As part of our blog post series for London Climate Action Week, we hear from Dr Sian Moxon about a new campaign utilising behavioural insights in support of net zero aims.
Our brand new wildlife campaign for the capital is underway: London, let’s get rewild urges Londoners to let their gardens, patios or window boxes become a bit wilder.
Led by myself and colleagues at London Met University, the initiative builds on the success of our award-winning Rewild My Street movement.
London, let’s get rewild runs for three months this summer, through May, June and July. It has two purposes: firstly, straight-forwardly, to encourage Londoners to support local nature recovery through small personal steps.
These might include: mowing grass less often to help pollinators find dandelions and daisies; planting window boxes with flowers for bees and butterflies; or cutting holes in fences to create routes for hedgehogs.
Secondly, the campaign will test the effectiveness of different messages for inspiring people to look after their local environment. Using digital media, via the @rewildmystreet Instagram account, the campaign will test audience engagement with three different sets of messages.
The first type of message will be about the wider context of climate change. The second will test if people are motivated by things that benefit them personally, such as boosting health and mental wellness.
And the third set of messages will show how wilder landscapes can provide solutions to problems, such as creating cooler, more temperate, more flood-resilient environments.
While London has beautiful green spaces, nature in the city is under threat from urban development.
What’s more, as our climate warms, Londoners, like all city-dwellers, will feel the impact of heat waves and flash flooding more intensely than their rural neighbours. And by 2050, seven in ten people globally are predicted to live in urban areas.
But all is not lost. Wildlife can thrive in cities, especially if we give it a helping hand. And studies show that access to green spaces makes people healthier, calmer and happier.
Our hope, with London, let’s get rewild, is to inspire people to embrace wildness in their city. And it’s also, as researchers, to provide us with an evidence base for what messages best motivate people to restore nature.
The initiative is part of the Wild Ways research project, which explores the use of behaviour change and design approaches to motivate nature-friendly actions.
Its findings will be published so that other nature campaigns can benefit from their research into what motivates people to restore nature.
More widely, the London, let’s get rewild campaign, embodies the spirit of civic engagement that is central to London Metropolitan University’s mission and the work of the London Met Lab.