The Sustainable Consumption: History
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Contributor:
Shaikha R. Al-Nuaimi
,
Sami G. Al-Ghamdi

SPC is defined as the use of services and products, which meet basic needs and increase the quality of life, while minimizing natural resource use and adverse environmental effects over the life of the service or product, to allow for the needs of future generations to not be compromised.

  • sustainable development
  • sustainable consumption (SC)

1. Immediate Consumption

SC is the use of a product or service which maintains basic needs and increases the quality of life of the consumer with minimal use of natural resources and adverse environmental effects over the life cycle of the service or product. This is to make sure that current consumers can meet their needs without compromising future generations’ abilities to meet their consumption needs, in line with sustainability principles [1]. Understanding sustainable consumption or green consumption in the literature is to recognize what motivates consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards consumption [2][3][4][5].
One’s action of consumption and consumer behavior based upon the literature can depend on a range of variables. Typically examined variables contain characteristics such as lifestyle [6][7], the age of the consumer, their gender, the family size, their level of education, and ecological knowledge [8][9][10], as well as their social and economic status [5][7][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. All social, economic, demographic factors, and environmental knowledge are identified to have an effect on a consumer’s consumption behavior [15][16][18][19][20].
A significant variable and indicator of a consumer’s behavior towards pro-environmental consumption is the possession or availability of wealth. Numerous studies represent how in households that are considered to have high incomes, have higher instances of consumption, and a negative carbon and material footprint is observed [21][22][23][24][25]. For example, examining household energy use in Qatar showed that there is an elevated consumption of energy due to the fact that Qatar households have high incomes and cheap energy availability [26]. This further indicates that the notion of consumption is significantly linked to the costs of the service or product being consumed. A high cost for a service or product will yield less consumption; therefore, how much material wealth the consumer has, or what the product or service costs, will highly affect the consumption rate [26]. Additionally, separate studies have shown that frugality and green behavior have a positive and significant effect when investigating several pro-environmental purchasing and consumption behaviors [5][27]. A counterargument to the positive effect of the decrease in wealth and pro-environmental consumption behaviors is that having a high income is important in transforming positive attitudes into sustainable behaviors as increasing awareness, skills, and meanings are found to be significantly facilitated by income [24][27][28], although some studies state that this is not the case [28][29][30].

2. Contextual Consumption

A significant aspect of consumers’ consumption is in relation to their immediate context. Several factors such as regulations, labeling, and the use of technology can inherently affect the sustainability of a consumer’s consumption without their awareness or control [30][31][32]. The contextual disruption to normality, such as in global pandemics, is an example of how consumer behaviors are not always under the control of the consumer, but can be circumstantial [33].
The literature argues for a need for provided knowledge that can influence consumers’ behavior and allow them to act sustainably in their purchases and acquired services [30][31][32]. It is argued that any consumer policies or governance that is dependent on the freedom of the consumers to act in a pro-environmental consuming manner are bound to fail [34][35]. This is because sustainable consumption in this instance becomes a matter of logical determination, in terms of the decisions that a consumer can make about the level of sustainability of a product, and not as a clear choice based upon actual sustainability information provided by the product [36][37]. It is likewise suggested that providing consumers with the correct knowledge, which will allow consumers to make their own decisions, can aid sustainable consumption [31][34][37]. The focus of sustainable consumption on the private sphere instead of the political system is criticized and is considered as an undemocratic process that creates moral pressure on the consumer to consume sustainably [36]. A further step in the argument states that it is the responsibility of politicians, through policy and governance, to ensure that consumers have the necessary information to contribute to sustainable consumption on an individual level [31][35][38].
Although the contrary is also argued, in that individuals play a bigger role than governance and policy in terms of consumption, or that they can contribute at an equal level [32][39][40]. In instances with poor regulation over the control of the energy supply within urban centers, it is apparent that consumer behavior is more on the side of excessive usage [26][41][42]. As an example, in Qatar, the lack of a penalty for excessive energy use and the free nature of household electricity results in excessive energy use at the household level [26]. Likewise, the increase in household energy use for appliances has been observed to result in an increase in the intensity of household energy consumption which introduces the aspect of a positive feedback loop in terms of overconsuming, which is a result of the lack of governance or policy on the consumption level [26][43]. Energy-saving policies would serve to reduce household energy consumption and draw a path towards sustainable consumption behavior.
Notably, researchers come to an agreement, that in order to develop such regulatory measures, there is a need for an adequate stakeholder engagement, ESD, and the participation of the households to result in sustainable consumption overall [44][45].
Food consumption provides much insight into consumer behaviors, and is attracting increasing consideration because of its environmental, social, and economic effects [46]. Although food waste and food-related behaviors are observed measures in determining consumption behaviors, food in general is also dependent upon contextual factors which dictate consumption, such as regional differences, food availability, and distribution [46][47]. In the literature, labeling has been found to have an effect on consumption and consumer behaviors, depending on several food properties which can encourage sustainable consumption or pose a barrier to it [48][49][50][51][52]. Examining food labeling such as organic or fair trade, consumer choice has been found to focus mostly on appearance, taste, price, brand, convenience, and origin. Furthermore, social, and environmental certifications are next, followed lastly by characteristics of recyclable packaging and food miles [48][49][50]. As public awareness and education are recognized as the main factors impacting consumption and purchasing behavior, an informative label could serve to benefit sustainable consumption [51][53][54]. On the other hand, consumer hesitancy has been found to be in relation to the limited availability of product information as well as the lack of confidence of producers. Policy and governance measures are noted to need strengthening to promote sustainable consumption from a purchase aspect, and that they will have more success when the involvement of the consumer is made available [48][55][56].
Technology interventions are elements that can inform or actively control an individual’s consumption patterns based on a designated outcome, and in the case of sustainable consumption it would be to promote sustainable consumption. Technologies that are meant for sustainability can highly benefit environmental issues such as in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which would have a direct effect on climate change, air quality, pollution, and so on. [57]. Throughout numerous studies, although the awareness of sustainable benefits of sustainable consumption, such as in the reduction of energy use, is apparent to individuals and households, little or no effort is generally taken at the individual or household level to mitigate purchasing and consuming behaviors [57]. It is here where technologies can benefit as an active agent for sustainable consumption that is passively administered by the consumer themselves [57][58]. Examining household energy use, energy-saving technologies, and feedback displays meant to reduce energy consumption, have been found to be effective in most households [58].

3. Consumption and Behavior

To explore the purchase intentions of consumers, often the most widely used theory is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) [59][60][61]. TPB states in basic terms that a consumer is more likely to behave in such a manner if the behavior being performed is beneficial to that consumer [29][59][60]. This explains how environmental attitude is frequently shown to positively affect environmental behavior and cations [29][62]. Research conducted on an environmentally friendly “green event” has found positive environmental behaviors associated with the attendees of this event, established through a survey distribution [63]. The majority of attendees when surveyed about pro-environmental actions such as regular recycling, saving energy, reducing waste, and sustainable consumption practices stated their commitment to these actions [63]. As the attendees of such events usually have a positive environmental attitude, as expected by TPB, positive environmental behaviors are observed [63]. Furthermore, extending the TPB is suggested to allow for the integration of both the sustainability aspects and the concepts of sustainability knowledge and sustainability values in the current TPB model [64].
For sustainable consumption similar to sustainable actions, a positive feedback effect is observed. When a consumer engages in performing sustainable consumption, or any sustainable behavior, this behavior can carry over to other sustainable actions, regardless of the difficulty of its application [65]. This effect, regarded as a behavioral spillover in the literature, is documented when examining consumers’ sustainable behaviors [65]. It was observed that consumers who made their first decision, when presented with two options related to either transportation or food sequentially, based on carbon emission reduction, were further likely to make their second decision based on an option that aligns with sustainable behavior [65]. This is to illustrate the behavioral aspect of consumers, who engage in sustainable consumption, that they may engage in further sustainable actions or consumption as a positive feedback aspect of behavior.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su14127255

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