Green Footprints
A social experiment to change littering behaviour & reduce litter on the ground
Background
Since 2013, Keep Britain Tidy has been working with local land managers to deliver a series of experiments aimed at changing littering behaviour as part of its Defra funded Social
Innovation to Prevent Littering programme. The experiments are evaluated to assess their impacts to behaviour and litter on the ground, with a view to encouraging replication to scale the intervention across England.
This year, Keep Britain Tidy would like to partner with two local land managers to test the use of green footprints as a ‘nudge’ behaviour intervention to reduce litter. Green footprints are placed on the ground to highlight and direct location users towards the nearest bin, thereby ‘nudging’ them towards responsible litter disposal. The approach was developed and tested by Pelle Guldborg Hansen and his students in Copenhagen in 2011, with the trial achieving a 46% reduction in litter.
The Copenhagen Green Footprints experiment
Pelle Guldborg Hansen and his students designed a social experiment to tackle a litter problem in
Copenhagen. In a high footfall area, researchers gave out wrapped sweets to people in the street and counted the number of wrappers that were littered on the streets, placed in bins and left in bicycle baskets. Then, they placed green footprints on the ground that lead to the bin and gave out the sweets again and repeated the counting task. The result was a 46% decrease in wrappers ending up on the street. Green footprints were effective and made finding a bin easy. Pelle Guldborg Hansen stated that "the green footsteps certainly caught people's attention...I think they create an atmosphere where the public feel more conscious about litter ... and perhaps there is also a subconscious inclination to follow the feet." 1
1 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/08/tech/innovation/green-nudge-environment-persuasion/
1

We are aware that the green footprints have been trialled in a few locations in the UK, however there is currently a lack of robust evidence to demonstrate their impact to litter on the ground and longer term effectiveness here. We would therefore like to work with two partners to trial the green footprints and monitor their impacts, including longer term impacts. We will conduct the experiment at two locations per partner area: one park/recreation area and one main retail and commercial area.
Aim and objectives of the research
The aim of the research is to test the application of green footprints as a nudge approach for increasing bin usage and so decreasing the amount of litter present on the ground.
The main objectives are to identify:
 the impact of the footprints on littering behaviour
 the longevity of any impacts over a three month period
 learnings to improve the effectiveness, appropriateness, efficiency and impact of the green footprints for any future iterations of the project.
Partnership agreement
We are seeking two local land managers across England to deliver the green footprints approach at two locations in their areas. We envisage that the project will run for approximately four months, beginning in late July 2014 with an inception meeting between the two partners and Keep Britain Tidy to fine tune the experiment and agree the monitoring and evaluation framework.
Keep Britain Tidy will:

Project manage the experiment

Source and provide the green footprints for use in the experiment
 Design the monitoring and evaluation for the experiment with input from the partners

Evaluate the experiment based on the monitoring results and provide feedback to the partners.
The partners will:

Select two sites for the experiment – one park and one main retail and commercial area

Attend an inception meeting with Keep Britain Tidy in late July 2014 to fine tune the experiment and the monitoring and evaluation framework

Install the green footprints at all bins at the two locations and leave them there for 11 weeks (partners are welcome to continue displaying the footprints after the monitoring period if they wish)

Monitor and record the impacts of the experiment to litter on the ground and in litter bins as outlined in the framework below.
2

Monitoring and evaluation
The monitoring and evaluation of the green footprints’ impact to litter is crucial to the success of this experiment. It is expected that this monitoring will be the most timeconsuming aspect of the experiment for partners, however Keep Britain Tidy will provide monitoring guidelines, templates and other support to assist the partners.
The monitoring approach to be taken will be agreed at the inception meeting and will involve some measure of impact, such as counting or weighing litter. The approach agreed on will need to be the same for both partners. The monitoring will need to be conducted on a daily or weekly basis by the partner during the dates in the table below, though there is some flexibility to fit in with the partners’ current cleansing schedule and resourcing requirements.
Monitoring activity
Control monitoring – week 1
Control monitoring – week 2
Control monitoring – week 3
Install green footprints on 1 Sept 2014
Green Footprints monitoring – week 1
Green Footprints monitoring – week 2
Green Footprints monitoring – week 3
Week commencing (Monday)
11 August 2014
18 August 2014
25 August 2014
1 September 2014
No monitoring required (continue to display the green footprints)
8 September 2014
15 September 2014
22 September 2014
29 September 2014
6 October 2014
13 October 2014
20 October 2014
27 October 2014
3 November 2014
10 November 2014
Long term monitoring – week 1
Long term monitoring – week 2
How to apply
Long term monitoring – week 3
We are inviting Expression of Interest from local land managers across England to partner with us to deliver the experiment in their areas. To apply, please complete the Expression of
Interest form attached with this brief, confirming that you would be committed to helping undertake the monitoring and evaluation of the experiment and outlining why you would make a good delivery partner, and return it to rose.tehan@keepbritaintidy.org
by 5pm,
Thursday 10 July 2014.
For any enquiries regarding the Green Footprints experiment, please do not hesitate to contact Rose Tehan on 020 7549 0326 or at rose.tehan@keepbritaintidy.org
.
3