It's all about creativity and cooperation -- finding ways to promote conserver solutions and help people take action.

There are a lot of great activities out there, but there are subtle differences with movement-based campaigns and projects.  They are generally designed to contribute to a larger objective; they are flexible and can be easily adapted and integrated with other organizations activities, and; they are supportive, helping to promote the related services of programs of others.

Here's two examples -- one campaign and one project -- that grew out of our work developing We Conserve.
 

The Doors Closed Campaign
Ever notice how stores and restaurants blast cold air out their wide open doors and patios to attract customers inside?  It's a blatant waste of electricity, and a hot-button issue for all those people who have been doing their best to conserve at home.

The "air conditioned nightmare" was an obvious target for a quick start campaign to test to potential for a movement-based campaign.  We designed a positive "procott" campaign (as opposed to a boycott) that would encourage people to show their support for stores and restaurants that kept their doors closed (or used fans instead).

The first Doors Closed campaign happened in the summer of 2005 — a test case for “movement-based social marketing”. We wanted to see what happens when we get volunteers, community groups, and local businesses cooperating on a common positive message.

The results were stunning. Over a two week period we had around 5,000 posters distributed by 24 organizations in 15 communities. For the full results, you can download a campaign report of the 2005 Campaign.

Just as important, Doors Closed helped to promote organizations and services that could help retailers go further with energy conservation.  In particular, the campaign dovetailed with the Cool Shops retail outreach campaign of the Clean Air Foundation and the greenTbiz service of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas.

Doors Closed has also laid the foundation for an ongoing partnership with retail associations.  Through upcoming programs such as the Green Star Rating system, we hope to have stores and restaurants as leaders and ambassadors for conservation.
 

Jane's Walk -- a simple idea with great legs!
We all know sprawl is bad for the environment, and walkable urban villages are good -- but how can we even begin to turn around half a century of marketing the dream home instead of the dream community?

The answer grew out of a simple notion of a community event that would challenge participants to explore their neighbourhood and discover hidden features, great stores, and other amenities.  The connection with the late urban visionary, Jane Jacobs, brought an amazing group of supporters together to create an annual series of community walks that are led by community leaders and offer truly unique windows into the workings of our towns and cities.