Promoting What Works

It is very likely that environmentalists are taking a losing approach to winning minds and hearts, and that they are only off by a few degrees on the compass. What if instead of talking about how much we needed to reduce or cut back our use/consumption/dependence/etc., the message was instead in terms of what was possible to achieve?

The EPA Smart Way program is, at first glance, another ho-hum government program. It is designed to protect the environment, but who really cares?

Smart Way is a program designed to reduce the consumption of carbon fuels (oil) by the transportation industry. The program has connections to all areas of the transportation industry: shippers, carriers, logistics, affiliates (truck dealerships, non-profits), and truck stops. Smart Way identifies products and practices that will reduce the oil consumed through the trucking of goods to and from locations across the country. Then it rates partners on a scale based on how well they are doing at reducing their oil consumption. Mere participation in the program, even at the lowest possible rating, means that a partner is probably performing better than organizations that do not participate.

At its worst, Smart Way is projected to reduce use of diesel fuel by 3.3 billion gallons.

3.3 billion gallons!

In the low end of the projection.

Smart Way is an effective public-private partnership that is actually working to reduce our dependence on non-renewable fuels and increase our environmental sustainability.

Sometimes in the shift towards sustainability, it is easy to become discouraged and wonder if there would ever be enough that we could do to really make a difference. What if the problems are just too large and too complicated to address before the proverbial point of no return? In programs like Smart Way, we can see that this despair is just not justified. In fact, promoting the promise of simple programs like Smart Way is an effective strategy for environmental advocates to pursue.

So while it might be true that we need to reduce our oil consumption X number of gallons by a certain year. That "X", whatever it is, is going to be a huge number. A daunting number. And we intuitively think of it as a negative number. In other words, when someone says, "Reduce by X number of gallons" and the mind of the listener thinks in terms of decrease. Of taking something away. When environmentalists say to decrease your use of [fill in the blank], we immediately think of what we are going to loose.

But what if we were to talk about what it is possible for us to achieve? Well that changes everything. Suddenly we aren't talking about what we loose, we're talking about what we can accomplish. It is subtle, it is even possibly subversive. But it is also effective.

Doomsday preachers attract a minimal crowd. But, leaders and innovators move entire nations toward better things. It is time to focus on the positive results that efforts towards sustainability can achieve. We've heard enough about what we cannot do. It is time to talk about what we can do.