Once you have a green behavior-analytic project in place somewhere, successfully supporting sustainability, congratulations! But consider not stopping there. Consider bravely charging onward and scaling it up. (Start by recruiting others to help you.)
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The climate crisis demands big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at all levels. Behavioral scientists can lead by replicating already-successful community-level projects: energy efficiency, food waste reduction, green transportation, electrification, eco-friendly diets … the possibilities are almost unlimited. If a project works at one school, chances are it can work at another. The methods, like the projects, vary wildly, from group contingencies and antecedent manipulation to gamification, from role models and pledges to prompts and progress records.
The networks sharing successes that were covered in the last Green Blog post are a great place to locate projects to use as models. Of course, that doesn’t mean barriers won’t rear their discouraging heads… Overcoming them is one of the ways implementation science can help. What exactly is needed, to get action on a project? To see it through until it’s established and producing results? That’s the crux of implementation science.
Behavior analysts can be proud, as we helped develop this useful specialty. I was fortunate to hear one of the pioneers, Dean Fixsen, speak about implementation at the ABAI conference many years ago. Like any field, ours has had its share of scaling failures. A famous historical example is Project Follow-through of the 1960s (K-12 education; it’s in my book, and of course there are online summaries). More recently, contingency management (CM) for substance use disorder has received substantial dissemination and successful application, certainly. But, as one expert noted, “Given the enormous evidence base supporting CM, there is an incommensurate lack of availability of CM services for individuals and families who could benefit from them” (DeFulio, 2023, p. 37).
– DeFulio, A. (2023). Dissemination of contingency management for the treatment of opioid use disorder. Perspectives on Behavior Science 46: 35-49.
Notable scaling *successes* for us include early intensive behavioral intervention for autism spectrum disorders, performance management (organizational behavior management), positive behavior support (K-12 education), and clicker training (animal training and some human applications). Each of these advances had its own set of barriers and facilitating factors, and environmental sustainability science is no exception. A further complication in the case of sustainability is the huge array of behaviors targeted for change.
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While the specifics obviously depend on the nature and location of each project, it might be useful to list a few general implementation principles. Some basics of the science include consideration of the political context, financial and other resource limitations, stakeholder involvement, disciplinary barriers, organizational facilitation (or lack thereof!), treatment integrity, and the need for benefits to be clear, with ongoing monitoring to check up on everything. In each case, a research literature documents how to do a barriers analysis, and ways to address the barriers that are identified.
Some of the most common barriers to change include the time and effort for dissemination, any delay or imbalance in a project’s beneficial results (or immediate negatives), initial cost, overall cost-benefit ratio, violations of existing social norms, other sources of stakeholder opposition, technology challenges, level of perceived/actual risk, etc. Cultivating relationships with key stakeholders early on and highlighting the benefits can help, as can the use of comparable role models that have succeeded, and trusted messengers to communicate and convince.
Many of us are in position to support the expansion of successful sustainability initiatives in our organizations, schools, municipalities, and neighborhoods. With our powerful behavior analytic methods, plus the help of aids like implementation science, we can make a difference!
Here’s some mainly behavior-analytic references for implementation science:
Detrich, R., Keyworth, R., & States, J. (2016). Leveraging evidence-based practices: From policy to action. Learning Disabilities, 14: 121-142.
Fixsen, D. L., & Blase, K. A. (2018). The Teaching-Family Model: The first 50 Years. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42: 189-211.
Horner, R., & Kittelman, A. (2021). Advancing the large-scale implementation of applied behavior analysis. Behavior and Social Issues, 30: 94-105.
Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th ed.) Free Press. – a general classic.