Several YES! teams worked to change behavioral and social norms in their schools this past school year. That was the easy part. Next came the hard part, convincing their fellow students to adopt necessary behavior changes to implement changes, starting with lunch trays.
One Youth Energy Summit (YES!) event featured a video that depicted passengers on an elevator. One person (who was in on the project) would turn around so that their back was facing the elevator door, and by the end of the elevator ride, without realizing that they were doing it, everyone else in the car had turned around as well. This was an example of how individuals’ behavior is shaped by what people around them consider to be appropriate, correct, or desirable. It was about social and behavioral norms.
Two of the goals of the YES! program are to engage youth and empower them to take positive action in their communities and to develop leadership, community-building, and problem-solving skills. Several YES! teams achieved both of these goals this past school year by working to change behavioral and social norms in their schools.
The Mankato West YES! team was dismayed to learn that their school threw away 750 Styrofoam lunch trays every day. They decided to tackle this problem and calculated the financial costs and environmental benefits of switching to reusable trays. They met with members of the food service, building and grounds, and administration in their school to make a switch to reusable trays possible. Brian Gersich, Principal of Mankato West High School remarked, “In the Mankato schools, we are assuring learning excellence and readiness for a changing world, and these students are working hard to embody this.” In the end they were able to convince their school to switch over from the disposable Styrofoam lunch trays to permanent, washable trays and flatware, saving almost $600 and keeping nearly 130,000 trays out of landfills annually. Next came the hard part: convincing their fellow students to adopt the behavior changes necessary to implement this switch in trays. Through an ingenious “goodbye polystyrene” marketing plan, posters, announcements, interviews on their school broadcast system, and monitoring at lunch, the YES! students were able to get their peers to change their lunch habits and adopt the new routine. The YES! students remarked “we believe that encouraging an awareness within the student body about the waste they create will promote a shift in attitudes and actions toward a lifestyle focused on reusing instead of disposing.”
Another team concerned with changing the behavior of their peers is the Willmar YES! team. In addition to their other projects, they decided they wanted to cut down on paper towel waste in their school, inspired by this TED talk. They did a demonstration at their school about “how to use a paper towel correctly” (hint-it involves using only one paper towel) and had 530 of their fellow students sign a pledge to “shake and fold” and thus decrease their paper towel waste!
Many other YES! teams have focused on social norms and behavioral changes in relation to recycling, energy efficiency, hydration stations (bringing reusable water bottles to school and filling them up instead of purchasing disposable plastic water bottles), and more! To learn about all of these projects and the YES! program and to sign up for the YES! quarterly e-newsletter, visit www.youthenergysummit.org.
