Block Club Community Decarbonization

A community-driven project designed to bring neighbors together in small groups to promote decarbonization and climate action at the household level.

Decarbonization
Group Activity
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The core mission of Block Club is to help neighbors assess their homes' carbon emissions using an online tool that measures energy usage from electricity and gas.

Each household receives a carbon score, which is compared within the group, and groups are then compared to each other in a fun, competitive format similar to sports leagues.

Block Club leverages gamification, offering households rewards in the form of badges and public progress updates, encouraging active participation in reducing their carbon footprints.

The project not only motivates participants to track and reduce their emissions but also provides a service for group installations of clean energy technologies such as solar panels, battery storage, heat pumps, and electric vehicle chargers, helping neighbors transition to energy-efficient solutions together.

The design of Block Club is based on research showing that block leaders are highly effective in spreading conservation behaviors throughout communities.

By fostering a sense of local leadership and community competition, Block Club creates a supportive network where households can work together toward their decarbonization goals, driving both individual and collective climate action.

Psychology Techniques

Block Leader

A self-appointed community leader who talks to neighbors on nearby streets and brings them together to support residential environmental goals.

Commitment Device

A mechanism that causes someone to make a verbal or written promise to another person to complete an action.

Group Goal

When a group collectively works together towards a shared goal to help maintain persistent motivation.

Groups

Putting people into groups as a way to create accountability, social cohesion, and social diffusion that leads to persistent behavior change.

Identity

Ways to enhance people's environmentally conscientious identity is a foundation to persistent intrinsic motivation.

Rewards

A digital, physical, or emotional reward given to the participant after they complete a task or improve their performance.

Social Comparison

Comparing an objective measure of one person or entity's environmental score against others or against the group average.

Social Diffusion

The mechanism of how behaviors, values, and preferences spread from one person to another via social contact.

Time-Based Challenge

Applying a specific start and end date for a behavior increases people's propensity to commit to the action.

Tracking Progress

A mechanism for tracking progress towards a goal that brings attention to, and rewards progress.