Messaging has always been at the core of the Media Center's work. There is almost nothing more important than learning how to make our information resonate to a large, diverse audience. That's why the Media Center traveled to focus groups around the region in the last year, in order to revamp its research. The strongest message that came out of the focus groups was the idea of transition and moving forward. People responded very favorably to the idea of moving into a modern energy system. However, I recently learned about another effective message that we didn't test.

I was discussing messaging with Neely Crane-Smith, community energy coordinator at the Center for Energy and Environment, while I was taping her for RE-AMP's monthly video profile. Her job is to help communities reduce their energy consumption through the Minnesota Energy Challenge. She too spends a lot of time researching to what message people best respond. When I asked what she's found, she answered without hesitation: "The one most motivating message is, ‘Your neighbor is doing this.'"

Neely referenced a study about social influence. Three men wanted to test the best method to encourage hotel guests to reuse their towels, so they put note cards with different messages in the bathroom. One encouraged guests to reuse their towels to help protect the environment, and another message encouraged guests to recycle their towels because 75 percent of the other guests had taken the same step to protect the environment. The men found that the environmental message led guests to reuse their towels about one-third of the time, while the bandwagon message led guests to reuse their towels about half the time.

The take-away message? Fresh Energy advocates for policy-based solutions to global warming, but individual actions are not without merit. They not only reduce a person's own energy consumption, but they influence others around them too.