Raising awareness is important. But it rarely changes practice on its own.
Many sustainability initiatives still lean on familiar levers to drive change: legislation, incentives, and public education campaigns. Each of these has a role. But in practice, especially in complex or place-based settings, we often need more.
People don’t act based only on what they know. We are social, emotional, and embedded in relationships and routines. We respond to what others are doing, to what feels doable, and to the settings we are part of. Even in policy and science settings, behaviour is shaped by context and culture as much as by content.
That’s why simply raising awareness is rarely enough. In most of the place-based or cross-sector initiatives I’ve worked with, the issue isn’t a lack of knowledge. People already understand the challenges. What they need is support to act, together.
This also shifts how we think about public engagement itself. It’s not just about improving messaging, but about enabling the conditions for action. That means institutions working with people to co-create spaces for shared learning, coordination, and reflection. When we ask “What impact did this have?”, we’re looking for signs that the changes made helped shift routines, strengthen relationships, or enable more joined-up responses. These are the kinds of signals that matter when working in complex, real-world settings.
More recent behavioural insights and systems-based work have helped clarify this. They encourage us to look at:
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the settings in which behaviours occur, not just individual motivations
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the importance of networks and relationships, not just individual choices
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the role of practice and habits, not just beliefs and attitudes
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the need for alignment and coordination, not just persuasion
This shift in thinking matters when we are trying to support stewardship, kaitiakitanga, or other forms of collective responsibility. In these settings, outcomes depend on how well different actors align and support one another. No single message or campaign can achieve that.
Where legislation and incentives are hard to implement or enforce, these relational and systems-aware strategies offer another pathway. They also give us a better lens through which to assess whether conventional approaches are actually working. If we want to support lasting change, we need to focus not just on what people know, but on how they are supported to act.
So next time someone says “we just need to raise awareness,” it’s worth pausing. What if the challenge isn’t awareness, but alignment? Not more information, but better collaboration? Real shifts in practice depend on how well we navigate these deeper dimensions.
I explore these themes regularly at Learning for Sustainability and through my writing on participatory evaluation, systems practice, and adaptive strategy. Would love to hear what’s working in your context.
[* Photo credit: Adobe Stock / FS-Stock]
