Enhancing Capacity for Low Emission Development Strategies (EC-LEDS) Clean Energy Program: Community Based Social Marketing Campaign Design

The campaign's purpose is to change behavior, achieve energy savings and/or emissions reductions, provoke discussion among the public, and generate a deeper insight on energy efficiency and renewable energy. The campaign targets households and small businesses, as well as youth, particularly secondary and university students. Secondary stakeholders, such as municipal government employees, will also be targeted to support successful campaigns and link to other municipal outreach activities. The surveys suggested the target communities and behaviors of the CBSM campaign as follows: Kutaisi, where the behavior of creating a green public space will be targeted towards community/neighborhood members, and Zugdidi, where the behavior of installing energy-efficient bulbs will be targeted towards non-users and partial users. The Kutaisi Municipality has made a decision to arrange an energy-efficient public park in the center of Kutaisi as part of its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020. The municipality addressed EC-LEDS to change the CBSM activities from greening to the installation of a "Solar Tree" in the new park. EC-LEDS decided to follow the request of Kutaisi Municipality and support the installation of a Solar Tree as part of its CBSM Campaign in Kutaisi. The CBSM tools to be employed during the Kutaisi pilot include creating social norms, building community support, and prompts to remember to act. Social norms should be used to encourage people to engage in positive behaviors, rather than avoiding harmful actions. Prompts will be used to remind people to act sustainably, as numerous actions that promote sustainability are susceptible to forgetting. The baseline survey conducted by EC-LEDS in Year 1 collected data on the EC-LEDS project performance indicators, particularly indicators related to the outreach program, as well as the behavior of energy consumers (end users). The survey found that few Georgians are familiar with the concept of energy efficiency, and there is a lack of awareness of energy efficiency measures and appliances. However, the majority of respondents would consider buying efficient appliances and technologies and taking energy-reducing actions mainly to reduce costs. The survey also identified television and the internet as the main preferred sources of information on energy efficiency among Georgian households. The results of the survey informed the preparation of the CBSM pilot campaign, which aims to change behavior, achieve energy savings and/or emissions reductions, provoke discussion among the public, and generate a deeper insight on energy efficiency and renewable energy. The EC-LEDS Clean Energy Program Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) campaign design will be implemented in Kutaisi, where the behavior of creating a green public space will be targeted towards community/neighborhood members. The campaign will use CBSM tools, including creating social norms and prompts to remember to act, to encourage people to engage in positive behaviors and reduce energy consumption. The campaign's success will be evaluated, and the findings will inform the design of the second pilot in Zugdidi. The Kutaisi Municipality has made a commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, and the installation of a Solar Tree in the new park is part of this commitment. The EC-LEDS Clean Energy Program will support the installation of the Solar Tree as part of its CBSM Campaign in Kutaisi. The campaign's goal is to change behavior, achieve energy savings and/or emissions reductions, provoke discussion among the public, and generate a deeper insight on energy efficiency and renewable energy. The EC-LEDS Clean Energy Program Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) campaign design aims to influence specific energy efficiency and climate change mitigation behaviors in targeted groups based on community-based research. The campaign targets households and small businesses, as well as youth, particularly secondary and university students. The surveys suggested the target communities and behaviors of the CBSM campaign as follows: Kutaisi, where the behavior of creating a green public space will be targeted towards community/neighborhood members, and Zugdidi, where the behavior of installing energy-efficient bulbs will be targeted towards non-users and partial users.