Why is it that a few organisations not only commit to reducing carbon emissions but actually go ahead and make it happen, whilst the vast majority do neither?

Positive Deviance (PD) might provide answers as it is ‘based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviours and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, whilst having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges’ (Positive Deviance Intiative).

PD’s discover these uncommon, successful behaviours and then design ways to amplify and share them.  The entire process is owned by the community and stresses practice instead of knowledge i.e. the ‘how’ instead of the ‘what’ or ‘why.’  The PD Mantra is: ‘You are more likely to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.’

There is a detailed PD process which we are not following strictly in this first cohort but will once the project has reached critical mass.  For more information please visit the  Positive Deviance Initiative web site.