Key points
* Gerontologist Mick Smyer developed a program that uses psychology strategies to encourage participants to take action to address climate change.
* His training session asks participants to personally commit to one action that will improve the environment.
When Mick Smyer retired from his career in academia, he knew he wanted to take on a new project addressing climate change. Smyer has decades of experience as a psychologist specializing in gerontology and as a college administrator, including 7 years as Provost at Bucknell University.
“I joined the small group of people working at the intersection of these two global social trends: the aging population and climate change,” he said. “It’s really important to think of older adults as not only potential victims of climate change but also as potential leaders of climate action. They know how to get things done, they have circles of influence, and they can use those assets to make change.”
Smyer founded a group called Graying Green to help inspire older adults to do something – anything – to address climate change.
“We have a culture of climate avoidance or climate silence,” he said. “Two-thirds of people worry about climate change, but only one-third talk to their family or friends, or really do anything about it. We have a habit loop that goes like this, ‘Whoa, climate change is so big. What can one person do about it?’”
In response to that question, Smyer developed a program called Your Climate Journey, which uses psychology, design strategies, and behavioral economics to help participants replace their habits of climate avoidance with a specific action that addresses climate change.
“The principles that underlie our work actually come from strategies suggested by the National Academies of Science for talking to children about climate change,” he said. “The idea is to keep it social, short, and positive. We focus on places that our participants care about, and on a human-scale time frame.”
Smyer initially focused on getting older adults involved but, once he got started, he realized the same principles apply to people of all ages. So, he renamed his organization Growing Greener and developed materials appropriate for different life stages. So far, Growing Greener has reached more than 3,000 people across the U.S. and in five other countries. Smyer is continually reaching out to new organizations, and training more people to facilitate the Growing Greener workshop within their own community groups.
The training session – typically 40 minutes long – starts by asking participants to focus on a favorite place, then think about how that place is affected by climate change. Next, it asks them to picture how they hope the location will look in 40 to 50 years.
Then, Smyer asks participants to think of something they could do today to make that vision a reality. “Fifty to eighty percent of people are stumped about what they could do,” he explains. “So, the next step is to give them some options.”
Growing Greener suggests an array of possible actions people can take to address their own impact on climate – everything from turning off lights when they are not in use to taking public transportation. Each action is rated for its overall impact.
“We ask them to consider and categorize each of these actions as ‘things I already do,’ ‘things I could do,’ or ‘things I cannot or will not do’,” Smyer said. “Then we begin a discussion. How many things are they already doing? How do their actions compare with their neighbors? It sparks a lot of peer education. There is a rhythm of engagement and reflection in the workshop, “ Smyer said.
By the end of the session, Smyer asks participants to select and commit to one additional action as their next step. “We talk about, what’s your time frame? What could be a motivator to help you carry out what you said you would do? This is straight behavioral economics.”
Will that one extra action alone bring an end to climate change? “Probably not,” admits Smyer. But that’s not the point.
“We’re building what I call climate self-efficacy,” he explained. “It’s an engagement exercise to get people talking, thinking, and acting.”
After groups attend the training, they often take steps toward collective action to have a greater impact. For example, one residential community for 600 older adults began composting food waste and purchasing energy from sustainable sources after a Growing Greener workshop for 30 residents energized participants there. A church group added solar panels to their roof. An elementary school in Louisiana started a clothing and uniform recycling program to help meet the needs of their schoolmates.
Growing Greener also hosts intergenerational workshops to promote conversations about climate change between older adults and youth.
“It all starts with a workshop focused on one action,” Smyer said. “It’s the psychology of small steps; in order to make real progress, you have to start with a small success.”
You can learn more about Growing Greener at https://growing-greener.org/.