Stepping It Up  

Stepping It Up, led by the regional transportation authority Metrolinx, illustrates a coordinated, highly replicable, and institutionalized approach for reducing car traffic and increase walking and cycling to school. The program worked with 30 elementary schools in the City of Hamilton and Region of Peel, Ontario. Stepping It Up was designated a Landmark (best practice) case study in 2012.

Rewire Behaviour Change Program at U of T Residences  

This case study is a great model for reducing energy consumption through behaviour changes in student residences. Toolkits provide student organizers with detailed discussions of the environmental impact of specific behaviours, implementation strategies for energy conservation, and an assortment of 'action tools'. These organizers use the materials conservation-themed events to set a positive social norm for environmentally conscious activities. This program was designated a Landmark case study in 2010.

Backyard Composting in Langley B.C.  

Two webinars are currently available that document this program.

Opower’s Home Energy Report, Minnesota  

This program is a great example of the use of ongoing individualized feedback and prompts, coupled with norm appeals. Opower helps individual utility companies to send customized home energy use feedback reports to their residential utility customers. The full-colour reports include a comparison with other similar households, offer tips and strategies to reduce energy use, and provide seasonal energy consumption information. A web portal offers personalized insights and tips, and tools for choosing an optimal energy rate plan. In addition, Opower offers utilities the opportunity to send text messages directly to customers to alert them when their energy consumption is high and offer ways to reduce it.

Cool Biz, Japan  

In the context of Japan's urgent need for energy conservation, Cool Biz and Super Cool Biz have used strong norm appeals to bring about marked reduction in energy use. These programs were designated a Landmark case study in 2012.

Haliburton Communities in Action  

This is a rare, well-documented model for promoting walking and cycling in a small or rural community.

Bixi Bicycle Sharing  

BIXI is a bike sharing system that makes it convenient for commuters to cycle rather than drive – especially for frequent, short trips. One of the world's largest bike rental systems, BIXI was originally developed to augment Montreal’s existing transit system and has since spread to other cities around the world. The system now boasts over 21,432 bikes and 1,806 stations. Montrealers alone have made over 11,000,000 trips with BIXI since its implementation. What research led to their approach and how did they fine tune it? This is a great example of how to make urban cycling (and other repetitive behaviors) a more practical and attractive option.

Best's Bicycle Valet  

Want to encourage more people to cycle to special events instead of taking their cars? Here's a great way to make it easier for them to do so. BEST's Bicycle Valet, operating in Metro Vancouver, provides free and safe special-event parking for bicycles and other modes of active transportation, allows event patrons to leave their  helmets, panniers and other cycling apparel, and offers cycling route maps, transit maps and other information about active transportation. The service is paid for by the event organizers and sponsored by Travelsmart.

Portland's Smart Trips Welcome Program  

With an average of 15% of the U.S. population moving each year, new residents represent a significant portion of urban dwellers. In response, Portland has refocused its Individualized Marketing efforts and incorporated an innovative and targeted communication strategy to help new residents develop environmentally-friendly and active transportation habits. As a result, the city’s new residents took 10% fewer drive-alone trips and the proportion of their trips taken by green and active methods increased by 14%. This comprehensive approach includes a strong evaluation design and targeted social marketing strategies. SmartTrips Welcome was designated a Landmark (best practice) case study in 2012.

Calgary’s Workshift  

WORKshift is Calgary regional initiative to promote, educate and accelerate the adoption of telecommuting. WORKshift works with businesses to implement telework programs for their employees.

ClimateSmart Home Service, Queensland, Australia  

Once a resident signs up for Queensland’s ClimateSmart Home Service, a licensed electrician visits the home, installs a variety of energy-efficiency products, conducts an energy audit, provides recommendations, and leaves behind materials and prompts. The information collected is then used to create a customized plan that is sent to the homeowner approximately six weeks after the visit, with different audience segments receiving different messaging. A voluntary household energy challenge, wireless power monitors and an on-line portal help motivate and empower participants. ClimateSmart was designated a Landmark case study in 2011.

Lions-Quest –Skills for Adolescence and Working Towards Peace, Detroit  

The Detroit Public School system significantly reduced violent acts and classroom misconduct in fourteen middle schools. They were part of a two-year research project to evaluate the effectiveness of two Lions-Quest programs, Skills for Adolescence, a life skills program for middle school, and Working Toward Peace, an anger management and conflict resolution program for middle school. Lions-Quest fit easily in the school curriculum and involved the community. Program design made it easy to replicate in other cultures.

Energy Smackdown Uses Game Play to Involve Community Members  

The Energy Smackdown uses engaging game playing to involve community members in energy conservation, and television and webcasts to make visible the energy-saving efforts of teams of households. The Smackdown is organized into two broad challenges. In the household challenge, participants are evaluated based on their percent reduction in per person CO2 emissions as well as per person carbon footprint. For the team challenge, members of a community or organization work together to expand their impact and organize special challenge events that highlight key issues and raise awareness in the community. This program was designated as a Landmark (best practice) case study by a Tools of Change selection panel in 2010.

Cape Light Compact Smart Home Energy Monitoring Pilot  

This well designed and executed pilot project, which  achieved unusually high energy use reductions among 100 volunteer participants, illustrates the power of real-time feedback, friendly competition, and timely, personalized, credible, empowering communications. Using wireless in-home energy monitors connected to the internet, participating homes received detailed information on how much energy was being used in the home, when it was being used, how much it cost, and actions that could reduce energy consumption and promote savings. In addition, a web-enabled communications network enabled the sharing of energy savings experiences and helped achieve individual and collective energy savings goals. Designated Landmark in 2010.

Green Communities Active and Safe Routes to School (2008 on)  

This case study picks up from our previous one on the early years of Green Communities Canada's national Active and Safe Routes to School Program. It covers the launch of the "school travel planning" approach. Viewpoints are provided from the national, provincial, municipal and school levels. Designated a Landmark case study by a Tools of Change Peer Selection Panel in 2009. Updated in 2012.

Smarter Travel in Outer London: Integrated Marketing in the UK  

This case study involves two boroughs in London England, and illustrates the use of integrated marketing. For each target audience, this approach integrates common messaging and synergistic interventions across multiple communication channels, including partners such as physicians, police, NGOs, and chambers of commerce, as well as home visits that provide personalized travel planning. The initiative also includes cycle training, car sharing clubs, workplace and school programs. This case study illustrates the application of traditional social marketing methods, including formative research, setting measurable objectives, audience segmentation and piloting (including a control community.)

Ten-Day Challenge  

The Ten-Day Challenge is an innovative approach that helps parents and teachers work closely and cooperatively together to reduce violence among children and teens. Since 2003, it has been implemented in over 60 schools across Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Evaluations by parents, students and teachers have shown significant impacts on the everyday life of participants: more time reading and doing physical activity, more harmonious relationships, better attention in class, more respectful language and behaviour at home and school, and less physical and verbal violence.

Edmonton’s LocalMotion Program  

Edmonton’s LocalMotion project encouraged residents to drive less and consider other modes of transportation. LocalMotion used a combination of special community events, a challenge, and opportunities for hands-on experience of alternate modes of transportation. It promoted both flexible working hours and alternative modes of transportation such as walking, cycling, public transit, and carpooling. To further boost word-of-mouth communication and norm appeal, early adopters of ecoMobile practices were recruited to participate in program planning and promote it to their neighbors and to local policy makers. Designated a Landmark case study in 2011.

Power Smart Residential Behavioural Program  

This program is a great example of applying the “loyalty group” approach to progressively engage participants in changing behaviours, using formative research to select target behaviours and design an effective strategy, monitoring impacts on an ongoing basis, and using a “control” group to substantiate program impacts. Because electricity and electricity conservation tend to be a low priority for many British Columbians, BC Hydro has connected energy conservation to the things that people care about through an opt-in loyalty model and a focus on story-telling, co-creation, challenges and individualized feedback. Regular communications repeatedly drive participants back to their Members’ Tool Box, which serves as a ‘hub’. Ultimately, the product mix is designed to increase participant engagement levels on three dimensions: affiliation, (“this is who I am”), resonance (“this is right for me”) and enjoyment (“I like this”). Designated a Landmark case study in 2011.

England’s Sustainable Travel Towns  

This project demonstrates how a sustained transportation demand management program can have greater impact when coupled with infrastructure improvements. By investing £10M over a five-year period, three towns in England have decreased car use and increased sustainable modes of travel. This program was designated a Landmark case study in 2010.

Green Communities Canada’s Home Energy Retrofit Incentive and Home Visit Program  

Making the housing stock more energy-efficient provides persistent and ongoing returns. However efforts to do so often run into obstacles that diminish program impacts. This program illustrates how to overcome many of these barriers, and how ongoing monitoring and evaluation can lead to program improvements over time. It’s also a great illustration of combining home visits with incentives for doing desired behaviours.

Smart Commute - GTA  

Smart Commute is a multi-pronged commuter options program in the Greater Toronto, Oshawa and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Two levels of government (municipal and provincial) fund local delivery agents (Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and NGOs).

GCC EcoDriver Program  

Green Communities Canada’s EcoDriver program promotes fuel-saving behaviours in three core areas: fuel-efficient driving, purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles, and driving less. Participants attend driver-to-driver-format workshops, indicate the specific changes in driving habits they will make and the number of people they will tell about what they learned, and attend special events such as tire clinics where they are given free pressure gauges and can learn to test their tire pressure.  This program was designated a Tools of Change Landmark case study in 2011. A webinar on the program will be held in February 2011. About half a year later, this case study will be updated and the webinar recording, transcript and handouts will be posted. 

France’s Feebate for Fuel Efficient Vehicles  

The “Bonus/Malus écologique,” or Feebate program, is a nation-wide initiative of the French government. It is intended to shift the car market by encouraging consumers and manufacturers to purchase and make vehicles that are more energy efficient. Bonuses, or rebates, are awarded for purchases of low-emission vehicles, and fees are charged for purchases of high-emission vehicles.

Workplace Cycle Challenge Program  

The ‘Workplace Cycle Challenge’ is a three-week long intervention to encourage people to take up and continue cycling; encourage people who are already cycling to cycle more often; and encourage people to cycle to work.

Casual Carpooling in DC  

It has been said that one of the greatest untapped transportation resources is the empty seats in private automobiles. This case study illustrates how a unique casual carpooling program in Washington, D.C. fills those empty seats while meeting the needs of busy commuters and reducing road congestion. Slugging in D.C. was designated a Landmark case study by Tools of Change in 2009.

SMUD’S Home Electricity Report Program  

This well-evaluated program uses feedback, reminders, normative messaging, loss-aversion, goal setting and commitments to improve energy conservation and overcome the “rebound effect.” Sacramento county residents get Home Electricity Reports comparing monthly and annual electricity usage to 100 comparable homes and 20 comparable, highly efficient homes nearby; low-use households get happy faces on their reports. The customized reports also recommend specific energy-saving opportunities and show potential savings from reducing to the level of the 20 most efficient comparison households. Designated as a Landmark (best practice) case study in 2010.

Fondaction and Carrefour Earn Points for Sustainable Transportation  

Many prizes have been won by employees at Fondaction and the other institutions at Carrefour financier solidaire, for adopting sustainable transportation habits. Carrefour, based in Montreal, has approximately 130 employees. Carbopoint is one of the hallmarks of its sustainable transportation plan, launched in October 2007. Employees who use alternatives to driving alone when commuting accumulate points. These points, based on greenhouse gas reductions, are redeemed each year for gift certificates for outdoor gear, fair trade products or charitable donations. To make it easier to make these choices, employees are also offered a 50% discount on public transit passes, reserved garage parking for carpoolers and free bike tune-ups. This is a great model for businesses of all sizes.

Southwest Florida Management District's "Skip a Week" Yard Watering Campaign  

This "Skip a Week" yard watering campaign used a combination of mass media and norm appeals  to overcome misconceptions about the amount of water required for healthy yard plants and to reduce yard water use. It resulted in an estimated 1.2 billion gallons of water saved during the four month campaign, at a cost of $0.60 per thousand gallons.

BC21 PowerSmart  

BC21 PowerSmart is a province wide project to conserve resources and create jobs. Residential energy efficiency audits are conducted, and incentives are offered to encourage residents to take steps to improve energy and water efficiency.