San Diego Coastkeeper


Community Based Social Marketing

What is Community Based Social Marketing?
Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is a new way to address polluting and environmental damaging behaviors – one with proven results in communities where projects are implemented. For too long the environmental community has relied upon printed advertisements and Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to communicate pollution prevention messages, with little to no actual impact. Of course, education and sharing information has positive results, but studies have show that a more effective way to address polluting behaviors is to target efforts to address barriers to positive behavior.

How can CBSM help San Diego’s beaches?
San Diego’s number one impact to coastal waters comes from upstream pollution and resulting from urban land use. Trash, pet waste, over-irrigation, and pollution into the stormdrain surface water conveyance system all lead to negative downstream (beach, bay, ocean) impacts. These negative impacts lead to public health concerns for beach goers and negatively affect San Diego’s tourism industry, which generates $6.5 billion in annual revenues for the local economy.

In order to address this pollution, the City of San Diego – with San Diego Coastkeeper as a project partner – is looking to understand the primary polluting behaviors in the various and diverse communities of San Diego. Projects to target these behaviors can only be developed and implemented following an intensive phase of data collection and analysis, and San Diego Coastkeeper would like to invite you, our members and volunteers, to be a part of every step of this innovative process.

Community Based Social Marketing in La Jolla Shores
Join Coastkeeper in conducting observations in the La Jolla Shores area to identify the most prevalent behaviors associated with pollution in the La Jolla watershed. Be outside, enjoy our beautiful coastline, while feeling good about helping to keep San Diego's beaches clean!

Training workshops will be held on June 1st from 5:30 – 7:00 pm. Volunteer dates run from June 4th - 17th with possible extension.

For more information about this project, and if you would like to sign up for this opportunity, pleased send an email to Meagan at meagan@sdcoastkeeper.org. For more information about Community Based Social Marketing, please visit www.cbsm.com.