With the support of a $36,000 grant from the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, Root Solutions is teaming up with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) on an innovative program to reduce paper consumption on campuses. Drawing on Root Solutions’ expertise in behavioral psychology, “Turning the Page on Campus Paper Use” will engage 11 AASHE members throughout the course of the upcoming academic year and provide them with in-depth training, guidance, and tools to implement a behavior-based paper saving program on their campus.

Root Solutions led the cohort through an introductory training at AASHE’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas in September 2017. We guided participants through our human-centered design process, how to create and analyze their own barriers analysis, and gave an intro to two of our ten Behavioral Building Blocks. Throughout the rest of the academic year, we are helping each cohort in analyzing their determinants analyses and designing and implementing behavioral interventions in order to overcome barriers and amplify benefits of the desired paper-reducing behavior.

At the conclusion of the 2017-18 academic year, we will also assist participants to measure the impact of their campaigns. We plan to publish best practices and lessons learned into a guidebook as a tool for the higher education community.