The sustainability week would work to reduce consumption of bottled water and increase usage of tap water. To address perceptions of tap water surrounding the cleanliness and taste of tap water, the sustainability week would offer a blind water taste test, water quality informational booths, and tap water drinking pledges.
Blind Water Taste Test
Recommendation: Participants in the test will be asked to drink two different water samples: one from the tap water and the other from bottled water. Subsequently, they will be asked to determine the sources of each water sample, but they will quickly realize the task is not so easy. If a student correctly guesses which water was bottled, then the student would try again, but this time both cups would be filled with tap water. When the student guesses incorrectly, they would learn that drinking tap water was not so bad afterall. Thus, perceptions of tap water’s taste would be changed, resulting in an increased chance of using a reusable water bottle.
Research: Saylor et. al (2011) investigated the different reasons why students at Purdue University chose bottled water over tap water and assessed current beliefs about drinking water. Through online surveys sent out to a random sample of 2,045 staff and students, Saylor et. al (2011) determined that perceptions of water quality were directly related to water bottle usage. For example, the more a person believed tap water was safer to drink than bottled water, the more a person’s likelihood of using a water bottle increased. In addition, Saylor et. al (2011) found that perceptions of water were influenced by the tap water’s taste and aesthetic quality. Based on these results, it is obvious that perceptions of the tap water must be changed in order to increase reusable water bottle usage. Therefore, implementing a blind water taste test event during sustainability week would challenge existing beliefs about the superior taste of bottled water over tap water.
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Blind Water Taste Test. Source: BU Today
(http://www.bu.edu/today/files/2011/03/11-3433-WATERDAY-014_h.jpg)
Commitment Pledge
Recommendation: As another feature of the sustainability week proposal, students would be able to sign a written commitment after the blind water taste test. An example pledge is shown below. Names of people committed to the pledge could then be posted in residence halls or around refill stations to hold each other accountable for their pledges. This would also establish a social atmosphere of sustainable principles.
Research: Katzev (1986) set up an experiment to test the effectiveness of different commitment strategies. He looked at two different conditions of commitments towards recycling newspaper. In the first commitment, subjects were asked to make a verbal commitment to recycle newspapers, and in the second, they were asked to sign a statement that committed their household to participate in recycling as much newspaper as possible for two weeks. He concluded that both commitment strategies increased the frequency of recycling and increased the total amount of newspaper recycled. However, these effects were enhanced under the written commitment. Participants who signed the written pledge continued to recycle after the two week period; conversely, people who made verbal commitments did not continue to recycle after the program was over. Thus, recommending that the University of Michigan should encourage students to sign a written commitment to use tap water instead of bottled water would be effective.
Example Water Sustainability Pledge. Source: Des Moines Water Works
(http://www.dsmh2o.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/take-back-the-tap-pledg...)
Informational Booths
Recommendation: To show students that tap water is safe to drink, informational booths would share the annual Ann Arbor water quality reports. The reports would show that the city tap water is meeting or exceeding state regulation standards, and would also show the levels of contaminants in the water. If students know that little to no risks are present in drinking tap water, they will be more likely to drink it. Lastly, free stickers at the booths will act as an incentive for people to get involved in the sustainability week and the blind water taste test. An example sticker is shown below.
Research: Research shows that information alone is not effective. Van der Linden (2015) surveyed Dutch university students regarding potential barriers to change they have in switching from plastic to reusable bottles and found that a combination of social-norm activation and persuasive information resulted in the most significant decrease in intentions to buy bottled water. She emphasized alleviating perceived barriers and concluded that a broad information campaign is necessary to elicit behavior change. Therefore, if information about water quality is combined with other strategies, informational booths would be an effective means of encouraging more people to drink tap water.
Example Sticker. Source: Cheong (2013)