Chapter 11 - Sustainable Lifestyles: Rethinking Barriers and Behaviour Change

Abstract

This chapter deals with the current global levels of domestic energy consumption and waste production that have been acknowledged as important contributors to detrimental environmental change. Political and academic interest in this component of sustainable development implementation stimulates debates in post-industrial nations concerning the social practices of contemporary consumerism and shows how to live in the future. In response, there has been a call for the development of national policies and strategies to encourage changes in consumption patterns. One approach has been the promotion of environmentally-friendly lifestyles, which often takes the form of media or community campaigns. These campaigns encourage individuals not only to decrease the amount consumed, but also alters the nature of goods consumed. This chapter has detailed the serious problems with current political usage, and emphasis on, environmental communications as a valid behavior-change strategy. It is shown how individuals react to communications, how they think about and address changing their lifestyles, and how they consider the current framing of the environmental problematique, all contrast markedly with the prevailing positivist assumptions underlying policy strategies.