Major
Marketing
Advisor
Seray Ergene
Advisor Department
Entrepreneurial Management
Date
5-2020
Keywords
Environmental Awareness; Marketing Research; Volunteer Marketing
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
GAL JENNINGS (Marketing)
Tackling Ocean Plastics Sponsor: Seray Ergene (Business-Management)
The overall health of the world’s environment has become severely at risk due to many human induced activities. The concentration of carbon dioxide (C02) has reached its highest point in over 3 million years at 408 parts per million, fewer than 22% of U.S discarded materials are actually recycled, and more than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year. As our society becomes more commercialized and dependent on the need to cannibalize natural resources for their daily activities, the environment drastically reaps the irreparable consequences. This project is divided into two parts: the first aims to understand the attitudes, behaviors, and actions students at the University of Rhode Island, and other community members are taking towards improving the current environmental state. To what extent do people truly care about the consequences of their daily environmental actions, and are they aware of their true environmental impact? The second part intends to understand the marketing/promotional strategies utilized by community volunteer events in Rhode Island.
To further understand and analyze current attitudes, an online survey was distributed to community members through an anonymous analytic platform. The results of 60 responses indicated that over 45% of the respondents believe their daily actions have an impact on the environment to a moderate extent, 46% believe they are an environmentally friendly person to a moderate extent, and only 38% of respondents believe their environmental impact matters to a great extent. The survey not only gauges a plethora of community environmental beliefs, but further collects insight on the factors that contribute to the respondents' daily struggles to be environmentally conscious.
Secondly, this project offers ways to successfully conduct and execute promotional organization/marketing of community events. The main focus is volunteer beach cleanups for Rhode Island beaches. There are over 100 public beaches in RI that become highly polluted during the summer months. This is a significant factor as to why these beaches often are in need of cleanups. To be successful, these volunteer events require numerous marketing tactics/strategies to motivate the community.
This project goes beyond just gauging environmental awareness, but truly delving into social trends in local communities that make up the millions of impact points that our environment is deteriorated by. Further insight into how and why community members form their environmental beliefs and actions allows for more effective community changes in the future.