The role of a workplace campaign and a carbon footprint calculator for motivating pro-environmental habits

Household consumption accounts for around 60% of Sweden’s consumption-based climate emissions. Carbon footprint calculators have been proposed as potentially effective tools for making people aware of their climate footprint, but their success in supporting habit change has been limited. One reason may be the calculators’ inability to point to concrete action, failing to give users the agency to change their routines. In this article, we shift the focus from the carbon calculator to its social context, supported by a workplace campaign. How can a workplace campaign including a footprint calculator raise awareness about the climate impacts of everyday habits and motivate lifestyle changes? We draw upon knowledge of social psychology, emphasizing the social context as a platform for change. We studied campaigns at two workplaces – how they affected employees’ pro-environmental habits and factors strengthening and weakening their motivation. We show that workplace campaigns can help employees reduce their carbon footprint through changes in everyday habits. Companies can play an essential role in supporting such processes. On the one hand, participants in the campaigns were motivated by the companies’ engagement in sustainable lifestyles and their support for employees’ efforts to form more sustainable everyday habits. Social aspects of the campaign, such as team spirit and the presence of a strong leader, also played key roles. On the other hand, participants’ motivation was weakened because the campaign did not adequately target their current practices and foster a sense of a community. Their motivation was also undermined by problems using the footprint calculator.