Abstract
Background: Due to the current environmental crisis, sustainable consumption (SC) behaviour and its drivers has gained significant attention among researchers. One of the potential drivers of SC, religion, have been analysed in the last few years. The study of the relationship between religion and adoption of SC at the individual level have reached mixed and inconclusive results. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review of articles published between 1998 and 2019 was conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Search terms included sustainable consumption, green consumption, ethical consumption, responsible consumption, pro-environmental behaviour and religion. Results: This systematic review reveals that contradictory results are due to methodological and theoretical reasons and provides a unifying understanding about the influence of religion on SC practices. Results highlight the role of religion as a distal or background factor of other proximal determinants of environmental behaviour. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the literature concerning SC by synthesising previous scholarship showing that religion shapes SC indirectly by affecting attitudes, values, self-efficacy, social norms and identity. The review concludes with a research agenda to encourage scholars the study of other unexamined mediating constructs, such as beliefs in after life, cleansing rituals and prayer, moral emotions, moral identity, the role of virtues and self-restrain.
Highlights
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, aims to coordinate efforts to advance sustainable development
Our research aims to answer three research questions (RQ): RQ 1: What is the relationship between religion and sustainable consumption (SC)? Does this relationship change depending on methodological issues, the particular religion being studied, or the country under examination?
Religion can be studied at different level of analysis; here we focus on the individual level, understanding religion as beliefs in superhuman beings [31] or the “systems of meaning embodied in a pattern of life, a community of faith, and a worldview that articulate a view of the sacred and of what matters” [32] (p. 10)
Summary
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, aims to coordinate efforts to advance sustainable development. There are not clear progresses to meet this Goal in view of the growing unsustainable consumption patterns [1,2]. For this reason, understanding the drivers for sustainable consumption (SC hereafter) behaviour is becoming increasingly important [3]. One of the such drivers that have received growing attention in the literature is religion. Due to the current environmental crisis, sustainable consumption (SC) behaviour and its drivers has gained significant attention among researchers. The review concludes with a research agenda to encourage scholars the study of other unexamined mediating constructs, such as beliefs in after life, cleansing rituals and prayer, moral emotions, moral identity, the role of virtues and self-restrain
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