In 2013 the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk created the “Keeping the Sound Healthy” a community-based social marketing campaign to encourage adoption of activities that protect water quality. Learn more about this project and others on Long Island Sound Study's "Promoting Sustainable Behavior Change" Web page. 

Spring Workshop Focuses on Creating Successful Behavior Change Campaigns

Contacts: 

Robert Burg, LISS Communications Coordinator, E: cbsm@longislandsoundstudy.net, P: 203-977-1546

Jimena Perez-Viscasillas, Long Island Sound Study Outreach Coordinator, E: jbp255@cornell.edu, P: (631) 632-8730

Stamford, CT, February 18, 2020 — Registration has opened today for an educational workshop targeted to environmental managers and advocates of Long Island Sound and its rivers and streams. The spring training focuses on developing effective environmental behavior change campaigns.

The two-day workshop, which will be held at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, is being led by Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, an internationally known environmental psychologist. Dr. McKenzie-Mohr will explain the steps to conduct Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM), a method that incorporates scientific knowledge on behavior change into the design and delivery of locally-based outreach campaigns. 

Attendees will learn how to select the most impactful behaviors, identify the barriers and benefits to change, pilot-test a campaign, and make improvements for broad-scale implementation. Lessons will be based on numerous case studies illustrating CBSM’s use.  More than 75,000 program managers have attended Dr. McKenzie-Mohr’s workshops throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. This will be his first in the Long Island Sound region.

Traditional environmental campaigns rely on information to try to persuade people to change their behaviors, such as providing a brochure explaining how over-fertilizing a lawn can lead to poor water quality.

“There is a lot of evidence that providing information by itself is not enough to motivate people to improve their environmental practices,” said Holly Drinkuth, co-chair of the Long Island Sound Citizens Advisory Committee and Director of Outreach and Watershed Projects for The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut. “We are excited that Dr. McKenzie-Mohr will be here to take us through the steps that lead to successful campaigns and meaningful change.”

“A CBSM pilot project conducted in the Niantic River watershed, led by the Long Island Sound Study in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Niantic River Watershed Committee, demonstrated that people are willing to change behaviors when they are asked to by a trusted local entity,” said Judy Rondeau, coordinator for the Niantic River Watershed Committee and Assistant Director of the Eastern Connecticut Conservation District. “Over 70 percent of homeowners agreed in the pilot to participate in our campaign, which encouraged homeowners to reduce or eliminate the use of lawn fertilizer."

Workshop Details

Date: April 28-29, 2020

Location: Hanson Exploration Station, Beardsley Zoo, 1875 Noble Ave., Bridgeport, CT

Registration: $75 (Feb. 18-April 6); $95 (April 7-April 17). Registration closes on April 17 at midnight, or when capacity is reached. Early registration is recommended as only 50 seats are available.

Register here, or find it on the Long Island Sound Study workshop web page where you can also find more information about the workshop, including an agenda and a biography of Dr. McKenzie-Mohr.

Attendance is limited to participants who work for organizations in the Long Island Sound watershed from CT and NY. If you work outside the region, please contact Audra Martin at amartin@neiwpcc.org before completing your registration.

More Info: Long Island Sound Study

Long Island Sound is one of the 28 nationally-designated estuaries under the NEP, which was established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of Long Island Sound and other places where rivers meet the sea.

The Long Island Sound Study, conducted under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Estuary Program (NEP), is a cooperative effort between the EPA and the states of Connecticut and New York to restore and protect the Sound and its ecosystems.

For more on what you can do to make a difference, click over to the "Get Involved" or "Stewardship" sections of the Long Island Sound Study's Web site. News on the Long Island Sound Study can also be found in New York Sea Grant's related archives.

If you would like to receive Long Island Sound Study's newsletter, please visit their site's homepage and sign up for the "e-news/print newsletter" under the "Stay Connected" box.

For daily updates and tips on how you can help protect and restore Long Island Sound, please join LISS on Facebook, Twitter or, sign up for their RSS feeds.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.