Lessons from Fork Ranger — encouraging sustainable behaviour change

The way we grow, produce and eat food is coming under increased scrutiny, as organisations and governments look to meet net-zero targets and people become more aware of the impact our choices have on the environment.

Changing our eating habits in particular will be critical in meeting GHG emission targets. If emissions from transport and energy were halted overnight, current trends in the food system would mean we’ll still exceed the Paris agreement’s goals of limiting global temperature levels to no more than 2 degrees. But while we’ve seen the rise of plant-based produce on supermarket shelves, a wholesale change to a sustainable diet — one rich in plants, which reduces the intake of dairy and limits the consumption of red meat to roughly two meals a week — isn’t happening quickly enough.

This is a topic I’ve become incredibly passionate about, as I studied for a Masters at the Centre for Alternative Technology. For my final assessment — a dissertation and research project that occupied the first six months of this year — I explored how to tackle this issue through digital behaviour change interventions, or, to give this a non-academic term — a mobile app.

Working with Fork Ranger, an app which utilises gamification and other behaviour change techniques to educate and change eating habits to become more sustainable, I researched its impact with its users via online surveys and interviews.

The results showed that generally speaking, the app was effective in shifting mindsets and diets. After using Fork Ranger, 45% of users reported a shift to a more sustainable diet, with those identifying as flexitarian or vegetarian increasing by over a third (31% & 39%), and a similar number (35%) of people reduced their meat intake too. Many users reported shifting their diets from consuming meat every day, or every other day, towards a meal two times a week, once a week, or never!

The impact of Fork Ranger was significant, and I think it also highlighted some key findings for any brand, business or organisation focused on helping consumers to adopt more sustainable behaviours.

Information about the climate crisis is just the start

Studies have shown that many people still aren’t aware of the impact eating meat and dairy can have on the climate, so building knowledge is a critical first step in this process.

The stats are pretty stark. Did you know that the global good system causes one-third of all worldwide emissions? Or that animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to GHG emissions, making up 60% of the food systems emissions, and accounting for up to 20% of global emissions? Or what about the fact that 70% of the world’s arable land is used to feed animal livestock — which in turn is leading to issues such as resource depletion and biodiversity loss!

My research showed that providing this information through Fork Ranger led to huge increases in knowledge about the carbon footprint of the food people ate (91.1%), what a sustainable diet is (86.1%), the food industry’s impact on climate change (86.1%) and the role of a person’s diet in taking action on the climate (83.3%).

Educating people about these stats is a powerful way to grab a person’s attention. Users I spoke to said they’d experienced shock when they realised just how much damage eating meat and dairy can have on the planet. But learning this information is just the start in enacting long-term behaviour shifts.

Develop sustainable behaviours by offering practical steps

Many people I spoke to during my research said that while the facts are there, they think sustainable diets have an image problem. If you don’t know how to cook with plants, then food can be bland and unexciting. And taste is probably the biggest driver in food — it’s why many can’t cut down on meat and dairy.

This is where skills building comes in. As users engage with information about the food system and climate change in the Fork Ranger app via its daily stories, they unlock new sustainable recipes as a reward. This not only provides a nice hit of dopamine (we all love rewards and prizes!), but it also helps to give people practical, easy to use instructions about how they can cook a sustainable meal.

So while you can rely on stats to grab people’s attention — the next valuable step lies in developing sustainable behaviour further, and offering practical tips — whether that be cooking a sustainable meal, or something else people can do in their daily lives.

Creative content makes information easy to learn

The way people engage with sustainability and the impact it has on them also lies in the way the information is delivered. Fork Ranger is designed with the user in mind — it’s intuitive, it engages users in a journey and perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t ask for too much of your time.

As a result, users became advocates of Fork Ranger and felt like they were part of a community. Fork Ranger was praised for its ability to deliver information concisely, via infographics and its quizzes, in a way which was easy to understand compared to other info sources. Users said they didn’t feel overwhelmed by an onslaught of stats (like my onslaught of stats in the sixth paragraph of this piece!), and that meant they could learn easily.

For sustainable brands looking to encourage behaviour change, the user journey and experience needs to take priority — and creativity goes a long way in building advocacy and creating impact.

Advocate for small changes, not abstinence

Another key theme that emerged during my interviews with users who had changed their eating behaviours after using Fork Ranger, was that they appreciated the fact the app encouraged baby steps, rather than full-blown instant veganism.

It talked up the benefits of following a sustainable diet. But it didn’t advocate for users to give up meat and dairy for good. That’s a lesson that I think all plant-based advocates, including myself, should take on board. Telling people they can still enjoy meat, but reducing the intake of it to no more than a twice-weekly treat, is far more palatable than telling people they need to give it up for good. As a result — users felt like the sustainable changes they’d made would be longer lasting. Many respondents said that they plan to reduce their meat and dairy intake even further (43.9%).

Building those small steps, one meat-free meal at a time, can have a huge impact. We need billions of imperfect people who are reducing, rather than a small portion of ‘perfect’ vegans. In other words, suggestions and goals need to be realistic or they stand no chance of making a dent.

The biggest challenge of cost can’t be solved by apps alone

While I’ve talked up the benefits of Fork Ranger (really, you should download it — it’s great). It’s of course no silver bullet. The food system is an incredibly messy network. And delivering information creatively and building knowledge and skills can only go so far.

The biggest challenge to eating more sustainably was cost (34%), time (33%) and influence of friends and family. While Fork Ranger can help with 2 and 3, the cost of sustainable food is out of its scope.

That’s why to solve the issue of people eating more sustainably — plant-based food needs price parity with that of meat and dairy. We’ve seen supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi in Germany tackle this head-on and I’d love to see more UK supermarkets take the plunge on this issue too.

Jack Ferris is Sustainability PR Lead at specialist communications agency, 33Seconds