What unsustainable behavior needs to change:

The increasing CO2 emissions from e-commerce deliveries presents a pressing environmental concern. If consumers decided to have their online order delivered to a pick-up point instead of at home, this could reduce up to 33% of CO2 emissions.

However, consumer decision-making is influenced by the mental overload and existing habits around online shopping. Consumers often multitask while shopping online (e.g., checking social media, e-mail, or news). This high cognitive load likely makes them go for the path of least resistance, such as the default or habitual choice.
To overcome this obstacle, the team designed four nudges and conducted testing via an randomised controlled trial with 1,204 participants to determine the most effective approach in altering consumer behaviour.

The Green Nudge:

To overcome this obstacle, the team designed four nudges and conducted testing via an randomised controlled trial with 1,204 participants to determine the most effective approach in altering consumer behaviour.

The four nudges included one default and three information nudges. For the default nudge, the most sustainable delivery method was automatically selected at the check-out page. For the three information nudges, CO2 impact of the delivery options was displayed: either as a green leaf next to the most sustainable option (low complexity), percentage of CO2 reduction for the most sustainable option (medium complexity), and CO2 emissions in grams for each delivery option (high complexity).

The result: The default nudge was more than 5 times as effective at steering consumers towards the most sustainable delivery option (delivered to pick-up point) relative to the control condition. While not effective in terms of shifting to the most sustainable choice, the most complex informational nudge steered consumers away from the two most polluting options – thereby potentially saving more greenhouse gas emissions than the other nudges. 

Results were replicated in a second study among more than 35,000 consumers, showing that a default nudge combined with information about CO2 impact was more than twice as effective than the control condition.

What unsustainable behavior needs to change:

Parks are a crucial and much-needed escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. They offer a space to relax, people can indulge in recreational activities, and city folk can appreciate the lush greenery that contrasts the concrete jungle. Unfortunately, unsustainable behaviour by some park-goers often results in a decline in park conditions, including littering and other detrimental effects.

Waste behaviour: It’s a well-known image for a Dutchman: a park buried under litter after a sunny day. Despite municipalities enforcing and communicating numerous rules for clean and respectful behaviour in public spaces, visitors often struggle to comply. This begs the question: are municipalities using the most effective behavioural approach? Visitors come to parks for relaxation, yet they often feel constrained by rules that limit their freedoms.

Takeaway delivery behaviour: Meal delivery has grown increasingly popular in the Netherlands. Dutchies particularly enjoy having meals delivered not only to their homes but also to public spaces like parks. However, delivering meals to parks presents challenges, as there is no official delivery address. Some rely on nearby houses with numbered addresses to receive food deliveries, resulting in lost drivers, frustrated residents, and a disruption of park visitors‘ relaxation.

The Green Nudge:

Fama Volat has implemented a behavioural intervention to the challenge of meal deliveries in parks. They have installed small, easily identifiable houses with a dual purpose in several parks. Introducing Parkhuisje 3 (Parkhouse 3): on one side, an official address to serve as a collection point for delivery meals, and on the other side, a disposal point for litter in the park.

Parkhuisje 3 is a Green Nudge that replaces traditional communication and rules in parks towards cleaner behaviour, making smart use of the law of reciprocity: a ‘give’ and a ‘take’. By having a designated meeting point for meal deliveries, people receive their meal warm and on time (the ‘take’) thus encouraging  people to clean up after eating ( the ‘give’). In exchange, a clean park for easy ordering and delivery.

The result: Not only were there happier faces in the park where Parkhuisje 3 was stationed, but waste processors found less litter and fewer nuisance reports. The success of Parkhuisje 3 garnered regional and national media attention. And as a result, more of these houses will be installed in Dutch parks in the summer of 2023.