14 DAY TRIAL // The inventor of the smart shopping cart thinks people can't commit to long-term earth-friendly ideas. It take time to teach an old dog new green tricks. This is most likely Jon Bird's conclusion, a very tenacious researcher who uses the power of computer combined with elements of psychology in order to improve the lives of many individuals.
Bird invented the smart food cart, that helps customers select their products according to their nutritious value, in local stores. Also, he designed a machine that teaches beginners how to play the violin. Very easy to achieve, and also effective.
Bird seemed to experience a tough time while struggling to change people's behavior regarding the level of energy consumption.
He proved, once again, that people aren't as open minded as they would like to consider themselves when it comes to green values.
He conducted an experiment by analizing 17 households on Tidy Street in Brighton, located south of London. The subjects were eager to monitor their homes' electricity usage. In order to make the progress visible, Bird's plan relied on the support of artists from the Goldsmiths College. They drew a huge graph across Tidy Street.
The city's average electricity consumption was indicated by a red line in the graph's center. The inhabitants were able to see their achievements, thanks to a yellow line and stars that were used as indicators. These last signs helped the individuals compare their results with the efforts of other people all across town.
Despite the fact that the strategy was very appreciated at first by the participants, soon they lost their interest towards this plan of improving the energy consumption.
After 3 weeks, the entire street was filled with drawings, and yet only 80% of the households' owners were still attracted by this idea.
After six weeks, only 50 individuals were still willing to participate and monitor their level of energy consumption.
Bird thinks that people are capable and motivated to assimilate tricks of improving their eco-friendly attitude only for a determined period of time.
Afterwards, they continue to waste resources, making scientists struggle to find the most sustainable strategy to solve environmnetal key issues, once and for all.
"If you give people feedback on energy use, it does have the effect of reducing energy usage in the short-term. What is trickier is, how do you get sustained sustainable behavior? Anybody who tells you they know how to do that, maybe hasn't done it," concluded Bird.