How will research change the world? Joey Dembs, a Senior Research Analyst at enovate in Shanghai discusses what convinced him.
I consider myself an environmental realist.
In my university Geology 101 class I was exposed to the scientific reasoning and justifications for the current state of the environment.
In my environmental business class I was taught how companies market their green behaviors and use environmental sustainability as an economic competitive advantage.
As a scholar of Chinese studies, it was drilled into my skull that the world’s massive developing nations must learn from the developed world’s havoc wrought upon the earth and create actionable solutions.
But nothing taught me more about the actual scope of our earth’s environmental issues than accepting the challenge to design a research process [called "Bridging the Green Gap"] that investigates actual actions, behaviors and interactions amongst Chinese youth and Chinese families.
As a realist, my first step was to accept that I was not an environmental expert and use this to our team’s advantage. We chose a qualitative methodological approach that combined behavioral and psychological techniques along with structured design focused techniques. Our questions existed to spark conversation and create mutual dialogue between our moderators and participants, including, but not limited to environmental topics. However, our true goal was to observe the participant’s actual and sub-conscious behavior in a public and private setting to pinpoint environmental sustainability adoption gateways and barriers.
I was confident in our research design, I was however, skeptical about the daunting topic we had chosen to examine.
When people apply macro lenses on a modern country, typically three areas are highlighted: social, economical, and political. I would argue that in today’s world, we could add environmental to this macro-frame. It’s that large of topic and something that should be inclusive in each of these three areas to begin with.
With this argument cemented in my brain, I contemplated turning down this Ogilvy Earth partnered project, simply because I didn’t believe we could actually make a difference.
How could a small team of six to eight researchers trained in examining consumer behavior, arrive at profound environmental “insights”? How could we offer tangible solutions to correct China’s environmental downfall?
I bit the bullet, accepted reality and dove head first into the project.
Four months later and 3 cities conquered, I’m finally beginning to stop and catch my breath. And I still feel we’ve barely made a dent in anything.
But that’s the beauty of research. It’s a collection of our interpretations, observations and data. It’s true purpose is to inspire and create interpretation amongst politicians, designers, and marketers. Essentially anyone who reads it and actually does something with it. That’s why we’ve done our research. Not to cure the world’s ills, not to purify the Earth’s rivers, but to allow creators and dreamers the opportunity to learn and build their own innovative solutions.
This type of reaction is the only way a realist like me can justify the difference I’ve made in this global game of environmental genocide.
Joey Dembs is the Senior Research Analyst at enovate, a Chinese based insights and design agency.
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