No abstract

As the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management turn toward ecosystem and adaptive models of forest stewardship, they are being called on to develop meaningful and lasting relations with citizens. These new management styles require not only improved strategies for public involvement but also methods to examine the interactions between citizens and agencies in order to learn from such experiences. Using the general principles of adaptive management-which stress monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment-this report provides a comprehensive framework to help agency personnel and citizens to work together. This report describes the adaptive management concept, summarizes research about the goals and characteristics of successful public involvement, and lays out a framework for monitoring and evaluating citizen-agency interactions. Although designed for adaptive management settings, the framework is well suited to other situations where improving these interactions is a priority.

One fume hood in a laboratory can use as much energy as three homes per year. When a fume hood is in use, its door (or "sash") needs to be open, but otherwise it should be closed for safety, as well as to conserve energy. This paper examines strategies to promote fume hood closure behavior. A behavior change experiment conducted in the field tested whether a design signifier (sticker) and comparative feedback extracted from automated building and equipment data would decrease the number of times people left fume hoods open when not in use (while spaces were unoccupied or the hoods were inactive). The experiment included a control building where no fume hood intervention was implemented. The sticker and feedback together resulted in significantly fewer instances of hoods being left open (a 52.8% reduction overall). One year later, with the sticker in place and without further feedback, the instances of hoods being left open when the space was occupied but the hoods were inactive remained significantly lower than baseline. In addition to providing a low-cost strategy to bring about behavior change, findings from this study suggest opportunities to improve fume hood design and to use automated building data to provide laboratory workers with feedback to change their behavior.

No abstract