The Climate Anthropologist aims to help overcome the gap between climate solutions and the people they are developed for. By applying tools from social anthropopology I'm able to gain unique and deep insight into the underlying challenges of making a new solution work. Complemented by UX design methods I can help further develop local climate and environmental solutions so they work optimally for the people they are supposed to work for - ultimately making sure people can use, and will continue to use, new solutions, and promote the behavioural changes we need for a sustainable future.

Why social anthropology?

Passionate entrepreneurs and researchers are constantly developing new innovative solutions that are supposed to help people live more sustainable and contribute to system change. Often these ideas are based on one's own experiences - quite often, at the end of the process, we find this fantastic and innovative product, system or service - that people are not using, because they don't understand it, they don't see the value or they can't make it fit into their lives. 

Solutions have to be adapted to the people they are made for. To do that one has to work with real people and learn from them about their needs and wishes. Only by grounding our work in such understanding kan we make solutions that people will use - and will continue to use! That is what we need to achieve to create long-term behavioural change, and that is after all what we are aiming for. 

Challenging our assumptions.

As experts in our field we know too much about the topics we work with. What we assume people will think, want and do will therefore never match with what people actually think, want and do. The only way to gain insight into these factors is by working with real end-users and learn about their lives, habits, worldviews, and so on. Ethnography is a powerful tool that provides deep an nuanced insight into these dynamics. 

What people say and what people do are two completely different things. 

People are awful at predicting their own behaviour. Asking people directly, whether in interviews, focus groups or surveys, about their future behaviour will not provide proper answers. People have limited insight to their own actions - especially(!) when it comes to topics like climate, environment and sustainability - these topics are morally loaded. Most people care about them. People will therefore answer based on how ther perceive themselves and how they wish to be - not how they are actually being. Anthropologists are trained in working with people to uncover their actual behaviours, motivations and values, which provides a solid base to build new solutions upon that are actually adapted to people's complex daily lives. This way I can help you adapt your solution so it will actually be used.