As part of Ecsite's Environmental Emergency Action supporting member organisations in their environmental sustainability efforts, we encouraged speakers from #Ecsite2023 who discussed the biodiversity and climate emergency to share the lasting impact of their sessions with both Conference participants and Ecsite members.

Session convenor Nils Petter Hauan, in collaboration with our esteemed session speakers, has crafted a summary of their session on Exploring and strengthening our impact related to climate and biodiversity (take a look at the session page, including speakers' details). The session slideshow is available for your reference, right after the summary.

Exploring and strengthening our impact related to climate and biodiversity

All the programmes described in the session aimed to engage visitors in subjects related to nature and climate and to create in-depth engagement in reflections about sustainable behaviour. The programmes utilised a range of approaches for creating engagement such as hands-on activities, efforts to make participants feel welcomed and appreciated, WOW moments, fun, openness, gamification (using an app), quizzes, discussions, art installations, and science shows.

In the session itself, we did an activity that aimed to trigger personal engagement by eliciting a sense of disgust through inviting participants to challenge themselves and eat an insect. We then invited programme participants to reflect on what they could do themselves in order to make their organisations and practices more sustainable.

Different methods and tools for evaluating the quality of programmes were also presented. Tools for evaluating engagement in the programmes were questionnaires, evaluation embedded in an app (usage data) and observations. Examples of tools and methods for investigating outcomes of such activities included diaries, survey statements, and longitudinal data collected by individuals outside of programme teams such as researchers and master students.

The overall message from the session is that wise use of the tools we have for engagement has potential to result in increased knowledge, engagement, and behavioural change. There are various tools and methods to evaluate quality and impact of programmes as well. One challenge, however, is that although evaluation helps to ensure quality it can be resource intensive.

Learn more about the EEEA & its programme