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Campaigning for a Plastic-Free Future
- Behavioural design,
- ESG,
- Sustainability
How behavioural science helped Sky tackle single-use plastic consumption
The Challenge
Single-use plastics have become embedded in everyday behaviour. From bottles to packaging, these products offer convenience but contribute significantly to environmental pollution.
Sky and the Premier League launched a national campaign to reduce plastic waste and raise awareness of the issue. While the campaign successfully captured public attention, the challenge remained: How do you actually change people’s behaviour?
Awareness alone rarely leads to action. Sky needed to understand the underlying psychological drivers that influence single-use plastic consumption and identify practical interventions to help people adopt more sustainable habits.
Plastic consumption isn’t a knowledge problem. It’s a habit problem.
Our approach
Cowry partnered with Sky to uncover the behavioural drivers behind plastic consumption and identify interventions that could shift behaviour at scale.
- Behavioural diagnosis: We explored the psychological factors influencing single-use plastic use, identifying the habits, motivations and contextual triggers driving behaviour.
- Cognitive interviews: In-depth interviews were used to uncover how people actually think about plastic consumption, revealing implicit attitudes and emotional drivers that traditional research often misses.
- Implicit Response Testing (IRT): We quantified subconscious associations with plastic consumption to understand the strength of behavioural drivers and barriers.
This approach allowed us to uncover not just what people say, but how strongly they feel about it.
Behavioural insight
Our research uncovered three key behavioural dynamics driving single-use plastic consumption.
1. The Barrier Illusion
What we observed
People believe they have little personal influence over single-use plastic usage.
Why it happens
Many assume sustainable alternatives are expensive or confusing, and conflicting environmental advice creates decision fatigue.
What it means
People default to recycling and believe they are already doing enough, reducing motivation to change everyday habits.
2. Navigating Scepticism
What we observed
Influencers and public figures are often seen as effective messengers for environmental campaigns.
Why it happens
However, younger male audiences tend to be sceptical of these voices and resistant to perceived moral messaging.
What it means
A specific cohort, married men without children, showed the highest scepticism and resistance to behavioural change.
3. Breaking the Habit Loop
What we observed
People with strong habits struggle to adopt new information or behaviours.
Why it happens
Deeply ingrained routines make behaviour difficult to change through awareness campaigns alone.
What it means
Despite scepticism, younger men care about the issue and are willing to change if sustainable behaviours are made easy and rewarding.
The solution
Using these insights, Cowry designed behaviourally informed interventions to make sustainable choices easier, more engaging and more rewarding.
Thrill Fill initiative – Reusable bottle usage was incentivised through a reward-based system. Users received points every time they refilled their bottles, with top performers entered into prize draws including the chance to play at Wembley. This intervention leveraged variable rewards to make sustainable behaviour more engaging.
Behavioural prompts – Environmental cues were designed to disrupt existing habits and encourage reusable bottle use. Examples included:
- A doormat designed using the power of three to remind people to take their bottle
- Alexa shortcuts prompting users before leaving home
These small behavioural nudges aimed to shift habits at key decision moments.
Impact:
Testing with men aged 18–34 demonstrated significant behaviour change.
0
%
decrease in plastic consumption
0
fewer plastic bottles used every day
Why it worked
The campaign succeeded because it moved beyond awareness and focused on behaviour. Instead of simply telling people to reduce plastic usage, the interventions:
- disrupted automatic habits
- made sustainable behaviour rewarding
- introduced prompts at key decision moments
Small changes to the environment helped unlock large-scale behaviour change.
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