What is “Environmental Action: Shifting from saying to doing” about? Is this Eco-Reps? Sample Course Activities Social Marketing campaigns Example Syllabus About the Instructors Can I do this on my campus?
Do you ever ask yourself… How do human-induced changes to the environment affect the health and prosperity of modern society? How can social movements make a difference? How can I make a difference?
Sign up for the Office of Sustainability’s first for-credit course!

This Experimental college class is designed for students who want a refreshing way to examine the truths behind the environmental concerns in the news. In this course students examine the causes of behavior and the impact of human behavior on the environment. They learn practical skills in communication, debate, social marketing, and event planning along with knowledge of current environmental issues, psychology and marketing. As students examine their and their peers’ behavior they learn how to create behavior change, and then translate that knowledge into the creation of an environmental behavior change campaign on campus. Students leave the course empowered to create change in the world around them, with many of them continuing on to become advocates and leaders within the Tufts community and beyond. Activities during the semester will include: critical thinking research examining current environmental issues, personal challenges, campus social marketing group projects, and social psychology. By the end of the semester students will leave this class with a new perspective on themselves, society and the environment. Check out how the class of Fall 2010 contributed to the Tufts campus here!

Time commitment:

Class for 2.5 hours every week in the evening, extra-curricular activities reading and homework. It is not being offered this year.

If you would like to learn more about this course please contact tina.woolston@tufts.edu.

Environmental Action is a variation of ECO-Reps, in that it involves engaging students in peer-to-peer learning. What was the Eco-Reps Program?

The Eco-Reps program was first designed and run by Anja Kollmus in 2001 and has been replicated by colleges and universities across the country as an effective peer-to-peer education and action program. At Tufts it was supported by the Tufts Climate Initiative (now part of the Office of Sustainability), with financial support from the Tufts Institute of the Environment. The Office of Sustainability recently welcomed ten new Eco-Reps. For more information visit Eco-Rep page.

Envisioning a need for additional education for students, we decided to broaden our reach by creating a class that students could take for credit. The larger Tufts community can now learn about sustainability theory and action through the Experimental College (aka the Ex-college) in the course entitled Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing. This new class will meet each week and engage students in both environmental literacy and the social science component of sustainable living.

For more information about the Eco-Rep program in its original form as peer-to-peer education in on-campus dormitories, go to this page.

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Environmental Action Sample Program Activities

During each class, students are given the opportunity to discuss current environmental issues and explore what behavioral changes need to occur to minimize environmental degradation. A typical class schedule is:

Environmental Action: Example Schedule

Changing Behavior (2)

1st Behavior Challenge

• Set up Blog
• Blog 1: Introduce yourself “eco-self”, what are my habits ?

9/22/10Social Marketing

-  Objectives/Goals

-  Audience

-  Cost/Benefits

Survey Methods and Tools

• Blog 2: Reflect on Behavior Challenge
• Completed skills sheet
• Social Marketing Reading
  - Community-based social marketing, McKenzie-Mohr
  - Warning:Habits May Be Good For You, NYT
  - Life lessons from an ad man (Video)
• Formative Research Reading:
  - Intercept Interviews, Kolb

9/29/10History of Environmental Movements

Communication

• Blog 3: Communication – Seeping into the cracks
• Social Marketing: Formative research initial results repost
• Historical Movements Reading

How personal actions can kick-start a sustainable revolution

, Grist article

A very quick recap on Environmental Issues in US

, CNN article

1960-2004 environmental timeline, WorldWatch

Death of Environmentalism, Shelberger and Nordhaus

10/06/10Social Marketing and Communication

- Repositioning
- Exchange Theory
- Messaging

• Blog 4: My audience
• Social Marketing : Formative additional results
• Social Marketing Reading
  Social Norms: An underestimated and underemployed lever for managing, climate change, Griskevicius, Cialdini, & Goldstein
  Social Marketing, a) Ch.10, b) Quick Reference Guide, and c) Communication Channels , Kotler & Lee
• Communication reading:

You are brilliant, and the earth is hiringWhat is education for?

10/13/10Sustainability at Tufts
- Speakers: Danielle Jenkins, Rachael Wolber (Environmental Action alumni from past classes)

- Talking points

- 2nd Behavior Challenge-Zero Waste

• Blog 5: a) Midterm reflection
• Social Marketing: Worksheet sections 1-6 first draft due
• Formative research completed-results posted on Blackboard
• Social Marketing reading: Examples of Successful Social Marketing Campaigns

10/20/10- Waste

- Recycling at Tufts

- Marketing campaign

• Blog 6: Reflect on Behavior Challenge
• Social Marketing: Worksheet (section 7)- marketing materials due
• Debate # 1 waste (Group 1 + 2)

10/27/10Climate Change *

Guest Speaker TBA
- 3rd Behavior Challenge- Clothing Conscience

• Blog 7: Consumption: Where do my clothes come from?
• Social Marketing: Worksheet – final draft due
• Debate#2 Climate Change (Group 3 + 4)
• Climate Change Readings:
  - Climate Change, OOS Webpage, Gelbspan     -Belief in Science Hinges On Worldview, NPR UCS Climate Change in Massachusetts brochure

11/03/10Environmental Economics * Guest Speaker: Brian Roach

• Blog 8: Reflect on Behavior Challenge
• Social Marketing: Report back to group
• Debate #3 environmental economics (Group 5 + 6)

• Environmental Economics Reading:
  - Earth in the Balance Sheets, Krugman

11/10/10Water

Guest Speaker: Scott Horsley

- 4th Behavior Challenge – Food for Thought

• Blog 9: Self-analysis: Contribution to class campaign
• Social Marketing: Report back to group
• Debate#4 water (Group 7 + 8 )

11/17/10Food

Guest Speaker: Anna Richards
- Pot Luck!

• Blog 10: Reflect on behavior challenge
• Social Marketing: Report back to group
• Debate #5 sustainable foods (Group 9 + 10)

11/24/10

NO CLASS 12/01/10Environmental Justice

Guest Speaker TBA

- Class evaluation

• Blog 11: Reflect on re-introducing your “eco-self” to your family and friends
• Social Marketing:Report back to group
• Debate #6 climate justice (Group 11 + 12)
• Environmental Justice Readings:
• Organizing for Environmental Health
• Beyond Green Alone
• Solving Environmental Injustices in MA

12/08/10Re-Cap

Social marketing debrief

• Blog 12: Self-evaluation of your contribution to the social marketing campaign

12/15/10Finals Begin

• Final Blog due 

* Guest speakers will give 40 min presentation on the topic for the week.

Reading Material

The course readings consist of websites, book chapters, articles and the like – all connected to the topic of the week.

Peer to peer sustainability Symposium:

In the Fall of 2009, the class put on a symposium to bring together students and Eco-Representatives from campuses region wide to share best practices in peer to peer education around sustainability issues. This will not be part of future classes as it proved to take up too much time.

Social Marketing Group Activities:

Students enrolled in Environmental Actionwill work together to create a campus wide social marketing campaign to influence their peers’ environmentally related behaviors.

Previous campaigns

1. Trayless dining
2. Paper reduction on campus 
3. Bottled Water (Tufts Daily Article 11/4/10, Op-Ed 12/9/10, videos)

Individual Behavior Change Challenges:

Students enrolled in Environmental Action will be given three-four different behavior challenges that will encourage you to change your own personal behaviors to more sustainable ones. You will be encouraged to involve your friends and dormmates/classmates in participating in these challenges with you.

Example Challenge:

Zero Waste – Each student will be responsible for carrying around any waste they create for a week. If it is not recyclable or compostable the trash will go in a bag on the outside of their backpacks to be carried around to class and other on and off campus activities. This activity is designed to make students aware of just how much waste they are responsible for so that in the future they will think twice about purchasing an item with a lot of packaging or a non-recyclable or non-compostable item.

About the Instructors

	Negin Toosi is a doctoral candidate at Tufts in the Department of Psychology, studying with Nalini Ambady. Her current research focuses on factors that impact cognition, attitudes, and behavior in social interactions, particularly in intergroup contexts. Outside of research, she has been engaging in and learning about various forms of small-scale community development and empowerment programs for several years. She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 2003, where she double-majored in Psychology and International Relations.
	Tina Woolston joined the Office of Sustainability in September of 2007 and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science and Ruminant Nutrition from Cornell University. At Tufts she has worked on greening initiatives with the purchasing, publications and dining departments as well as initiatives with students such as Focus the Nation, the renewable energy program Get Clean and the Environmental Leadership Roundtable. In addition, during Fall 2008, she started the Eco-Ambassador program for staff. Tina also has worked as the Program Manager for Sustainability at Earthwatch Institute, conducting emissions audits and office greening initiatives; and teaching 7-21 day sea kayaking and mountaineering expeditions for Outward Bound in Colorado, Alaska and Baja, Mexico.
Both instructors bring a strong background in experiential education, environmental literacy and sustainable living knowledge to the course.

How do I start an Eco-Rep program or sustainability course at my school?

With lots of time and patience! There are a lot of great resources out there for starting an Eco-Rep program – you can look at what other schools are doing or design your own program from scratch. For information about the original Eco-Rep program at Tufts - go here.

At Tufts we are lucky to have The Experimental College which serves as an incubator for new ideas about teaching, learning, and curriculum. This allowed us to try out a course without having to go through the rigors of creating a new course within an existing department and curriculum. Other colleges have courses taught by professors through their Environmental Studies program or other departments. AASHE lists some of them on their website.