[font face=Serif]Published: June 17, 2013

[font size=5]Study finds 'sweet spot' that makes or breaks environmental actions[/font]

[font size=3]Sustainability programs are a Goldilocks proposition – some groups are too big, some are too small, and the environment benefits when the size of a group of people working to save it is just right.

It has long been debated how many people working together can change the world.

Scientists at Michigan State University have found that there is a sweet spot – a group size at which the action is most effective. More importantly, the work revealed how behaviors of group members can pull bad policy up or drag good policy down. The work is published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This paper finds that group size does matter – and the answer is right in the middle,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, who holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability at MSU and is director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. “Collective action is of growing importance as the world becomes more interdependent. It’s important to understand how collective action works if we want programs that are effective.”

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