today's facts & tomorrow's trends - SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles ...

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What are sustainable lifestyles? It is difficult to translate what sustainability issues like global climate change, deforestation, water stress and the loss of biodiversity mean for our everyday lives and the decisions we make about how we live, move and consume. There are many factors contributing to human behaviours and lifestyles (Figure 2). Understanding these factors informs the development of sustainable lifestyle solutions that address human motivations and barriers at the individual and society-wide levels. Many actors and factors influence human behaviours and lifestyles. Figure 2 Situational and behavioural factors influencing human behaviour Experience Infrastructure Social Networks Culture Geography Environmental change Norms Beliefs Attitudes Habits Institutional framework Situational factors Influencing human behaviour Behavioural factors Values Access to capital Information Social learning Identity Source: Defra, Sustainable Lifestyles Framework, 2011. Knowledge Leadership Perceptions Selfefficcacy Awareness Altruism This section highlights definitions from existing research to provide the context for a broader lifestyles debate. It finds that: • Lifestyles relate to our ways of “doing”, “having”, “using” and “displaying”. • Sustainable lifestyles aim to ensure that everything we do, have, use and display meets our needs and improves our quality of life while minimising the consumption of natural resources, emissions, waste and pollution and ensures that resources are safeguarded for future generations. • Sustainability has three pillars: environmental, social and economic. • Ideally sustainable solutions would not undermine choice or personal identity and rather open up new choices for many. What are sustainable lifestyles? 23
Lifestyles Definition of “lifestyle”: • What we do and have and all related material objects or systems • Our deliberative and nondeliberative choices and actions (behaviours) • “Social conversations” through which we associate or distinguish ourselves from others Lifestyles relate to our ways of “doing”, “having”, “using” and “displaying”, our behaviour and all of the related products, objects and infrastructures (Røpke 2009: p. 11). Lifestyles are intimately linked to consumption, with many of our “signals” about ourselves mediated by and tied to our consumption of goods and services which in turn influences the material and resource flows in society. In other words, our lifestyles drive our levels and patterns of consumption. Our lifestyles are a matter of choice as well as habit that are embedded in, shaped by (and shape) our entire context: our social, cultural, technical, economic, political, institutional and geographical surroundings and all of the actors in those surroundings. Ways of “doing” and “having” Our lifestyles comprise our daily practices, such as taking a shower, cooking, working, taking care of others, watching TV, driving or shopping and the things we do less often, such as buying a refrigerator or car, hosting a party, attending the cinema or going on holiday. Our lifestyles also include what we own, with many products, objects and infrastructure enabling our daily and infrequent practices. Taking a shower, for example, includes everything from the water systems connected to our home, our water heating, the shower itself, the toiletries in the shower and other products we use, including beauty products and towels. Our lifestyles are also influenced by non-material issues such as our values, manners, and education. Ways of “displaying” Lifestyles are connected to identity. The way we choose, use and display goods has a symbolic value, helping us to express ourselves and our links to a particular social group or class (Edgar and Sedgwick 1999). Lifestyles serve as “social conversations” where we associate with or differentiate ourselves from others. Our ways of displaying are connected to how we grew up, what we learned, like and know, and what those around us are doing. We may buy the same groceries and follow the same cooking recipes as our parents, or go on holidays with the same group of friends. Lifestyles shape and are shaped by social, cultural, technical, economic, political, institutional and geographical surroundings. Ways of “being shaped” We do not always have freedom of choice about our own lifestyles. Our choices can be blocked or shaped by the kind of products or infrastructure available to us, including politics, institutions, laws and regulations. We may, for example, want to use public transport more often, but lack reliable and convenient services – so we keep using our cars. Sustainable lifestyles There is no commonly agreed definition of a sustainable lifestyle. The most widely cited definition is that of the Westminster Centre for Sustainable Development that defines sustainable lifestyles as: “patterns of action and consumption used by people to affiliate and differentiate themselves from others, which: meet basic needs, provide a better quality of life, minimise the use of natural resources and emissions 24 SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S FACTS & TOMORROW’S TRENDS
Page 1 and 2: SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S F
Page 4 and 5: SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S F
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS ABOUT SPREAD Sustainable L
Page 8 and 9: Abbreviations CABS Climate-adaptive
Page 10 and 11: Executive Summary Our purpose As a
Page 12 and 13: Trends towards sustainability: prom
Page 14 and 15: To enable large-scale transitions t
Page 16 and 17: munity and businesses. However, it
Page 18 and 19: Introduction - our lifestyles are a
Page 20 and 21: Unsustainable lifestyles and consum
Page 22 and 23: environmental degradation is reachi
Page 26 and 27: of waste and pollutants over the li
Page 28: Travelling sustainably Making the m
Page 31 and 32: Accumulation of “stuff” and mar
Page 33 and 34: set to continue with growing number
Page 35 and 36: development would, therefore, be me
Page 37 and 38: Celebrities and trend-setters from
Page 39 and 40: processes and products in particula
Page 41 and 42: Living: The ownership of living spa
Page 43 and 44: Europe’s ecological consumption f
Page 45 and 46: ever greater number of consumers ar
Page 47 and 48: (Promising practice 2). To give pro
Page 49 and 50: The voluntary simplicity movement -
Page 51 and 52: “Space can really facilitate coll
Page 53 and 54: Trends towards more sustainable liv
Page 55 and 56: When it comes to the installations
Page 57 and 58: An important challenge is taking re
Page 59 and 60: Information has, however, been most
Page 61 and 62: cial networks, cohesion and democra
Page 63 and 64: More efficient transport of people
Page 65 and 66: Table 5 Growth in traffic observed
Page 67 and 68: These challenges cannot be overcome
Page 69 and 70: More thought and discussion is need
Page 71 and 72: “It is very important to start to
Page 73 and 74: Poor neighbourhoods require special
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lates social contact and social int
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Emerging themes for sustainable lif
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SPREADing sustainable lifestyles In
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“Efficiency needs and technologic
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Tailoring sustainable lifestyle sol
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Design and visualisation tools to d
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Table 6 Policy interventions that g
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“The main challenge in creating m
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Table 7 The 10 principles of sustai
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A number of research fields that ca
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A framework for change This chapter
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One of the most difficult elements
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Managing multi-actor and multi-leve
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Policy initiatives for large-scale
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Agenda 21 also put responsibility o
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“The unsustainable consumption pa
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National policies The two supra-nat
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Table 8 Policy instruments for sust
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Roadmap and research initiatives fo
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The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient
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Research The challenges of operatio
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• CHANGING BEHAVIOUR studied oppo
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Looking ahead: How the SPREAD proje
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“The SPREAD project’s multi-sta
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Botsman, R. and R. Rogers (2010). W
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EEA (2010d). The European environme
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Grassroots Innovations (2010). Rese
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Meadows, D. (1996). Envisioning a S
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Sachs, W. (1992). For Love of the A
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WEF (2009). Driving Sustainable Con
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Country Type / name of initiative D
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Country Type / name of initiative M
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Country FI Type / name of initiativ
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Country Type / name of initiative D
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Country Type / name of initiative E
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Country Type / name of initiative I
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Appendix B List of actors and initi
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Country DE DE DE DE DE DE DE DE DE
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Country DE DE DK ES ES ES ES ES ES
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Country NL Organisation RMC NL Stic
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Contact Energy research Centre of t
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