Please join us for a HBI Seminar featuring Dr Sonja Geiger, Environmental Psychologist and Lecturer in Psychology at Murdoch University, speaking on 'Behavioural interventions to Foster Sustainable Lifestyles: Approaches from Environmental Psychology'.
In this talk, Dr Geiger will give an introduction to the discipline of environmental psychology and how it uses theoretical approaches from psychology to design effective interventions fostering sustainable consumption behaviour. Dr Geiger will show how sustainable consumption behaviour relates to broader sustainable development models and strategies and why it should be understood as encompassing all resource and energy consumption embedded in our everyday lives.
Typical approaches from exemplary studies in environmental psychology aiming at different consumption areas will be presented. To illustrate the wide spectrum of possible pathways, Dr Geiger will compare studies targeting rather “shallow” leverage points with strategies such as nudges or incentives, compared to strategies for tackling deeper leverage points such as mindfulness practice or VR experiences aiming at embodied perspective taking with nature. Limits of behavioural change approaches considering the societal challenges in face of escalating ecological crises will be discussed.
