Eleanor Teel recognised for sustainability dissertation

We have recently recognised Elanor Teel with an award for her dissertation work, which promotes sustainability.  

For the past five years we have sponsored an award which celebrates an MSc Behavioural Science dissertation that promotes sustainability and the environment.  

Elanor collected original data on how environmental NGOs can best frame their messages. Building off messages used by an environmental NGO in her native British Columbia, Elanor crafted four distinct messages and tested which would be most effective in encouraging people to sign a petition.

Catherine Gee, our Deputy CEO, said: “My congratulations go to Elanor for her excellent dissertation – she is a very worthy winner of the Keep Scotland Beautiful Dissertation Prize. 

“As an environmental charity we are always keen to hear how our messages could land better with our audiences, and so it is particularly enlightening to see how Elanor tested different messages and which appealed to people with differing viewpoints. We were also heartened to hear how positive messaging, something we are passionate about, achieves more traction with people than negative messaging.”

MSc Behavioural Science Program director Prof David Comerford was delighted by the event where Elanor shared her work. He said: “It is always a joy to welcome back a student to present their dissertation work and we are deeply grateful to Keep Scotland Beautiful for giving us this chance­­. Elanor’s work is exemplary and so it is a particular pleasure to see it presented.”

A video of Elanor presenting her dissertation is available to view online.