In The Beginning

This is the beginning of a blog dedicated to helping people to employ Community-based Social Marketing to foster sustainable behaviour in others.

When Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr wrote Fostering Sustainable Behaviour, An Introduction to Community-based Social Marketing back in the early 1990’s, he could not possibly have imagined the interest in the book, the hectic travel schedule that would take him all over the world over the next 15 years, or that by today he would have taught tens of thousands of people to use a small but powerful set of Behavioural Science techniques to foster positive environmental behaviour in others.

If you have never attended one of Doug’s CBSM seminars, you should. (You can find his schedule on his website at www.cbsm.com (http://www NULL.cbsm NULL.com/).) Doug weaves research, presentation technology and a gift for teaching into a fun, informative and engaging workshop that will challenge every understanding you have about awareness and behaviour. If you are in the business of implementing or promoting environmental programs, like recycling, energy conservation and climate change reduction, you will be instantly more effective in getting people to make the lifestyle choices that you are promoting.

I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Doug from those early days after the release of his book. After working with Doug on a few very successful campaigns in our respective home provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, I adopted Fostering Sustainable Behaviour techniques in all of my work.

The place to find out about Fostering Sustainable Behaviour is www.cbsm.com (http://www NULL.cbsm NULL.com/). The site is a tremendous resource of projects, results and research, and it has a thriving community of people sharing ideas and thoughts about Community-based Social Marketing. And Doug himself is as close as his keyboard to answer queries.

So why then, with this fine CBSM resource already in place, would I start a CBSM blog? Well, for two reasons:

  • After more than 15 years of practice I think I have something to offer on the subject, particularly in the application of CBSM;
  • I think it is important to help others to develop effective CBSM campaigns to foster more sustainable behaviour;

So today, this Beyond Attitude blog begins.