“There’s particularly high potential for CO2 savings among young adults”

Cathérine Hartmann, let’s get straight to the point: who travels sustainably in Switzerland and who doesn’t? 

Cathérine Hartmann: It’s true that we have a well-developed public transport network and a lot people choose to travel in an environment-friendly way, but a great deal still needs to be done in terms of sustainability throughout society as a whole. 

What does that mean in practice? 

Generally speaking, all age groups overestimate their climate-friendly behaviour, as confirmed by the  Sotomo survey conducted in 2024. In the area of mobility, there’s particularly high potential for CO₂ savings among young adults – especially those who earn high incomes. People in this group often travel by air, for example. 

Younger, well-educated people in particular should really know better. 

Experts refer to this phenomenon as the  attitude-behaviour gap: this simply means that our attitudes and intentions often clash with the way we behave. 

Why is that?

There are all kinds of possible reasons. Convenience is an important aspect, but another key factor is the fact that we’re mentally confined to the here and now. People also have a tendency to push things to the back of their mind: if you have a demanding job, there’s a sense of entitlement that you can treat yourself to a flight. We often compare ourselves to others, too: why can’t I fly to Thailand if my neighbour does so twice a year? People look for justification strategies that will get them through life with a clear conscience.

What are the differences between urban and rural areas? 

Use of cars in the country generates more CO₂ per person per year than in towns and cities. This has to do with the fact that rural areas are still less well served by public transport than cities, of course. Mobility behaviour is very much structurally determined (oriented towards a fixed structure, Ed.) and depends on people’s needs and habits.

How can this kind of behaviour be changed?

Humans are creatures of habit – and establishing new habits takes blood, sweat and tears. 

So what can we do? 

Phases in life involving major upheavals provide an ideal starting point for changing your behaviour – such as when you move house, change jobs or have a child. We’re also encouraged to change our habits when we have a positive experience and share it with others.

“Together we are strong” – could that be the motto for a more sustainable world? 

Yes, exactly. The climate movement is an ideal example of what this group effect can achieve. Within a group there’s a sense of social control that tends to make you do what’s expected of you. Self-efficacy in the group underpins the feeling of actually being able to achieve something. 

“Share more, get more” is Mobility’s slogan. Is that enough of an incentive to get even more people into car sharing?  

It’s a nice message and very true. But it’s important to get across exactly what the “more” can be: more space in the city, more money in your bank account, more healthy woodlands and fresh air, for example. I feel it’ll be important for car sharing and other sustainable forms of mobility to gain even greater appeal in the future so that we can actually get a sense of what it is we’re getting “more” of.

How can that be done? 

The environmental aspect is all well and good,  but issues such as convenience and comfort, cost and a sense of community are at least as important motivators when it comes to the individual user. 

I may be wrong, but is it the case that getting people to change their behaviour is particularly challenging in the area of travel and transportation?

Yes, that’s a really tricky area. Unlike other areas – such as nutrition – it seems to be much more difficult to break habitual behaviour patterns in the long term in this area. Yet there are developments that are encouraging and give us cause for optimism. 

For example? 

I’m thinking of future generations who will question a lot of things. Not least due to the fact that environmental issues are now addressed earlier on and with more of an impact at schools. This suggests that a different kind of mobility routine could develop in the years to come, though it will mean that the necessary overall political and technical framework will be have to be established first, of course. 

The Mobility network covers the entire country. Isn’t that framework enough to motivate even more people to take up car sharing?

Car sharing involves sharing something with others. When it comes to cars in particular, that idea is new and unfamiliar to a lot of people. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, the car is seen as a status symbol, and secondly, the car is a kind of “home” on four wheels for a lot of people – and that’s not something we should underestimate. 

How do you mean?

Whether the seat, the rear-view mirror or the music system: we set up everything up in our car exactly the way it suits us. When we hire a Mobility car, it’s always a little as if someone has rearranged our seat or fiddled around with the music system. That’s why people don’t like lending their car to someone else. There might be more of a sense of appreciation if we could give car-sharing vehicles a personalised touch. 

How would that work?

I’m an environmental psychologist, not a car or software designer. But even today, technological progress allows a certain degree of personalisation. This ought to be more widespread when there are even more smart cars on the roads in the future – especially electric cars. If this convenience can be enhanced and combined with the other positive factors of car sharing, we might see an increase in this type of sustainable mobility.

Photos: Patrick Besch

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