Strategies to promote sustainable consumer behaviour – The use of the lifestyle approach

Environmental problems caused by human activity are a growing problem. Both production and consumption of goods and services cause a large amount of negative environmental impacts. Embracing the concept of sustainable development, governments aim to devise strategies to promote more sustainable consumer behaviour. For such strategies to be effective, it must be understood how consumer behaviour works and how it can be influenced. Sustainable consumer behaviour is influenced by a multifaceted and dynamic system of interacting factors. These factors are attitudinal, socio-demographic as well as external contextual. The make up of the influencing factors differs according to the needs area (e.g. housing, food or mobility) and the consumption practices within a needs area. Strategies to promote more sustainable consumer behaviour must address the influencing factors by using a range of instruments in combination. The instruments can be regulatory, economic or social. The consumption practices that are targeted for change need to be environmentally significant otherwise the aim of increasing environmental sustainability of consumer behaviour cannot be fulfilled. Strategies must also take a long-term perspective and need to be evaluated regularly after implementation. A comprehensive approach to understand sustainable consumer behaviour better is the lifestyle approach. It takes into account the wide range of factors influencing consumer behaviour. By conducting surveys, a consumer typology can be drawn up for a specific needs area. This knowledge can be used to create comprehensive opportunity structures for different types of consumers to practice more sustainable consumer behaviour. A review of four recent German studies that employ the lifestyle approach shows the usefulness of such an approach. It was found that although environmental orientations are important for sustainable consumer behaviour, non-environmental orientations are usually stronger. Socio-demographic and external factors further limit the extent to which consumer behaviour will be sustainable. Consumers are also sceptical about the credibility of actors asking them to change their behaviour as well as about environmental issues in general. All relevant societal actors need to therefore be involved to provide credibility to strategies for more sustainable consumer behaviour. While the lifestyle approach offers detailed knowledge about how consumer behaviour works with different types of consumers, it is often case-specific. The results of lifestyle studies are difficult to compare and generalise. They should be considered more as a heuristic tool in consumer behaviour research. However, improvements on the comparability of studies can be made if a standardised process of research methodology could be agreed upon by researchers. Future research is needed on the factors influencing sustainable consumer behaviour. Research should especially focus on the socio-demographic as well as external contextual factors. The environmental impacts of specific consumption practices must be measured. Generally, an interdisciplinary approach must be taken. Finally, public debate to define sustainable development and sustainable consumer behaviour must continue. Here, it is important to look at questions of social inequality and poverty. Furthermore, the environmental responsibility that should be taken by the different actors in society must be discussed, also from a gender perspective.