Sustainability Language

Professional Practice & Everyday Jargon

Community-based social marketing (CBSM)

A behaviour-change methodology that identifies barriers to sustainable actions and designs targeted tools to overcome them.

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Definition

Community-based social marketing is a systematic approach to fostering sustainable behaviour, developed by environmental psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr. Its core steps are: select a behaviour, identify the barriers and benefits associated with it, design a strategy using behaviour-change tools (such as commitments, prompts, norms and incentives), pilot it with a small community segment, and evaluate before scaling.

References

BioCycle

McKenzie-Mohr; barrier identification; tools; pilot and evaluation steps

Overview

What it means

It replaces information-heavy awareness campaigns with evidence-based removal of the specific obstacles stopping people from acting.

How it is used

Widely applied by municipalities and NGOs in waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and sustainable transport programmes.

Why it matters

Information alone rarely changes behaviour; CBSM provides the dominant tested alternative in sustainability practice.

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