Individual Action

Individual action refers to changes in behavior that a person can make to reduce their carbon footprint.  Examples include changing one’s transportation habits, food choices, and consumption behaviors. We urge you to commit to saving at least one ton of carbon emissions a year. That is a meaningful target for an individual, and one that is in line with the Paris agreement.

Links to resources for individual action:

• Cool Climate Network
• Center for Behavior and Climate’s Top Ten climate actions page
• What lifestyle changes will shrink your carbon footprint the most?

 Collective Action

Collective action refers to the behaviors of a group of individuals that effects change, based on an agreed-upon group decision.  Examples include a neighborhood, student body, or professional organization working together as a group to take action on climate. Collective action is a great way to get to scale with climate action. It also helps to increase the efficacy of those who participate. Collective action is potentially one of the most impactful strategies for addressing climate change. 

Links to resources for collective action:

• Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL)

Political activism has the potential to be extremely impactful. CCL is a well-run bipartisan lobbying organization dedicated to advancing pro-climate legislation at national and state levels. The larger a lobbying organization is, the more likely they are to have influence with Congress. If a few thousand of the over 200 thousand behavior analysts joined CCL, it could help that organization pass pro-climate legislation. Moreover, the behavior change expertise of behavior analysts could be helpful to the organization; and conversely, the activism skills of CCL members might be helpful to behavior analysts with practice-related goals. CCL meetings occur at the state level monthly; there is a national lobbying conference in Washington as well as several regional conferences offered throughout the year.