Recognising right behaviour

Changing behaviour is a complex thing, though it is governed by some pretty straightforward rules. First, raise awareness of the need for change; second, provide the knowledge and skills needed for changed behaviour; and thirdly, reinforce good behaviour through recognition (often enough) and reward. The rules are the same, whether you’re dealing with toddlers in a sandpit or the denizens of any boardroom. Which is one reason why the Forum ran the Climate Change Challenge last year with the Financial Times and HP and why we hope to run a similar project in 2010.One of the biggest incentives for right behaviour at the moment is Scotland’s new Saltire Prize. The guidelines were published last month for a £10 million prize to accelerate the commercial development of marine energy. The winner has to be able show their project will generate at least 100GWh electrical energy over two years. See Saltire websitefor more details.Sustainable sources of low-carbon energy is also the objective of the Ashden Awards – Green Futures Editor in Chief, Martin Wright, is one of the judges. Here the focus is on the very local. Also looking local for right behaviour, but not only in the realms of energy saving, is another Scottish venture, the St Andrews Prize for the Environment. As a Trustee, I’ve seen an eclectic group of finalists this year – an innovative method for removing arsenic from water (a lethal problem in Bangladesh, for example), a heroic and long-term campaign to save the golden lion tamarind monkey from extinction, and the Nuru Light offering a ratio of 35 hours of light to a 20-minute session on the battery recharging bicycle. Incentivising right behaviour inside companies and organisations is not a novel concept, nor are prizes for good ideas for solving environmental problems. But we really can’t have enough of them right now. Beating the recession and the consequences of unsustainable development will depend on a logarithmic increase in examples of right behaviour from which we all can learn. So if you have any bright idea about prizes Forum for the Future should be thinking about next, please let us know by using the comments section below. A bottle of champagne for the best.