Fostering Sustainable Behavior

Each article in the Journal of Fostering Sustainable Behavior (JFSB) will focus on one specific behavioral change, such as the installation by householders of low-flow showerheads. Articles will be organized in four sections. The first section includes a detailed description of why it is important to foster the behavioral change (e.g., installation of low-flow shower heads reduces water consumption, enhances energy efficiency and lowers CO₂ emissions). The second section reviews what is presently known regarding the perceived barriers and benefits to the target audience engaging in the behavior. The third section describes the most effective programs that have been delivered to date to foster the behavioral change. Finally, based on the previous information, the fourth section details how best to foster the behavioral change and indicates how this strategy should be pilot tested.

Articles submitted to JFSB will be subjected to blind peer review. Subsequent to acceptance for publication, articles will be copy edited to ensure a high level of readability by a non-academic audience. Accepted articles will be published online at the Fostering Sustainable Behavior website. To ensure broad dissemination, each article will be announced via the Fostering Sustainable Behavior listserv (this listserv currently reaches a global audience of over 6000 environmental program planners daily).

The abstract of each article will reside on a unique page of the Fostering Sustainable Behavior website with the full article downloadable as a pdf from that page. Further, each article will have its own discussion forum associated with it. That is, the JFSB will be fostering online learning communities where academics and practitioners can dialogue with one another regarding the promotion of specific behaviors. Additionally, these articles are meant to be living documents. As more is learned regarding promoting the behavior the paper will be revised by the author(s) or an addendum will be added to it. Finally, in the future we plan to also provide the communication pieces that are necessary to deliver the strategy detailed in the article. We anticipate that these freely available turnkey solutions will result in broad adoption by practitioners.

Currently, we have some 15 papers under development or review dealing with behaviors as diverse as carpooling, installing low-flow showerheads and reducing residential fertilizer use. We expect the first of these articles to appear in Fall of 2009. For further information contact jfsb@cbsm.com. Download the call for papers here.