This March 13th article from Scientific Reports highlights the impact that personal values can have on embodied carbon conversations with clients.

Here are some excerpts:

Introduction

Climate change poses a threat to both people and ecosystems, and effectively addressing this issue requires substantial efforts by individuals and policymakers1. Attempts to persuade individuals about the significance of climate change often involve providing information regarding the associated risks[2]. However, this approach has proven unsuccessful in convincing climate change sceptics of the importance of taking action or to support pro-environmental policies[3,4]. Since agreement with pro-environmental efforts is an important predictor of individual behavior[5], and perceived public support for pro-environmental policies is an important predictor of the implementation of such policies[6], researchers have tested alternative communication strategies to increase agreement with pro-environmental efforts. On such strategy is to communicate pro-environmental concerns through the lens of personal values.

Values are defined as guiding principles that shape an individual’s life[7] and are useful predictors of attitudes, norms, beliefs, and behaviors[8]. Research has identified four values that play a significant role in shaping attitudes toward climate change: altruistic (e.g. benefitting others), biospheric (e.g. appreciating nature), egoistic (e.g. increasing own resources) and hedonic (e.g. doing what feels good)[9]. These four values can be clustered into two broader factors: self-transcendent values (altruistic and biospheric values) and self-enhancement values (hedonic and egoistic values)[10,11,12]. Higher scores in self-transcendent values are associated with low levels of climate change skepticism[12], greater engagement in energy-saving behaviors[10,13] and increased concern and awareness about the environmental consequences of behaviors [14,15]. Conversely, higher ratings in self-enhancement values are either inversely or not at all associated with pro-environmental behaviors, attitudes or intentions: they are linked to climate change skepticism[12], reduced willingness to reduce motor vehicle usage[16], self-reports of reduced engagement in energy-saving behaviors[10] and are not associated with the intention to behave in a pro-environmental manner[8].