Awareness isn't the goal. Action is.
Awareness alone rarely changes what people do. What The Great Unwaste taught us about closing the gap between knowing and doing.
Many behaviour change campaigns focus on building awareness. The challenge is that awareness alone rarely changes what people do.
Working with End Food Waste Australia on The Great Unwaste, we started with a simple observation: Australians already knew food waste was a problem. The gap wasn’t understanding. It was action.
Food waste happens in everyday moments — when people are tired, time-poor and deciding what to do with a few leftover ingredients at the end of the week. Rather than asking people to care more about food waste, the challenge was to make food-saving easier.
The Great Unwaste Toastie Challenge reframed leftovers as opportunity rather than waste. Using one of Australia’s most familiar meals, the campaign replaced guilt with usefulness and sustainability messaging with practical action.
The lesson extends well beyond food waste.
Too often, organisations assume behaviour isn’t changing because people don’t know enough. In reality, the barrier is often friction, effort or competing priorities. People may already agree with the message. They just haven’t been given an easy enough path to act.
Before investing in another awareness campaign, ask a different question:
If people already know, what is stopping them from doing?
The answer is often where the real opportunity for change begins.