Oiling the gears of public participation: the value of organisations in establishing Trinity of Voice for communities impacted by the oil and gas industry

With energy crises looming, conflicts over resource extraction and production are on the rise. For communities lacking voice to participate in these conflicts, community-based organisations and local non-governmental organisations help to unite, communicate, and negotiate with other stakeholders. In this paper we compare two cases that demonstrate the roles of organisations in providing voice to citizenry impacted by environmental justice issues. We use Senecah's concept of Trinity of Voice for the purposes of evaluation. These cases provide contrasting examples of how local/regional organisations chose to either expand their organisation's mission to intervene or stick to a strict reading of their mission thus excluding involvement. In both examples we found that organisational involvement, or lack thereof, influenced how citizens were involved in decision-making with one case leading to legislation protecting property owners from industrial activities, and the other leading to a lack of effective involvement and negatively impacted citizens.     

Psychological interventional approach for reduce resource consumption: Reducing plastic bag usage at supermarkets

A field study was conducted to investigate the reduction of plastic bag usage at supermarkets. Many behaviors leading to potential damage to the environment may be unintentional. This study applied a dual motivation model to plastic bag usage and examined the effects of an intervention aimed at promoting pro-environmental behavior. A voice prompt intervention was implemented in Japanese supermarkets. In the first (control) week, shoppers were given free plastic bags by the cashier. In the second (intervention) week, cashiers asked shoppers whether they wanted plastic bags. We collected observational and questionnaire measures of variables that predicted free plastic bag usage during the intervention. The results supported a dual motivation model of behavioral change. The voice prompt decreased the usage of plastic bags by both discouraging unintentional usage and encouraging an intentional reduction in usage. Possibilities for interventions designed both to attenuate unintentional motivation and to promote intentional motivation are considered.