Community Change’s Behaviour Change Framework (BCF) is designed as a template to guide measurable, effective and sustainable behaviour change. It comprises a detailed eight step process which introduces primary concepts that may assist you in understanding how behaviour change principles may be applied to a variety of social programs.

The BCF was developed for the Department of Sustainability & Environment as part of the Our Water Our Future (OWOF) program. As part of the development of the BCF, the OWOF steering committee wished to leave a legacy by continuously building knowledge and understanding of behaviour change for the benefit of others working in the area. The written version of the BCF is provided here with their kind permission.

Although the examples used in the BCF are mostly about water saving, the framework is applicable to other environmental areas requiring behaviour change, such as reducing littering and increasing bin use and reducing household energy use.

It is important for readers to understand that the framework is not designed to be a simplified representation of a comprehensive social marketing process and should not be considered a stand-alone ‘how to’ manual. We recommend that it be used as part of a face to face partnership approach and works best when we actively assist in its application. For those with a detailed interest we also recommend looking at the Resources section and the Useful Social Marketing Websites section of the document.

To learn more about the Behaviour Change Framework or to find out more about how to achieve measurable, effective and sustainable change for your program, please call Rob Curnow from Community Change on (03) 9775 4422.

Important note: The Behaviour Change Framework should be cited as follows: Spehr, K.L & Curnow, R.C. (2007). Behaviour Change Framework for Our Water Our Future. Department of Sustainability & Environment. Victoria, Australia.