Can we act towards greener attitudes?

We know it — even too well; climate change is pushing our way of life — everything from shopping to energy consumption to experiences such as festivals. As Danes, we consume four times our share of the planet's resources. Still, most Danes do not change their behavior. A pilot project at the festival Smukfest has shown the way in 2022 and is now being extended to the festival in 2023. Between tent pegs and empty cans, we can find thought and inspiration for climate action for businesses, education and public organisations. Join us at the partnership project Smukkere Camping.

The festival as a laboratory for behavior change

The festival season is in full swing. Once again this year, thousands of happy and expectant people flock together in Skanderborg for one of Denmark's largest music festivals. Smukfest, like other festivals and cultural events, is not without its climate footprint. Tents that could be recycled are left behind and end up as garbage, and waste from the camps on the camping area smokes for incineration if it is not sorted by the festival guests. There is potential to minimise waste and to sort so that it can be recycled better, but this requires a behavioural change. Smukfest, VIA University College, Renosyd, Skanderborg Municipality and Resonans have taken care of this through a partnership.

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Together, the project 'More Beautiful Camping' has been designed, in which students from education across VIA University College have focused on waste in the camping area Love. With the support of the partner organizations, the students have developed an effort to push the attitude from the fact that it is cool to hog, to that it is cool to clean up. With a youth-to-young approach, young people visit the many camps to hand out garbage bags and set up clean-up competitions. As a motivational draw, they have a stall with a large wheel of fortune. Handing in a filled garbage bag triggers spins on the wheel of fortune with various prizes up for grabs. With over 2,000 bags handed in by 2022, it creates a desire to clean up. As one of the VIA students Anders Kloster describes it:

“If you take something away from the festival goers, they lose something. Better give them something. They come up with something that costs them nothing and then they actually get something out of it“.

The playful game elements without the morality sermon have been crucial in pushing the culture change according to Anders:

“It's supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be morbid. And if it's a young person, you can better connect with it.“

Overall, the effort has also been a contributing factor in shifting the waste volumes at the youth camping area Kärliet. Marius Pedersen, the festival's renovation company, estimates that in 2022 they collected about 40% less rubbish at KærligeHeden than at the last festival in 2019, while aerial photographs of the area reveal cleaned up areas that are normally covered with rubbish.

We are pack animals, and action creates attitude

We know that a higher level of knowledge about climate change helps us humans to have the view that action should be taken. However, it is rare that this results in us acting and taking action ourselves actively and persistently to reduce high CO2 emissions. In other words, attitude does not necessarily create action — even if communication campaigns and efforts are built on that conviction.

In turn, we know from behavioral research that the opposite is true; action creates attitude. When we do something else, we also create an attitude about it. Our actions help push what we thought possible and shape our attitude. Just think of the shutdown during the corona pandemic. Large parts of the population changed attitudes towards the use of face masks by using them. The mouthpieces we were forced to use, but there are ways that can make us change behavior and culture completely voluntarily.

The approach in the project at Smukfest has been based on the fact that we are pack animals who prefer to do what is easy, intuitive and that makes us fit into the culture. Are there any starting on an action, the snowball can easily roll, as Anders highlights;

“We came to visit and it started a conversation that started an initiative in one person, and then the others started as well. They had their waste sorted and at the same time they were made aware of how important it is that air mattresses, for example, are handled separately, as they are quite toxic and difficult to recycle”.

Therefore, if we are to push the collective consciousness and create new attitudes, it often requires that we first do something different than we usually do. We need to push the collective culture around waste. The fact that some 'dare' to take the lead in an easy and fun way can bring others along and can reverse the general attitude. In other words, in the partnership we have worked to think big and start small through concrete experimental actions.

Partnerships can lead the way

The idea for the project was initiated back in 2019, after Anne-Mette from Resonans had been a volunteer 'morning raker' of waste at Smukfest, and was surprised by the passivity of many festival-goers regarding the handling of their waste, and as Anne-Mette describes it:

“I was very surprised by the culture of waste and the fact that from the morning cleaning we removed the garbage while the young people slept out the hangover. I tried to motivate the young people on my own, but I felt that more was needed. So on Monday morning after Smukfest, I contacted Skanderborg Municipality, who supported the partnership idea and helped to make contact with Smukfest.”

Beautiful party had the need. Skanderborg Municipality would like to actively contribute to reducing CO2 emissions from activities that take place in the municipality. Resonans is a consulting firm that translates complex challenges into concrete results through, among other things, co-creation. In the initial design process, we made contact with additional key players to address the challenge. The local renovation company Renosyd came on board as it is the organisation that handles the waste from the festival and has knowledge of recycling and recycling.

VIA University College joined as they have many young students who themselves are part of the target group, who live on the festival's camping grounds Love and would like to have practical project experiences. From Studiliv at VIA University College, project manager Louise Griberg Spaabæk sees clear benefits in partnership projects:

“When many different actors come together, the challenge is seen from several angles. All partners have brought in with knowledge and experience”.

Since it can be a challenging task to solve as an independent festival, company or public organization, the partnership approach offers innovative opportunities to think creatively by co-creating efforts with other actors, where everyone offers what they are good at.

Students as a Resource for Creating Behavior Change

Fortunately, it is becoming more common for pupils and students to participate in real projects and cooperate with companies, public organizations, etc. This has mutual value and can help to raise and perspective what is learned in education.
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Louise from VIA sees it as a complement to their regular internships:

“It is a form of internship for our students, where you can test competencies from your studies in real life. This is concrete and practical work on sustainability”.

Especially with themes such as sustainability, where organizations are still cracking the code, she sees this may be relevant:

“Sustainability is part of all our programmes, from nurse to building designer to value chain management. It gives the students a lot to do interdisciplinary work, and they absolutely shine when they see that their work can make a small difference — which over the next ten years can turn into a really big difference”.

Overall, Project Smukkere Camping is a good example of a field characterized by a complex societal challenge — and where we have needed to think across and to involve all age groups. A camping area at a festival is filled with young people, and then, of course, young people must be involved both to find solutions and to push behavior. Fortunately, the project continues at Smukfest 2023 — and we are excited to create the path towards greener behavior — from something we impose on each other to something we do together.

Good festival!