Mindful Climate Action: Improving Health While Reducing Carbon Footprint
Condition: Health Behavior
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      To work with community partners to pilot test a mindfulness-based behavioral program aimed
      at: (a) enhancement of health and well-being, and (b) reduction in carbon footprint; (2) to
      develop, implement, and refine methods for assessing carbon footprint at the individual
      level; and (3) to work with pilot participants and community partners to carry out a
      proof-of-concept research study to assess impact on health, well-being, and carbon footprint.
    

Detailed description: 
      This Pilot Study will be conducted to allow us to evaluate and test the various study
      processes, including: consent/enrollment, run-in-trial monitoring, measurement tools, outcome
      assessment, educational materials, and especially the mindfulness-based climate action
      trainings. The pilot study does not include a control group, and data will not be used for
      efficacy outcome analysis. The investigators anticipate doing two pilot cohorts of roughly 16
      persons/group. The pilot cohorts will not be simultaneous.

      Participants will meet for 2½ hour sessions, once per week for eight weeks. An additional
      6-hour retreat will be scheduled over a weekend towards the end of the program. Participants
      will receive about 26 hours of contact time. Their daily home practice will be guided by
      audio recordings (25 to 45 minutes) that lead them through their formal meditation practice
      of the body scan, sitting meditations, and gentle yoga. Participants will be asked to
      practice for 5 or 6 days per week at home, using these audio recordings or on their own. They
      will also be asked to select a daily practice time that works best for them, perhaps early
      morning, after work, or later in the evening. Participants will record what they practice and
      for how long either on paper log sheets or using a web-based data form.

      Climate change, energy, and carbon footprint knowledge will be assessed by a college
      intro-level test (pre- and post-training). Electrical and gas use will be assessed directly
      by inspecting Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) utility records. Miles driven in automobile
      will be assessed by self-report, verified with odometer readings of primary vehicle done by
      study staff. Active transportation and motor vehicle travel will be measured using a free,
      smart phone app called MOVES. In order to extract the activity data from the user's phone,
      each participant will download another free app called TRAQS CSV Exporter
      (https://labs.traqs.me/moves/) which will export data once monthly over the course of the
      year. Individual movement/transportation activity data obtained from this app will provide
      the study team with data allowing an in-depth and fine-grained understanding of
      transportation behaviors across the study time period.

      Dietary composition will be assessed by validated dietary recall, with proportion of dietary
      calories from animal versus plant sources as the primary assessment. Composite carbon
      footprints will be calculated. In addition to carbon footprint, the investigators will be
      assessing health co-benefits, including several domains of mental and physical health
      (validated self-report measures) and active transport assessed using Actigraph
      accelerometers.

      Participants will be asked to provide feedback through interviews regarding the curriculum.
    

Intervention name(s): Mindful Climate Action
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Educational and Behavioral Training Curriculum: An article describing our proposed program was recently published in Sustainability (1) and is summarized here. Experienced instructors from the UW Integrative Medicine Mindfulness Program will teach the 8-week program. Classes will meet weekly for 2½ hours, with a 6 hour weekend retreat. Twenty to 45 minutes of daily home practice will be guided by audio recordings leading participants through body scan, sitting meditations, breath awareness, and mindful movement. Each of the 2½ hour weekly classes includes topics (~30 min) relating to climate change, energy use, and carbon footprint.
Other intervention name(s): MBSR with Climate Education
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other