How “Green Knowledge” Influences Sustainability through Behavior Change: Theory and Policy Implications

Yongsheng Zhang,Ilan Chabay

doi:10.3390/su12166448

Abstract

The urgent and critical challenges of transforming patterns of behavior from current unsustainable ones are encapsulated in the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Central to these goals and targets are systems of sustainable consumption and production. This crucial goal depends on consumers and producers making choices that depend on knowledge available to them and on other factors influencing their preferences in accordance with norms and culture. This paper investigates how “green knowledge” (i.e., knowledge of ecologically and socially sound products and practices) influences sustainability in the intersections of knowledge, preferences, behavior, and economic and environmental performance. By employing a general equilibrium economic model, we show that consumers, producers, and industry regulators with different degrees of knowledge and concern about the health and environmental benefits of products and production would lead to different economic and environmental consequences. As “green knowledge” influences consumption patterns and government policy-making, our model shows that, in principle, there will be a shift in the content of the economy to that which supports the achievement of long-term sustainability.

Highlights

Humanity faces the urgent and critical challenge of transforming patterns of behavior from the current unsustainable patterns and practices to sustainable ones that are just, equitable, feasible, and appropriate in the different contexts and cultures of the world
By employing a general equilibrium economic model, we show that consumers, producers, and industry regulators with different degrees of knowledge and concern about the health and environmental benefits of products and production would lead to different economic and environmental consequences
As “green knowledge” influences consumption patterns and government policy-making, our model shows that, in principle, there will be a shift in the content of the economy to that which supports the achievement of long-term sustainability

Summary

Introduction

Humanity faces the urgent and critical challenge of transforming patterns of behavior from the current unsustainable patterns and practices to sustainable ones that are just, equitable, feasible, and appropriate in the different contexts and cultures of the world. One of the central and broadly encompassing goals is “responsible consumption and production” of all goods (SDG 12, ibid) This requires profoundly reshaping consumption patterns and lifestyles in a way that integrates locally or regionally appropriate policies and practices into a globally coherent, sustainable process. Economic, and societal aspects of sustainability and of the consequences of certain consumption patterns are important factors in the formation of preferences that people express in their choices of consumption Other factors, including those delineated in theories of psycho-social determinants of pro-environmental behavior [2,3] and biases, heuristics, values, and beliefs [4,5] strongly influence decisions that either support or hinder more sustainable behaviors

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