Habits may pose a significant obstacle for millions in adopting practices that could mitigate their impact on environmental pollution and climate change. Even those earnestly seeking actionable guidance for a positive environmental impact find themselves lost in the vast sea of information online. To counter this, Bydel Frogner, a borough in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, has found an innovative solution to address residents’ hesitation or the lack of actionable guidelines. The innovation consists of developing an interactive and dynamic mobile application, providing a clear understanding of sustainable habits based on simplified data. It directly engages users to encourage their daily participation, inspiring them to make informed decisions and gradually replace bad habits with sustainable practices.
Officials in Bydel Frogner launched the “My Footprint” initiative targeting residents in collaboration with the Oslo City Council and technology companies, under the category of “Citizen App” introduced as an initiative towards actualizing Oslo’s smart city vision. The innovative initiative paves the way for Bydel Frogner to lead in achieving the ambitious sustainability goal previously declared by Oslo. This goal involves reducing the individual carbon footprint in the city from 11 tons per person per year to 3 tons by 2030. The initiative envisions transforming into a sustainable community and environment by creating a world where individuals live with the lowest possible carbon footprint while enjoying a higher quality of life.
Despite residents of Bydel Frogner and Oslo in general embracing environmentally friendly behaviors such as recycling and active travel, taking the next and more crucial step of making changes in their living choices and lifestyle to reduce their carbon footprint is not an easy task. Therefore, the approach of the initiative relied on maximizing the use of technology provided by the “My Footprint” platform, such as behavioral “nudges” using technology (in the form of messages that appear automatically on the user’s phone screen) and sending specific, data-based information related to lifestyle to inspire and encourage citizens to make the right choices for the environment.
Therefore, “My Footprint” acts as a tool for ongoing learning, information exchange, and the development of a lasting, interactive daily relationship. This is in contrast to short-term awareness campaigns, which may lose their impact once they conclude. The initiative also acknowledges the significance of fostering a sense of collective responsibility. In this collaborative effort, residents, businesses, and public entities work together towards a shared goal.
The “My Footprint” platform aims to engage citizens by providing knowledge, information, and tools that enable them to make decisions and choices leading to a reduction in their carbon footprint. Over time, these practices become part of their lifestyle. The platform also allows users to measure the success of their efforts in reducing their carbon footprint and compare it with other users. A key challenge in facilitating this knowledge transfer has been simplifying it to make it accessible to everyone.
The topics featured in “My Footprint” app cover five categories that have the most impact on sustainability in daily life: products and services, energy, food, public services, and transportation. The platform’s content features simple language, devoid of complexity, and includes data and illustrations to increase its user-friendliness. The initiative’s team continues to develop the platform, adding more features. To date, the initiative has successfully garnered active participation and ongoing engagement from thousands of residents in the Bydel Frogner neighborhood on a weekly basis.
Initially, the team looked at the many individual and collective actions undertaken by the residents of the neighborhood to gain an understanding of their efforts and perspectives on reducing their carbon footprint. This research revealed several key insights. Firstly, most residents are not keen on making radical changes but are open to gradual, cumulative changes that do not significantly disrupt their daily life routines. Secondly, there is a growing awareness among them that their daily choices also bring personal benefits to their health and well-being. On the other hand, the team noticed that some residents feel frustrated, believing the challenges to be overwhelmingly complex and insurmountable.
In a subsequent stage, the team utilized non-personal data to measure the impact of various initiatives introduced by community groups. They then invited a selected group of residents to form a test group, whose members agreed to use information from their personal data. This included their movements, financial transactions, water and electricity consumption, among other aspects. This study aided the team in identifying data that allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of the residents’ behaviors.
A major reason for the platform’s success is its initial strategy, which focused more on inspiring enthusiasm than simply providing information. It encourages residents to actively contribute their views and solutions. This approach is based on the belief that citizens are more likely to listen to advice and experiences coming from within their own community than to external expert opinions. An important aspect of this approach is that it’s not just about the valuable input residents provide to the initiative; it’s also about them feeling a sense of ownership over it, which in turn, strengthens its development and overall success.
The Bydel Frogner experience serves as a example for cities that want to engage their residents actively in reducing their carbon footprint. However, cities must first consider the potential challenges, which can be summarized in three main points: First, the difficulty of influencing people to abandon their deep-rooted life concepts and habits, which requires effective strategies capable of strongly motivating behavior change and the adoption of new practices. Second, explaining complex sustainability concepts in a simplified manner that most people can understand to attract their participation is a complex process that requires specialized efforts. Finally, creating and maintaining the infrastructure for dynamic smart technology, like “My Carbon Footprint,” requires significant resources and may face obstacles in terms of readiness and technical access.
Today, the “My Footprint” app is still in its early stages, and there is ample room for further learning about what ideas work and what can be improved. This largely depends on the feedback and opinions of the citizens. The platform provides a dedicated space for receiving their suggestions on various matters, and the content and tools they would like to have available.
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