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A number of research fields that can be clustered together as the “sociology of consumption” aim to understand why people behave the way they do, how their behaviour can become more sustainable, and how their context could be altered to make sustainable choices more easy and natural. There has been considerable interest in this area since sustainable consumption appeared as an issue of political interest and within public discourse. Research on the sociology of consumption and sustainable consumption indicates the need for a paradigm shift in thinking about how to foster changes towards more sustainable lifestyles (Breukers et al. 2009; Jackson 2005; Mont and Power 2010; Power and Mont 2010b). These include shifts: • From a focus on individuals, to a focus on wider communities and social norms and practices; • From a focus on changing discrete behaviours to a focus on changing entire lifestyles, cultures and values; • From a focus on top-down approaches to a shared approach where governments support and learn from community initiatives, and engage with a range of partners to deliver messages and support groups such as civil society organisations, local authorities, media, and others; • From an understanding of people as “rational choice agents” to human-beings with diverse needs and desires; • From the provision of information to leading by example and providing practical advice and support; • From hoping consumers will change the market, to providing the infrastructure, facilities and incentives to make sustainable living possible and desirable for most people. NGO and CSO action for more sustainable lifestyles Non-governmental and civil society organisations (NGOs and CSOs) foster debate on the need for meaningful change in values and norms in society. They are in a key position to foster the development of sustainable consumption values and visions and citizen engagement (Lorek 2010; Meadows 1996; Spangenberg and Lorek 2003). Two emerging <strong>trends</strong> among NGOs and CSOs are their improved coalition building among stakeholders in society. A closer collaboration with the academic community fosters a practical application of scientific knowledge to the realities of societal and political processes within which NGOs and CSOs participate (Fuchs and Lorek 2005). Further, leading NGOs and CSOs are today applying their knowledge and perspectives to actively set the political agenda on a number of issues, including alternative ways to measure societal development (e.g. new economics foundation) or new approaches to economic progress (e.g. “degrowth” communities). In the past, NGOs tended to work on isolated topics, such as energy or food, voluntary simplicity or cleaner production. Today, however, a growing number of NGOs are profiling themselves as working on holistic approaches to sustainability (Barber 2007b; Church and Lorek 2007), and this has strengthened their voice and potential to bring about the desired change. Similarly, leading NGOs are beginning to overcome past tendencies to promote sustainable (most often merely “green”) consumption based on traditional marketing strategies. People are increasingly seen by NGOs as citizens and, rather than encouraging individuals to adopt simple and painless behaviour changes with limited impact, NGOs and CSOs support sustainability in society by: • Improved coalition building • Examining broader sustainable consumption instead of isolated topics • Becoming more politically active and engaging and facilitating critical societal issues NGOs and CSOs can be catalysts for change. Many NGOs and CSOs are becoming more politically active. <strong>SPREAD</strong>ing sustainable lifestyles 93
they are engaging and facilitating critical societal issues such as sustainable norms and values and alternative models of societal organisation. New appeals are being created to advocate self-transcendent, intrinsic environmental and social values with potential to spill over into other domains of behaviour, supporting a shift away from financial self-interest or social status (Crompton 2008; Crompton and Thøgersen 2009; Kasser 2011; Schwartz 1992). Concluding remarks Examples discussed in this chapter encourage holistic research-based, designdriven, policy or entrepreneurial approaches to support changes in favour of more sustainable ways of living. The success of these efforts, however, depends heavily on finding localised and tailored solutions that can grow or multiply into larger-scale change. This often requires multi-stakeholder action and support. The next chapter provides a conceptual framework for successful growth and multiplication of localised or tailored sustainability practices. 94 SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S FACTS & TOMORROW’S TRENDS
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SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S F
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SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S F
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CONTENTS ABOUT SPREAD Sustainable L
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Abbreviations CABS Climate-adaptive
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Executive Summary Our purpose As a
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Trends towards sustainability: prom
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To enable large-scale transitions t
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munity and businesses. However, it
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Introduction - our lifestyles are a
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Unsustainable lifestyles and consum
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environmental degradation is reachi
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What are sustainable lifestyles? It
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of waste and pollutants over the li
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Travelling sustainably Making the m
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Accumulation of “stuff” and mar
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set to continue with growing number
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development would, therefore, be me
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Celebrities and trend-setters from
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processes and products in particula
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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
Page 75 and 76: lates social contact and social int
Page 77 and 78: Emerging themes for sustainable lif
Page 80 and 81: SPREADing sustainable lifestyles In
Page 82 and 83: “Efficiency needs and technologic
Page 84 and 85: Tailoring sustainable lifestyle sol
Page 86 and 87: Design and visualisation tools to d
Page 88 and 89: Table 6 Policy interventions that g
Page 90 and 91: “The main challenge in creating m
Page 92 and 93: Table 7 The 10 principles of sustai
Page 96 and 97: A framework for change This chapter
Page 98 and 99: One of the most difficult elements
Page 100 and 101: Managing multi-actor and multi-leve
Page 102 and 103: Policy initiatives for large-scale
Page 104 and 105: Agenda 21 also put responsibility o
Page 106 and 107: “The unsustainable consumption pa
Page 108 and 109: National policies The two supra-nat
Page 110 and 111: Table 8 Policy instruments for sust
Page 112 and 113: Roadmap and research initiatives fo
Page 115 and 116: The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient
Page 117 and 118: Research The challenges of operatio
Page 119 and 120: • CHANGING BEHAVIOUR studied oppo
Page 122 and 123: Looking ahead: How the SPREAD proje
Page 124: “The SPREAD project’s multi-sta
Page 127 and 128: Botsman, R. and R. Rogers (2010). W
Page 129 and 130: EEA (2010d). The European environme
Page 131 and 132: Grassroots Innovations (2010). Rese
Page 133 and 134: Meadows, D. (1996). Envisioning a S
Page 135 and 136: Sachs, W. (1992). For Love of the A
Page 137 and 138: WEF (2009). Driving Sustainable Con
Page 139 and 140: Country Type / name of initiative D
Page 141 and 142: Country Type / name of initiative M
Page 143 and 144: 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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