Campus Talks: How can universities nudge students and staff towards greener choices?

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To reach net zero, institutions need to shift the behaviour of their whole campus community towards reducing their carbon footprint and making greener daily choices. This means changing long-established habits among thousands of students and staff. How can universities do this without becoming too dictatorial? 

We asked behaviour change expert Esther Papies, a professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, to explain what drives successful behaviour change and therefore what strategies universities need to employ to reduce their overall emissions and create greener campuses.

Esther’s research examines the social and psychological processes in the transition to healthier, more sustainable and more equitable choices, particularly relating to diet. She has published extensively on the motivations and barriers for reducing meat and dairy intake, the motivation for climate action among privileged individuals and emotional experiences relating to climate change.

She provides a clear breakdown of what is needed to support long-term behaviour change in favour of more sustainable lifestyles and shares advice on how to overcome inevitable resistance to altering long-held behavioural norms such as eating meat and driving cars.

You can find much more advice relating to reducing emissions and improving sustainability across higher education on the Campus site. Head to our dedication section with advice on on how universities can work towards the Sustainable Development Goals or check out our related spotlight guides:

• Greener lab practices in higher education
• Higher education’s bumpy road to net zero

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