did the campaign made pledges. 26% of people spoken to committed "In September 2012 I committed to shop locally and in February 2013 I committed to start a compost. Since then I now buy all my food from local stores in Santa Cruz and I ride my bike to the farmers market weekly. I started a compost in my backyard and now I compost the scraps from the food I buy locally. I thank the sustainability clubs at UCSC for motivating me to take action to buy locally and become more conscious of my carbon foot print. I recommended for others to simply commit to one thing in their lives that can help the environment and themselves. Thank you for the inspiration to change and help my community! “ -- Natasha Ilyin Natasha Ilyin at OPERS Festival 2012 “Originally, when I made the commitment to use buses less, it was sort of a cop out. I very rarely used buses to get around campus to begin with since I live off campus. However, I decided that I would try walking to and from campus from my house off of Bay and Iowa in order to give my commitment more meaning. Since I decided to do so, I have been walking to campus for more of my classes in lieu of taking the bus. I would say that this has caused me to walk an average of at least 1 hour and 20 minutes per day. Motivation is easy when your cause is pure." Donish Cushing at Earth Summit 2013: “I commit to not taking the bus around campus and turning off my power strips when they are not being used.” To see more photos from the Simply Committed Campaign, visit our Facebook page at or read our blog at