Influencing factors to facilitate sustainable consumption: from the experts' viewpoints

Abstract

An information transition gap still exists between cleaner production and sustainable consumption. Governments and organizations should take responsibility for making adequate product-level sustainability information available for consumers. This study proposes a set of product-level sustainability attributes that captures influencing factors to facilitate sustainable consumption behavior and plays the role of facilitator in the Attitude-Facilitator-Infrastructure (AFI) framework. The survey method is adopted to gain insights from experts who work in the academic research field and practitioners, and an expert evaluation exercise is used to evaluate the importance and applicability of the attributes. The data received from surveys strongly suggest that consumers are increasingly concerned about the social impact of a product in its production phase and require more related information. From the perspective of experts, “Employees' Working Safety” is becoming an important attribute, but it is very difficult to evaluate. This research could serve as a fundamental study for developing related public or industrial policies, and it contributes to the field of developing an information transition approach from cleaner production to sustainable consumption.