Abstract for: Study of Commitment Issue Within Local Community

In today’s life, environmental crisis and creating a sustainable lifestyle is one of the biggest challenges that all of the world is facing. It’s a political and humanitarian debate that are in conflict with the values of modernism and capitalism. Meanwhile, there are different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and independent communities that believe in making changes based on peoples’ participation and commitment power. The aim of this study is to investigate the level of commitment in one of these local NGOs in Bergen, Norway. Sustainable lives (Bærekraftige liv) is an NGO organization which tries to develop local communities to improve the level of life quality and sustainability (lower carbon footprint) in the community. According to interviews with the organization, low rates of commitment and volunteering are the main problems for the community. Based on group modeling fundamentals, the causal loop diagram (CLD) was created with the participation of organizers and volunteers. By proposing an explanatory model, some factors were identified that can be useful for the community. Data for problem illustration were collected from direct interaction with organizers. The proposed model indicates some policies that can improve the level of commitment and volunteering rate in such communities.