For the 100-days challenge, we evaluated all 3 options and possible frameworks to proceed in terms of feasibility, understanding the knowns and unknowns, obstacles and opportunities as well. Eventually, our decision was to focus on behavioral change in single-use plastics and we narrowed it down to plastic bottles, disposable coffee cups, and plastic bags. Next step was validating the proof of action by conducting surveys which were completed last week in 2 different locations in Ankara. The locations were purposefully selected to cover a range of socio-economic backgrounds, lifestyles, and demographics. The results of the surveys will be shared in our next blog, but briefly, they provide behavioral insights that present a point of departure for the hypotheses and the relevancy of the data-oriented testing phase.

We have built a collaborative relationship with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality to establish a constructive ground for many other potential collaboration areas within the scope of urbanisation. 

Meanwhile, the behavioral insights clinic in Tunis set a road map for how to shape our experiments. As the first step, we will only focus on one single-use product which is disposable coffee cups because it enables us to work with both sides, i.e., supply and demand, in other words coffee shops and consumers. As we settled on this scale, we continued to analyse the ecosystem to find the right host (coffee shop) for experimentation since the design of the test requires training of staff, economic incentives provided by shop owners and an element of gamification. Currently, we have a couple of candidates who have been running environmental-friendly practices that align well with our approach.

Point of departure:

Carrying personal flasks and mugs is a daily practice for some and spreading this behavior within larger groups of people may lead to reduction of single-use plastics that end up in landfill. However, habits are usually very difficult to change. Asking the question ‘where should we start?’ led us to believe that we need to start with behavioral motivations.

Hypotheses:

If we encourage a popular, mainstream coffee brand to take action against disposable coffee cups and agree on possible incentives for it, then use of sustainable alternatives (flasks, mugs, biodegradable cups) will become mainstream with the influence of marketing efforts.

If we change the behaviour of baristas and customers, then there will be a significant decrease in the consumption of single-use coffee cups!

Methodology:

The nature of our action plan requires the use of behavioral insights including data collection on socio-economic backgrounds and daily lifestyles. The analysis of data will highlight current trends and habits of different personas to be communicated differently.