Environmentally conscious actions
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Understanding what actions people are currently doing to reduce how much they consume and evaluating some potential public awareness campaigns on this topic
Hampshire Perspectives is the County Council's residents' forum
This report summarises key findings from the 34th Hampshire Perspectives survey.
The purpose of this survey was to understand what actions people are currently taking that consider the environment, and to evaluate a number of potential public awareness campaigns to get people to think about the choices they make in their day-to-day activities. These campaigns would be shown on social media in the form of short videos or a series of images to tell a story.
The learning from this survey would be used to understand which, if any, campaigns might be most effective in persuading Hampshire residents make more eco-friendly choices in their daily lives to help support environmental sustainability.
The survey was completed by 546 respondents between 25 July and 04 August 2024.
Key findings were as follows:
Respondents were most likely to undertake environmental actions which have a direct financial benefit
Respondents already undertook a range of environmentally conscious actions in their daily lives, most commonly where these appeared to also provide direct financial benefits. Comments from respondents reinforced this, indicating that a focus on financial savings would help to improve the impact of green campaigns.
Respondents were interested in making more eco-friendly choices
About 80% of respondents’ behaviours indicated that, while they do not do everything in their control to reduce their impact on the environment, they would be interested in adopting more environmentally sustainable activities
The actions which appeared to have the greatest opportunities for change were around reducing water usage and encouraging active travel
In particular, reducing the amount of time spent in the shower, choosing to cycle or walk instead of driving, and keeping a jug of water in the fridge were the actions that people were least likely to do already. However, around 1 in 5 said they would not consider the latter two actions, which suggests further understanding of the barriers to these actions is needed.
The campaign around spending less time in the shower appeared to be the most popular, particularly among individuals who were open to adopting more eco-friendly choices
This campaign idea was felt to be the most informative, relevant and the most likely to encourage people to change their behaviours. It was also felt to be the most visually appealing of the ideas tested, as well as eye-catching.
Respondents suggested a number of potential improvements that could be made to the campaigns
It was felt that the campaigns could be improved by: