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Why mondays are great to encourage sustainable behaviour

Sustainable goals can only be achieved when you’re working together, but you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. Especially on those typical ‘manic Mondays’. It turns out though, that Mondays are the perfect moment to change habits.

Engaging and aligning others, whether it’s your employees, building stakeholders or portfolio managers, in making behavioural changes to meet the same goals, are key to creating energy-positive buildings.

Research suggests that Mondays are the perfect moment to encourage the first steps towards a zero-carbon future.

Study Johns Hopkins on Meatless Mondays
A study by Johns Hopkins, for instance, points out that the concept of ‘Meatless Mondays’ are best designed to start at the beginning of the week when people are more open to healthy behaviours.
“Monday offers an opportunity to “reset” and get back on track after any lapses over the weekend and studies show people that get back on track at the beginning of the week are better able to maintain progress over time. Meatless Monday in organisations or whole communities can foster solidarity and a shared commitment to reducing meat consumption.” Meatless Mondays also address worldwide problems such as chronic preventable diseases, overuse of precious land and water resources, and the acceleration of climate change, which threatens our planet’s future.

Make sustainability an everyday topic
Meatless Mondays and offering everyday vegetarian and vegan menu options in the company cafeteria are great and easy ways to reduce your businesses carbon footprint and making sustainability an everyday element of your company policies and goals.

It gets even better when you can announce your planet-friendly menu options on your narrowcasting screen via hello energy’s solution.

Landmarks have a ‘fresh start effect’
But it’s not only a Monday that calls attention to much needed behavioural change. Other dates that mark important events can be just as effective in creating awareness on sustainability.

Across five studies, psychological scientists found that people are more motivated to pursue their goals on certain dates.

Dates stand out as more meaningful
The study says that people tend to attribute negative traits and failures to their past selves while maintaining a positive image of their current selves. Dates that stand out as being more meaningful—such as the start of a new week or financial quarter, a birthday, or a holiday— signal the start of a new, distinct time period. Essentially, people are more empowered and motivated to pursue their goals when they feel like their past failures are behind them and their future success is ahead of them — a phenomenon the researchers dub “the fresh start effect.”

Did you know that…
hello energy is a SaaS solution that engages real estate owners to create energy-positive buildings. You can get insights on your daily sustainability score and benchmark your company’s energy usage to other similar companies. Our solution allows you to create playlists with an announce board via your narrowcasting screens, engaging your visitors or employees in seeing and contributing to your daily sustainability progress. Find out more here.

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