There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key con- sumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. (authors' abstract)

Cette étude vise à explorer les paradoxes existants dans l'offre durable de produits alimentaires et, les comportements adoptés par les consommateurs percevant ces paradoxes. Le modèle théorique retenu est celui de Mick et Fournier (1998), initialement construit pour étudier les paradoxes des technologies modernes et adapté au cadre de l'Alimentation Durable. Une enquête qualitative a été menée auprès de 84 consommateurs ordinaires en France et en Italie. Puis 18 sujets participants à l'AMAP, ou à des Associations de Consommateurs, ont été interviewés. Les entretiens semi-directifs réalisés ont permis une exploration des paradoxes perçus et des stratégies de coping adoptées selon deux moments: avant l'adoption d'un choix durable et lors du choix durable (Lazarus et Folkman, 1984). Enfin nous avons essayé de dégager des caractéristiques spécifiques à l'égard des deux pays: la France et l'Italie, soit liées aux facteurs structurels (ex. marché de produits alimentaires durables) soit des éléments culturels, ainsi que par rapport aux consommateurs grâce à la proposition de profils types. Pourtant ce travail a des objectifs théoriques, c'est-à-dire de vérifier la présence de paradoxes à l'égard de l'offre alimentaire durable; puis méthodologiques en adaptant le modèle de Mick et Fournier au cadre spécifique de recherche; enfin pratiques en mettant en lumière des éléments qui freinent le développement de l'offre durable actuelle. / This study aims to explore existing paradoxes in sustainable offer of food products and consequently behaviours of consumers at the time of perceiving these paradoxes. The related theoretical model is that of Mick and Fournier (1998), built initially for studying the paradoxes of modern technologies and adapted at the case of sustainable food consumption. A qualitative survey has been conducted among 84 ordinary consumers in France and Italy. Later other 18 subjects, already involved into sustainable purchases (participants of AMAP or Associations of Consumers), have been interviewed. The semi-structured interviews have shed light on perceived paradoxes and adopted coping strategies faced with two moments: before sustainable choice and at the moment of sustainable choice (Lazarus et Folkman, 1984). Last we have achieved to distinguish specific elements attached to two contexts of research: France and Italy, such as structural factors (market of sustainable food products) and cultural ones, and after in regard with consumers by proposing some profiles-types. So that this work has three objectives: theoretical as to verify the paradoxes listed towards the offer of food sustainable products; methodological regarding the adaptation of conceptual model of Mick et Fournier (1998) to specific context of research and then practical ones in order to distinguish some elements which can affect negatively the development of sustainable current offer.

The paper describes our usage of and experience with the method of participatory systems mapping. The method, developed for the purpose of facilitating knowledge brokerage, builds on participatory modelling approaches and applications and was used in several events involving both researchers and policy makers. The paper presents and discusses examples of how different types of participatory interaction with causal loop diagrams ("system maps") produced different insights on issues related to sustainable consumption and enabled participatory reflection and sharing of knowledge. Together, these insights support a systemic understanding of the issues and thus the method provides instruments for coping with complexity when formulating policies for sustainable consumption. Furthermore the paper discusses the ability of the method - and its limits - to connect mental models of participants through structured discussion and thus bridge boundaries between different communities.

O interesse nas áreas do comportamento do consumidor no ambiente digital é crescente, enquanto o tema de responsabilidade social, atrelado a iniciativas sustentáveis, tem cada vez mais abrangência. Logo, propôs-se uma pesquisa com foco na área digital no que se refere a como o consumo sustentável do indivíduo reflete no seu potencial de influência interpessoal nas mídias sociais sobre o construto. Desta maneira, o objetivo geral da pesquisa foi verificar relações entre o consumo sustentável do indivíduo e o seu potencial de influência interpessoal nas mídias sociais. Também foram desenvolvidos dois objetivos específicos: analisar a diferença do potencial de influência interpessoal nas mídias sociais entre homens e mulheres em relação ao consumo sustentável e verificar se a prática de consumo sustentável do indivíduo impacta no seu comportamento autorreferido como consumidor sustentável. A pesquisa apresentou abordagem quantitativa, a partir de uma survey que foi disponibilizada em meio eletrônico para a população alvo, constituída por brasileiros presentes nas mídias sociais mais utilizadas no país. Os dados deste estudo foram coletados a partir de amostra de 513 respondentes. O instrumento de pesquisa foi dividido em cinco partes, utilizando-se duas escalas validadas - escala de consumo sustentável e escala de influência interpessoal - além da verificação de comportamento do respondente nas mídias sociais, do seu comportamento autorreferido em relação à prática do consumo sustentável e da caracterização sociodemográfica, totalizando 56 itens. Utilizou-se o software R para a análise dos dados e a aplicação das técnicas estatísticas de forma a responder às hipóteses da pesquisa. Além da caracterização da amostra, foram aplicadas as técnicas de análise fatorial exploratória, análise de regressão múltipla e análise de regressão logística. Os resultados obtidos apresentaram quatro dimensões de influência interpessoal de consumo sustentável nas mídias sociais: líderes aconselhadores de opinião, líderes persuasivos de opinião, buscadores ativos de opinião e buscadores passivos de opinião, cada um com relações entre uma ou mais dimensões de consumo sustentável, diferentes comportamentos nas mídias sociais e idade. O líder aconselhador de opinião preocupa-se marginalmente com reciclagem, compartilha mais conteúdo e envia mais mensagens privadas do que os demais, ao mesmo tempo em que atualiza menos o visual e conteúdo no perfil e busca menos por amigos e quanto menor a sua idade, maior o seu escore de liderança aconselhadora. Já o líder persuasivo de opinião apresenta menor comportamento de reciclagem, consciência ecológica e frugalidade e, quanto menos compartilha conteúdo e acessa as mídias sociais diariamente, maior seu escore na liderança persuasiva. E, quanto menor a idade dos líderes de opinião, maior o seu escore de influência interpessoal em relação aos demais. O buscador ativo de opinião, por sua vez, apresenta menores escores de consciência ecológica, compartilha menos conteúdo e conversa menos através do chat em relação aos demais, enquanto envia mais mensagens privadas em relação aos demais indivíduos da amostra. Além disso, apresenta comportamento marginal de menor leitura de notícias e comentários e passa menos horas nas mídias sociais diariamente em relação aos outros usuários. Por fim, o buscador passivo de opinião, em relação aos demais indivíduos da amostra, apresenta menores escores de consciência ecológica e frugalidade, e quanto menos publicam comentários e acessam as mídias sociais diariamente, maior seu escore em relação aos demais indivíduos. Finalmente, quanto maior a idade do indivíduo, maior seu escore de busca passiva de opinião. Foi verificado que o gênero não apresenta relação significativa as dimensões de influência interpessoal do indivíduo consumidor sustentável nas mídias sociais. Além disso, averiguou-se que prática de consumo sustentável do indivíduo impacta no seu comportamento autorreferido como consumidor sustentável a partir das dimensões de consumo sustentável utilizadas na análise: consciência ecológica, reciclagem, frugalidade e economia de recursos. A partir desta investigação, foram apresentados cenários e recomendações para que futuras observações possam utilizar as dimensões de influência interpessoal do consumidor sustentável nas mídias sociais, contribuições consideradas tanto para o ambiente acadêmico quanto gerencial. Destaca-se, por fim, que a interatividade entre o consumo sustentável do indivíduo e o seu potencial de influência interpessoal nas mídias sociais pode impactar este consumo, requisito essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável. / The interest in the areas of consumer behavior in the digital environment is increasing, while the theme of social responsibility, linked to sustainable initiatives, is increasingly broad. Therefore, a research focused on the digital area was proposed as to how the sustainable consumption of the individual reflects in his potential of interpersonal influence on social media regarding the construct. In this way, the main objective of the research was to verify relations between the individual\'s sustainable consumption and his potential of interpersonal influence on social media. Two specific objectives were also developed: to analyze the difference on the potential of interpersonal influence in social media between men and women in relation to sustainable consumption and to verify if the practice of sustainable consumption of the individual impacts on his self-referenced behavior as a sustainable consumer. The research presented a quantitative approach, based on a survey which was made available electronically to the target population, made up of Brazilians present in the most used social media in the country. Data from this study were collected from a sample of 513 respondents. The research instrument was divided into five parts, using two validated scales - scale of sustainable consumption and scale of interpersonal influence - in addition to the verification of the behavior of the respondent in social media, their self-reported behavior in relation to the practice of sustainable consumption and sociodemographic characterization, totaling 56 items. The software R was used to analyze the data and the application of statistical techniques in order to answer the hypotheses of the research. In addition to the characterization of the sample, the techniques of exploratory factorial analysis, multiple regression analysis and logistic regression analysis were applied. The results obtained presented four dimensions of interpersonal influence of sustainable consumption on social media: counselor opinion leaders, persuasive opinion leaders, active opinion seekers and passive opinion seekers, each with relationships between one or more dimensions of sustainable consumption, different behaviors on social media and age. The counselor opinion leader leads marginally with recycling, shares more content and sends more private messages than others, while less updating the look and content in the profile and searching less for friends and the younger his age, the higher his counselor leadership score. The persuasive opinion leader, however, exhibits less recycling behavior, ecological awareness and frugality, and the less he shares content and accesses daily social media, the greater his persuasive leadership score. And, the younger the age of opinion leaders, the greater their interpersonal influence score in relation to others. The active opinion seeker, in turn, presents lower scores of ecological awareness, shares less content and talks less through chat in in relation to the others, while sending more private messages in relation to other individuals in the sample. In addition, he presents marginal behavior of less reading of news and comments and spends less hours on social media daily compared to other users. Finally, the passive opinion seeker, in relation to other individuals in the sample, presents lower scores of ecological awareness and frugality, and the less they publish comments and access social media daily, the higher their score in relation to the other individuals. Finally, the greater the individual\'s age, the greater his passive seeking score. It was verified that the gender does not present significant relation in the dimensions of interpersonal influence of the sustainable consumer individual on social media. In addition, it was verified that the practice of sustainable consumption of the individual impacts on his self-referenced behavior as a sustainable consumer from the dimensions of sustainable consumption used in the analysis: ecological awareness, recycling, frugality and resource saving. Based on this research, scenarios and recommendations were presented so that future observations can use the dimensions of interpersonal influence of the sustainable consumer on social media, contributions considered for both academic and managerial environments. Finally, it should be emphasized that the interactivity between the individual\'s sustainable consumption and their potential for interpersonal influence in social media can impact this consumption, an essential requirement for sustainable development.

La thèse porte sur les comportements de consommation durable des ménages. Lorsque les comportements de consommation permettent de retirer une utilité individuelle, au détriment de l’intérêt général, ils peuvent être analysés comme un dilemme social. Les expériences de jeu de bien public permettent de tester des comportements en situation de dilemme social. Consommer de manière durable peut être considéré comme une contribution volontaire à un bien public. La problématique est de mieux comprendre les mécanismes de contribution volontaire à des biens collectifs qui génèrent des externalités. Trois expériences nous permettent d’analyser les différences de contributions entre un bien privé et des biens publics, mal(s) publics et biens clubs. Plus particulièrement, nous nous intéressons aux externalités négatives d’un mal public, à l’exclusivité du bien club et aux effets de la présence de biens collectifs multiples. / This thesis focuses on the sustainable consumer behaviour of households. When consumer behaviours allow for individual utility, at the expense of public interest, these can be analysed as a social dilemma. Experiments in public good games allow for testing behaviours of individuals subjected to social dilemma situations. Sustainable consumption can be considered as a voluntary contribution to a public good. The objective is to better understand the mechanisms behind voluntary contributions to public goods that generate externalities. Three experiments will allow us to analyse the differences in contributions between a private good and public goods, public bad(s) and club goods. We focus on the negative externalities of a public bad, the exclusivity of the club good and the effects of multiple public goods.

The commercial field of sustainability communications encompasses ground previously demarcated between the fields of Corporate Social Responsibility on the one hand, and marketing, advertising and public relations on the other. This thesis examines the formation and development of this novel field of cultural production and its significance for sustainable consumption and corporate sustainability. The research is orientated by practice theory and draws on participant observation within a sustainability communications agency, interviews and documentary analysis. The heuristic value of practice theory for the study of sustainable consumption is now well established in the context of end-use consumption but is unexplored in the context of commercial sustainability communications. Equally, sustainability communications has been neglected by the field of cultural economy. The key concern is with cultural intermediaries and their capacity or otherwise to instantiate their own mores, understandings and practices in the social world. I address this in terms of sustainability and draw on the idea of performativity to approach commercial sustainability communications as a performative complex of practices. Furthermore, the research aims to problematise the place of 'the consumer' in discourses of sustainable consumption. I produce a genealogy of sustainability communications and an account of the development and contemporary constitution of the associated agency market. I suggest that a defining role that the market plays is the management of the 'strategic ambiguity' of sustainability. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews I identify elements that integrate practices into the complex of sustainability communications and examine its normative orientations. Cultural intermediation is shown to take place through, firstly, the diffusion of practices and practice elements. Secondly, it occurs through attempts to instantiate 'the sustainable consumer'. Models of the consumer at work in sustainability communications are analysed and different modes of instantiation of 'the sustainable consumer' identified. Thirdly, it takes place through articulating sustainability with brands. I explore three arenas in which sustainability communications articulates brand and sustainability: what I identify as the discourse of corporate-sponsored sustainable consumption; the cultural politics of work; and lastly, the public sphere.

Can nudging promote sustainable consumption behaviour? This study investigates if nudging promotes more environmentally-friendly purchases when applying either a default option or adding a product to elicit the attraction effect in a consumption situation of electronic products. The study further investigates sustainable consumption behaviour by looking at political orientation and the degree of climate change denial. The results show that nudging can promote significantly more environmentally-friendly purchases. The attraction effect was found to have positive effects, but not the default option. A higher proportion of environmentally-friendly purchases was further carried out by participants having a lower denial towards climate change. Climate change denial was also correlated with political orientation; participants evaluating themselves as right-wing oriented showed higher climate change denial, and proceeded with less sustainable purchases. Despite identifying positive effects of nudging on sustainable consumption behaviour, data also indicate an interaction effect between nudging and the sequenced presentation order of condition. This can be interpreted as a carry-over effect moderating the effect of nudging when it is presented after a control condition. This moderating effect is discussed as a potential limitation of nudging as a tool to affect people’s behaviour.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying causes for the millennials’ engagement into reusing clothes who are characterised by both, a high consumption of second-hand clothing and a certain environmental awareness. Considered as both, a sustainable consumption practice as well as a current trend, it shall be focused in what way these aspects influence the millennials’ consumption of second-hand clothing. Design/Methodological Approach - For answering the research questions, a qualitative approach was followed including 10 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with millennials who shop second-hand clothing in Swedish charity thrift shops. Findings - The findings reveal various motivations of millennials for shopping second-hand clothing and its connection to being a current trend. It is somewhat influencing millennials that shopping second-hand clothing is a sustainable consumption practice. However, it is rather motivated to be part of the trend. In some cases it displays a justification for a higher consumption of clothing. However, environmental concerns do not appear as the primary motive. The findings lead to the assumption that shopping second-hand clothing fulfils the same needs as fashionable clothes do for the millennials. Originality/ Value - Little research has been conducted to understand the millennials’ underlying causes for engaging into second-hand shopping. Recently, they have been discovered as a cohort with a high affinity to reusing clothes. This study examined millennials’ various motivations, taking a closer look on environmental concerns as shopping second-hand clothing is considered as a sustainable consumption practice. Furthermore, it is investigated which role second-hand shopping has in the overall clothing consumption of millennials. Though the findings are not generalizable, they can serve as a basis for future quantitative research within this contemporary and relevant field in the world of textiles and clothing.

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing the Thai millennial consumers’ intention to purchase clothing and accessories made from recycled plastic. The research relied on deductive reasoning through hypothesis testing; Statistical measurements were employed. Consequently, a descriptive quantitative research approach was utilized to conduct the study. The data were collected physically and virtually via a web-based survey. A total number of 393 responses from Thai millennial consumers who live in Bangkok and its vicinity were analyzed with the application of structural equation modeling. The result demonstrates that environmental concern, attitude, and perceived behavioral control have a significant relationship on purchase intention of green apparel, shoes, and accessories made from recycled plastic. Environmental concern also positively mediates the green attitude and has a stronger correlation toward attitude than purchase intention. The subjective norm, on the other hand, shows no significance.

Studien undersöker hur svenska småbarnsföräldrar upplever miljöinformation i samband med konsumtion och hur de upplever konsumtion av miljömärkta varor. Även vilken information om miljömärkningar som föräldrarna saknar och hur kommunikation om miljömärkningar kan utformas, undersöks. Syftet är att få en ökad förståelse för småbarnsföräldrars informations- och konsumtionsupplevelser och att därigenom förbättra kommunikation om miljömärkningar. Undersökningen genomförs med semistrukturerade intervjuer som analyseras med kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultatet visar att miljöinformation i samband med konsumtion upplevs som påtvingande, styrande och distanserande. Att konsumera miljömärkta varor upplevs som kostsamt. Respondenterna efterfrågar information om vad miljömärkningar betyder, vad miljömärkningarna bidrar till och vilka som gynnas av den. Ett oväntat resultat var respondenternas genomgående positiva inställning till närproducerad konsumtion. Närproducerad konsumtion associerades med begrepp som hemma och igenkänning. Framtida kommunikation bör därav, för att öka konsumtionen av miljömärkta varor, fokusera på att informera småbarnsföräldrar om miljömärkningar betydelse, vilka som gynnas av konsumtionen samt att återskapa de associationer som upplevs i samband med närproducerad konsumtion.