Take a look at the thrilling climate theory that inspired The Ducky Challenge and millions of people worldwide to take climate action
In 2017, the renowned scientist and psychologist Per Espen Stoknes revealed the key to engagement in his inspiring TED Talk. If you are looking for ways to engage, educate, or include your people in the company's sustainability strategy, we promise you will find Stoknes' insights fascinating and valuable.
If you are working with sustainability in an organisation and are struggling to engage more of your people, we recommend you watch this.
About Per Espen Stoknes
Per Espen is an internationally recognised thought leader in sustainability issues and has written several books. Among them are Tomorrow’s Economy (2021) on MIT Press (available in 3 languages) and What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming (2015), which won the Outstanding Academic Title from the American Library Association.
Check out Per Espen Stoknes' books and his website here.
We all have 5 psychological barriers to climate action
In the TED talk, Stoknes points out that we all have five main barriers to taking climate action. He calls them the 5 D's: Distance, Doom, Dissonance, Denial and iDentity.
The first one is the issue of distance: people tend to ignore the climate crisis because it feels distant and not immediate. Secondly, the doom factor: climate messages are often negative, featuring imagery of polar bears on melting ice or extreme weather, which can be overwhelming. Thirdly, there’s the dissonance between what we know and want. For instance, many know that beef has a high carbon footprint, yet we continue to buy it because we really like it. Fourthly, denial: the enormity of the problem can lead people to avoid acknowledging climate change, using self-defence mechanisms to avoid feeling fear and guilt. The last one is identity. This is based on the fact that people filter information through their professional and cultural identities, and if new information challenges their sense of self, it’s often disregarded.
These five barriers explain why we don't take climate action but keep living our lives as they are today, even though we see on the news that action is needed. However, Per Espen Stoknes presents five solutions for climate communication to engage and motivate people to take climate action. All of them are strongly implemented in the Ducky Challenge platform, which encourages climate actions in our daily lives.
This is how the 5 solutions are implemented in the Ducky Challenge
The Ducky Challenge incorporates the five solutions that Per Espen Stoknes presents in his TED talk and his book: What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming. We developed the challenge by addressing these solutions and overcoming the psychological barriers that prevent people from taking climate action. This is how.
1. Social networks
Humans are social beings; we all want to be accepted by our peers and part of a social network. This makes a competition for an entire organisation an excellent tool for engaging people. Peer pressure and the collective spirit of doing something fun together can strongly motivate participation. The Challenge leverages the power of competition to bring people together and create a social activity.
Many customers report that people frequently discuss the Ducky challenge during office lunches. This leads to more participants joining in over time! This way, we encourage peers, as they are the best messengers for changing attitudes on climate change through face-to-face conversations. When people talk about it and have fun, it creates a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), making it uncomfortable not to join in.
Les mer: Hvordan Ducky Challenge ble en årlig, sosial tradisjon i Upheads.
2. Supportive framings
Most climate messages are packed with catastrophe, costs, and sacrifice. Therefore, the Challenge provides a positive, encouraging, and fun atmosphere to make climate action fun, easy, and manageable. In addition, the game focuses solely on the positive actions you can take for the climate and environment. There are no penalty points here - only CO2e to save!
It's all about doing as much good as possible. Sustainability can be something everyone understands and relates to without threats, shame, or melting ice flakes.
3. Simple actions
This is the solution the whole Challenge is mainly built on. We all might want to do something to help. However, making climate-friendly decisions in everyday life can be difficult for most. Where do we begin? Do my actions matter? How much do they matter?
The Challenge answers all these questions by showing, in kilos of climate gas emissions, the climate impact of every small daily action. This way, you learn what daily actions you can take and how much they matter! It doesn't get any easier than this!
4. Storytelling
We're tired of the doom and gloom climate apocalypse stories. Instead, we need inspiring tales of companies, scientists, and commoners developing innovative solutions. We should share visions of a green, thriving society with better livelihoods, smarter cities, and resilient, rewilded nature.
Use the Ducky Challenge to create your own success stories. Take climate action now and inspire others by showing how you reduced your Scope 3 emissions through employee engagement and commitment.
5. Signals
We need personal and actionable signals instead of focusing on global indicators like CO2 accumulation or Antarctic melting. These indicators should measure the contributions of companies, cities, states, friends, and individuals – tracking progress monthly or daily in our collective effort towards a greener future.
In a Ducky Challenge, you receive data-driven signals throughout every competition. These indicators show live updates on team performance, the number of activities logged, and the amount of CO2e your company has saved. After the Challenge, you can download a comprehensive end report summarising your efforts. Use these numbers in your CSDR report or reduction plan, allowing you to report on the tangible impact of your actions.
The Ducky Challenge blends climate insights with practical learning on sustainability. Participants learn about the impact of daily actions on the climate while competing against each other, fostering optimal team building. Developed over ten years, the Ducky Challenge is playful, simple, intuitive, and deeply rooted in robust scientific and psychological principles. Per Espen, Stoknes' research is the key to the theoretical foundation that makes the Ducky Challenge so effective.
Ready to take climate action into your own hands?
Try a Ducky Challenge in your organisation! Contact us here, or read more about how the Challenge can help you raise an aware and educated workforce in positive framing here.
