Promoting Behavioral Sustainability | Feeding the World without Destroying the Planet

Environmental sustainability depends on not only the development of green technologies and policies, but also on a thorough understanding of human behaviour. In this talk, Jiaying Zhao, Green College Leading Scholar, will explore how psychology can be used to promote pro-environmental behaviors. Specifically, Zhao will present a series of experiments that use simple psychological interventions to encourage recycling and composting behaviors, to reduce water consumption, to promote responsible car-sharing, and to nudge environmental activism in the public.

Navin Ramankutty discusses how our food production system is one of the biggest environmental threats.  Farming is a major driver of deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, as well as freshwater depletion and pollution. There is contentious debate regarding potential responses to this challenge. In fact, there is even contention about how to frame the challenge.