Université de Lorraine

Designing a behavioural communication strategy for the ecological transition

Research Behavioural design Employees Students France

The Challenge

With around 62,000 students and 7,000 staff, the Université de Lorraine is a powerful lever for ecological change and has committed to cutting its carbon footprint by 6% a year. But intention rarely becomes action, and doom-laden climate messaging only fuels eco-anxiety. UL asked us to turn its community’s goodwill into genuine engagement.

Our Approach

We started by listening: an online survey of 485 students and staff (±4.4% margin of error) mapped attitudes, intentions and barriers across four priority themes, mobility, digital, biodiversity and waste. Reading the results through our Landscape Model™, we built a behavioural communication strategy grounded in positive, collective messaging, with a shared signature for the transition and a playbook for each theme.

The Result

UL came away with a survey-backed communication strategy it can roll out across its campuses. Rather than guilt and information overload, it leads with collective engagement, personal co-benefits and concrete guidance, showing students and staff that their actions add up, so goodwill becomes participation.