Why Aren’t They Getting It?

Reframing Behavioural Responses to Climate Change

We talk a lot to Heads of ESG (owner and occupiers) and frequently hear; Why are they not getting it? Why are the only unifying narratives about carbon or disclosure reporting? Why is the purpose of this missing?

We know that buildings, infrastructure, and places account for nearly 40% of global emissions. But if the human systems around them don’t change, the potential of even the most sustainable assets will never be realised.

So, how do we get people to get it?

A Crisis Not of Knowledge, But of Perception

The barriers to climate action aren’t just physical or financial—they’re emotional, psychological, and cultural.

Climate change has become a proxy war for identity. It’s deeply political, tangled in narratives of fairness, blame, and personal freedom. Public discourse is shaped by reductive stereotypes – “privileged activists”, “climate deniers”- that reinforce division and inhibit dialogue.

Even well-crafted messaging often misses the mark. The iconic imagery of melting ice caps and polar bears feels remote or elitist. Apocalyptic narratives, while factually grounded, create paralysis rather than urgency.

These framings matter. They shape not only how we talk about climate change, but how people relate to it—whether they see themselves in the story, or outside it.

The Tangled Psychology of Inaction

We cannot expect linear, reasoned behaviour in the face of something as complex and slow-moving as climate change.

There are several key cognitive and emotional traps:

• Moral disengagement – “We didn’t cause this,” becomes a way of justifying inaction.
• Conditional cooperation – “I’ll change if others do first,” defers responsibility indefinitely.
• The optimism/pessimism trap – Hope is mistaken for resolution; doom, for defeat.
• Hopism – A belief that technical solutions alone will save us, reducing urgency to act now.

Perhaps most revealing is the perception gap: we overestimate our own contribution and underestimate others. The result is a lack of trust, momentum, and collective will—especially in the very places where cooperation is most essential.

The Paradox of the Common Good

The idea of acting for the common good is intuitive—but also deeply countercultural in many societies. We are evolutionarily wired for individual survival. Collective prevention demands effort, cost, and sacrifice—often for benefits that are abstract, distant, or generational.

So we delay. We downplay. We deflect.

Yet, the desire is there. According to a recent global study of 130,000 people across 125 countries:

• 69% are willing to contribute 1% of income to climate solutions
• 86% support strong social norms for climate-positive behaviours
• 89% demand political leadership and faster action

The public mood has shifted. The real challenge is not convincing people if change is needed—but helping them to act, together, in ways that feel doable, meaningful, and aligned with their identity.

Breaking Through: Five Levers That Work

I propose that there are five key tools to break the stalemate and shift people from knowing to doing. At Aletheia, we see these not only as behavioural science insights—but as practical tools to activate places, assets, and communities.

1. Norming

Humans are social creatures. What we do, buy, tolerate and aspire to is governed more by social norms than by reason. Institutions behave similarly — most are deeply risk-averse and conditioned by precedent.

To change behaviour, we must first change perceptions of what’s “normal”. That means making climate-positive choices visible, social, and routine. It’s not just about telling people what to do—but showing them that others like them are already doing it.

In place terms, that means designing visible signals: community gardens, e-bike hubs, green leases, local sharing economies, transparent sustainability dashboards. Make the sustainable choice the socially obvious one.

2. Trusted Messengers

We listen differently when the message comes from someone we trust—especially from within our own peer group, professional network or community. Authenticity trumps expertise. Storytelling beats data.

For landlords, developers, and local authorities, this means co-creating campaigns with tenants, local leaders, schools, artists, faith groups—anyone who already holds trust. Don’t broadcast from the top down. Communicate from the inside out.

3. Agency

People need more than motivation—they need permission. Agency is about feeling empowered to act: knowing what to do, having the means to do it, and sensing that the time is right.

In many organisations, people feel more climate agency at home than at work. That’s a failure of leadership, culture and systems design. Empowering teams—across property management, planning, operations—with the right tools, support and visibility is essential.

4. Authentic Storytelling

Information alone rarely changes behaviour. Stories do. Emotion, narrative and personal resonance create the conditions for empathy and imagination. It’s not about fiction—it’s about framing.

Place-based storytelling, rooted in lived experience and shared values, helps people connect climate action to their real lives. Whether you’re rebranding a retail park or regenerating a high street—storytelling humanises the transition.

5. Deep Engagement

Sustainable change isn’t a broadcast—it’s a dialogue. Deep engagement doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Ten minutes of meaningful exchange, repeated consistently, builds trust, shifts mindsets, and unlocks new coalitions.

Engagement should be ongoing, embedded and reciprocal. Not consultation, but collaboration. Not tick-box, but transformation.

What This Means for Real Estate

For those working across the real estate lifecycle, the message is clear: places are people-powered. Without cultural, social and behavioural change, net zero ambitions will stall.

Aletheia’s work focuses on place-led strategy precisely because places hold the keys to visible, shared, meaningful change. They are where behaviour becomes collective; where agency is made public; where identity, economy and climate intersect.

When we align social norms, local trust, visible action and compelling storytelling, we not only support climate goals—we build more valuable, more resilient, and more loved assets.

Final Thought

Climate change is not a failure of awareness. It’s a failure of connection.

As place-makers, asset managers, and advisors, our job is to rebuild those connections—between intention and action, between people and place, between the future we fear and the future we can still create.

We already know what needs to happen. Now we must make it feel possible, shared, and real.

Further Reading:

• George Marshall (2014), Don’t Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change
• Adam Kahane (2025), Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems
• ESRI (2024), Encouraging Cooperation in Climate Collective Action Problems
• House of Lords (2022), In Our Hands: Behaviour Change for Climate and Environmental Goals
• Climate Outreach (2020), Britain Talks Climate Toolkit
• Hamann et al. (2025), The Psychology of Collective Climate Action