There are lots of resources; research papers, case-studies and the odd job opportunity.  My favourite part (this week) was the blog interviews.  I particularly enjoyed Bridging Cultural Divides in International Marketing with Rachel Haig.  Rachel runs Spirit of Soccer a small organisation working to keep children out of landmine areas in Cambodia.

Also worth a read is the profile interview with Dr. Myriam Sidibe, Unilever-Lifebuoy’s Global Social Mission Director who has set herself a goal to change the hand washing habits of 1 billion people by 2015 and encourage the use of soap more often at critical moments.

The Scottish Government hope the measure will reduce the health problems caused by excessive drinking and they have some thorough research from Sheffield University’s alcohol research group to back up their policy claims.

In these cash-straitened times it is fantastic to read about a change policy which has both the health costs and the financial costs clearly articulated.  In one year this policy is expected to result in 60 fewer deaths and1,600 fewer hospital admissions.  A total value of harm reduction of £64m

After 10 years, this rises to more than 300 fewer deaths annually and 6,500 fewer hospital admissions.  A cumulative value of harm reduction of £942m.

Interestingly, the Government have promised to scrap the policy in five years if it doesn’t work.

Scotland, along with many countries, has a binge drinking culture and this may well contribute to a change in that culture.  However, there are detractors.  The Labour opposition claim it will increase the profits of the alcohol companies and greatly increase the Government’s tax take from alcohol.  Some pensioners are claiming that the binge drinkers won’t take any notice but they will no longer be able to have their two bottles of wine per week.

Dr John Holmes, who was part of the project team said the move would have a significant impact on drinking habits.  He stated that, “We found that a 50p minimum price would lead to an overall reduction in consumption of 5.5%. So harmful drinkers’ consumption would fall by more than 10%, whereas moderate drinkers would see their consumption fall by just 2.5%.

It’s a big and brave policy and the government are to be applauded for a bold move.  Let’s watch this space.

Develop by two students, Aaron Horowitz and Hannah Chung, who are driven to do great work (more on that later) the idea arose out of personal experience. Hannah’s father and grandparents both have Type II diabetes. After her grandfather passed away from hypoglycemia she was reminded of the importance of managing diabetes effectively. Aaron was diagnosed with Human Growth Hormone Deficiency when he was a child and had to have regular injections for four years. As a result he developed a strong sense of empathy with children who have to continually monitor and cope with their diabetes.

As part of his college education, Aaron created his own major in Mechatronics and User Interaction Design, with the express purpose of learning the necessary engineering skills to create Jerry the Bear.  Talk about focus and dedication!

Hannah is the creative force behind the business — illustrating and designing all the ideas and making sure that the product is accessible and intuitive to the young users. She was recently listed as one of the Top 15 Women to Watch in Tech by Inc. Magazine.  In her spare time she co-founded Design for America, a non-profit that empowers students to use design to create social good.  Jerry the Bear is its first project.

As readers of my blog might know I am a fan of competitions AND the smart use of technology.

The Department of Health, NHS London and London Health Programmes have are currently collaborating on a significant £2m competition to support the development of powerful technologies to impact on personal behaviour change.

Specifically they are looking for technological solutions that can help change behaviour in order to reduce the impact of obesity and alcohol related diseases.

They are looking for ideas that will enable behaviour change in everyday life. The technology must be easy to use and whilst it may at first seem novel, it will be designed with the aim of merging seamlessly into everyday life.

The applications will need to demonstrate how the technology would fit into the lives of busy Londoners – or other urban dwellers across England.

Entries will be selected in an open competition process, which will run in two phases. Several projects, of up to six months, will be funded in Phase 1 – the feasibility phase.  In Phase 1, 8-12 projects will receive part of a prize pool of £800,000.  Successful projects, of up to two years, will then be funded in Phase 2 – prototype development phase.

The Department of Health is the funding organisation; NHS London will manage the competition process and London Health Programmes can offer guidance to successful applicants and provide links to healthcare organisations that serve London.

The competition close on I June.  You can get more information here.   Bringing together a series of partners, having a decent prize pool to dangle in front of entrants and a two stages process is a great approach.  I am inspired to get a similar initiative going Down Under – any takes?

While long-term sustainable change takes time, resources and is best undertaken with a high level of insight, small-scale projects can be inspirational and attainable.

After all, small projects are better than none at all.

One project, which was implemented with an £8,000 budget is Taxi!: a one-year pilot project developed by the Walsall Council Creative Development Team to encourage local taxi drivers to review their lifestyle and make positive changes.  Accessible via the NSMC Showcase site, the case-study is worth a look.

Since the culture of taxi driving involves long, unsociable hours and many taxi drivers work more than one job to support their families, the project focused on encouraging drivers to make small lifestyle changes within their working lives, such as drinking more water and swapping junk food for healthy snacks.

Interventions included: a film showing how taxi drivers can turn ‘idle time’ into ‘active time’; cushions and seat covers bearing key messages; men’s health manuals; and supporting taxi companies to make structural changes to improve working conditions

11 out of 15 taxi drivers interviewed over the phone 5 weeks afte viewing the film reported a significant change in their lifestyle, which focused on increased levels of physical exercise and positive changes in diet, as well as dedicating more time to family activity

Several local taxi companies regularly screen the film at their drivers’ base and the local Licensing Department shows the film as part of their induction programme for new drivers

Download the full case-study.

The research found that that while easy behaviours such as recycling were now mainstream, sustainable living as a whole remained low on consumers’ priorities.

On transport, for example, only a quarter of respondents said it was very important to be greener, while 61% of those surveyed admitted they “can’t ever imagine” changing holiday plans to avoid flying.

The report found numerous instances of over-claiming on green behaviour, suggesting that in many cases, consumers wrongly believe they are doing as much as they can.

It also found that communications and using the word “green” increasingly elicited responses such as, “I’ve had enough of green”.

It concluded that while the conventional wisdom was that economic concerns had made it harder to attract consumers to the green movement, a “more worrying green saturation” was taking place.

The research recommends companies “take on each sustainability challenge on its own terms”.

David Hall, executive director, Behaviour Change highlighted Marks and Spencer’s ‘Shwopping’ drive, launched last week, as a good example of this, as it “is focused, super easy, highly relevant and it creates a feelgood factor without going anywhere near the word ‘green’”.

I came across the very worthwhile Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday this week.  Launched by USAID, the campaign aims to educate and generate awareness among a wider audience by collecting 5th birthday photos, engaging influencers and everyday citizens.  This is a novel and relevant hook to get the audience’s attention and who would disagree with the campaign name.  An added bonus is seeing photos of Hilary Clinton and Kim Kardashian on their 5^th birthdays!

The background information tells us that the campaign is designed to elevate a set of interventions that global health experts believe are the main drivers of child mortality.  These are;

• healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy
• essential newborn care
• preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV
• malaria
• nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life
• vaccines and routine immunisation
• pneumonia and diarrohea
• and improved sanitation to prevent the spread of disease.

These are very important issues and as you read about, you want to make a difference but the the ‘action’ component is not strong.  We are asked to raise awareness by spreading word about the campaign.  I feel this is a missed opportunity in terms of asking for donations or other forms of actions – as our Every Mother Counts posting from last week did.

That is just the premise behind Reynobond with EcoClean, which is touted as an “architectural panel that cleans itself and the air around it,”.

Introduced in 2011, Alcoa’s innovation is the result of a process that applies a titanium dioxide coating called EcoClean to the prepainted aluminum surface of its Reynobond architectural panels. Using natural sunlight, the coating then acts as a catalyst to break down organic pollutants on its surface and in the air around it; the harmless matter that results is then washed away by rainwater, according to the New York-based firm says.

Although quite a large scale is required:  the statistics suggest 10,000 square feet of EcoClean has the smog-eradicating power of approximately 80 trees – which is the equivalent to offsetting the nitrogen oxide created by the pollution output of four cars per day, it’s a novel idea and one that could be one of a number of solutions to give us clearer air.

This initiative was run as a partnership between the London Sustainability Exchange and Thames Water and aimed to promote water conservation with Hindu communities in East London, by making the link between scripture and sustainable consumption.

The programme included: Sustainability Starter Kits containing practical products such as water saving devices; temple talks and workshops; coffee evening sessions with women’s groups; participation at festivals; and a Community Champions scheme. This trained and used trusted figures of the community to run training sessions and in-home advice about sustainable water consumption

Although the case-study is weak on actual measurements of water savings the project achieved great engagement:

• 3,000 representatives of the east London Hindu community were engaged in the programme
• 520 pledges were made to use water more efficiently
• 264 pledges were made to take on other environmentally friendly actions
• Community Champions reached around 1,000 householders

Download the case-study from the NSMC Showcase site.

One such visionary thinker is Rachel Botsman and one such movement, for which she coined the term, is Collaborative Consumption.

Named by TIME as one of the 10 Ideas That Will Change The World, Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping reinvented through network technologies on a scale and in ways never possible before.

It started with a book and has now expanded to include a Collaborative Consumption Hub and a Collaborative Lab.