Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainable consumption'
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Jensen, Kajsa, and Marija Brico. "Sustainable Consumption : Measuring sustainable consumption behaviour on the Swedish fashion market." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-10197.
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The purpose of this study is to define what data could be used to describe consumers’ actual behaviour when it comes to consumption of sustainable fashion. The perspective is both in terms of finding variables that describe the actual behaviour of sustainable consumption, and to create an appropriate measuring tool that can be used to measure those behaviours. This study has a qualitative research strategy with an inductive approach. The topic was examined by an extensive literature review in the fields connected to the topic. From the literature and the problem raised by the Swedish Consumer Agency, a questionnaire emerged. The questionnaire was also revised into a second version based on the feedback gathered during the focus group session. A questionnaire is suitable to get the consumer perspective, as well as cover all three stages of the consumption cycle and measuring over time. Additionally, this paper focuses on the environmental aspect of sustainability, but the importance of the social and economical aspects are acknowledged. The conclusions drawn in this paper were that it is important to measure the sustainable consumption behaviours of fashion consumers throughout the whole consumption span. When talking about consumption it is a common misconception to focus only on the purchase stage, when it really refers to the purchase, usages and end of use stage as a whole. The variables that were detected were presented in form of a questionnaire. The value of this paper is grounded in the developed questionnaire, which aims are to measure sustainable fashion consumption from a consumer perspective. This is interesting for the Swedish Consumer Agency, who requested a measuring tool, but it may also be of interest for other fashion companies to measure their consumer’s behaviour to detect a demand for sustainable products.
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Campbell, Isaac. "Discourse Analysis of Sustainable Consumption." Thesis, Karlstad University, Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-340.
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In the following C-Level Thesis, the geographically isolated consumer society that has evolved in the developed world is examined through discourse analysis. This research frames the issue of material consumption in a historical context and then interrogates the modern task of sustainability. Through review and analysis of current discourse in the sociopolitical field of sustainable consumption, this paper critically analyzes the development of modern consumer culture. The concept of ecological citizenship is presented and inspected as an effective strategy for the realization of sustainability and is viewed as a unifier of the many conflicting discourses on sustainable consumption. The dominant institutional discourse of ecological modernization is presented through a review of UK policy documents, and the opinions as well as alternative solutions touted by critics is noted. This paper finds that ideal of ecological citizenship has not yet been reached, but positive steps have been taken to achieve the goal of sustainability through curbing consumptive habits. In this presentation of sustainable consumption discourse it is important to recognize that there may be no absolute answer or right way to live on this planet, but rather, many ways which can, together, bring about a sustainable society.
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Spash, Clive L., and Karin Dobernig. "Theories of (Un)sustainable Consumption." WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2017. http://epub.wu.ac.at/5513/1/sre%2Ddisc%2D2017_04.pdf.
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In this discussion paper we review and contrast alternative theories of consumption in terms
of the intellectual basis they provide for understanding sustainable behaviours. A defining
aspect of the modern literature in this field is the emphasis on the individual as a volitional
agent who engages wilfully in the decision to consume. This is in stark contrast to earlier
literature that concentrated on the structural lock-in of individuals to undesirable consumption
patterns and the powers of corporations in creating consumer demand for their products and
services. We argue that, in order to unravel consumption in its full complexity, and as a
matter of utmost importance, understanding must include both the buy-in of individual agents,
whose consumption activities contribute to their self-identity, and the structure imposed by
the institutions of society, that frame the context of actors' decisions. More than this, any
move away from the current unsustainable consumption patterns prevalent in modern
societies requires a richer conceptualisation of consumption that involves an awareness and
examination of the political economy in which humans live.Series: SRE - Discussion Papers
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Bonham, Daniel J. (Daniel Joseph MacLeod). "Progressive consumption : strategic sustainable excess." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39302.
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Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007.Page 77 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-76).
Trends in the marketplace show that urban dwellers are increasingly supporting locally produced foods. This thesis argues for an architecture that responds to our cultures consumptive behaviors. Addressing the effects of consumption in the contemporary urban environment and ultimately developing an architecture that facilitates the consumption levels we have become accustomed to with sustainable business and community based systems. The building is a new market model, built around the idea of delivering fresh produce and local food directly to consumers; the primary means for which this is done is thought the production oriented, on site agriculture. This direct-to-consumer model of food production is facilitated by hydroponics coupled with grow rooms and the benefit of a controlled environment. With the production and transportation of agriculture being highly energy intensive, produce flavor and consistency benefit greatly from a hyper-localized agricultural system.
(cont.) Unlike consumer products which require complex supply chains and distribution networks for rapid market response and vast pooling of knowledge and resources. Agriculture has the advantage of having the ability to be produced in nearly any locale and at almost any scale, from window box to industrial mega-farm. As the model years of tomatoes don't change, the only evolution in the facility or the product would be to increase efficiencies. The most viable move toward progressive modes of consumption is this new hyper-local market model.
by Daniel J. Bonham.
M.Arch.
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Zahid, Iqba Muhammad. "Sustainable Fashion Consumption and Consumer Behavior." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Textilhögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-20715.
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Thesis was carried out to make an estimation of the willingness of consumers to buy the clothes produced under eco-friendly and decent way. Neoclassic demand theory was used and basic idea was to know that either moral effects on a consumer’s individual decision while choosing the products manufactured under friendly environment or not; if yes, then how and how much. Survey method along with choice experiment analysis was used to collect the data. Selected area was Boras Sweden and 50 respondents were considered for the survey. To estimate the degree of willingness of a consumer to pay for a Swan labeled and/or Fairtrade labeled jeans, choice experiments was used. Afterwards, the collected data was used within econometric models. It has been observed from results that consumers were more willing to pay for a Swan labeled and/or Fairtrade labeled jeans than non-labeled jeans. The responsible individuals regarding environment were much more willing to pay for Fairtrade and/or Swan labeled clothes, considering the factor that production does not affect the environment in negative way and it was done under socially acceptable conditions.Program: Magisterutbildning i Fashion Management
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Velin, Johanna, Pär Gustafsson, and Emmy Torstensson. "Sustainable Food Consumption : Exploring Consumers' Perspectives." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring (MF), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-65186.
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The aim of this study was to explore consumers’ descriptions of sustainable food consumption. The concept of sustainability can be difficult to grasp, but is often defined in terms of three pillars; environment, society and economy. Prior research of sustainable food consumption have often focused on one of the pillars rather than all of them together in relation to consumers understandings of sustainable food consumption. Notwithstanding, previous research have mentioned that in order to fully comprehend sustainability it is essential to take all of the three pillars into consideration. Therefore, this study acknowledged this gap, as it focused on the three pillars of sustainability as a base, and further connected the three pillars to the four food concepts; organic, Fairtrade, sustainable diets and waste, in order to fully understand consumers descriptions of sustainable food consumption. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach, and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of students and employees at Linnaeus University in Sweden. The interviewees gave varied and interesting answers, which later were analyzed in comparison to the theory on the subject. With the answers from the interviews it was concluded that environmental and social sustainability were prioritized to economic sustainability among participants. As the participants’ descriptions of sustainable food consumption was varied, and all of the four concepts in relation to three pillars were analyzed, a framework was developed in order to clarify how the consumers describe sustainable food consumption. The study also presents a number of implications for further research as well as managerial implications. Keywords Sustainable food consumption, consumers description, three pillars of sustainability, economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, social sustainability, organic, Fairtrade, sustainable diets, vegetarian, locally produced, waste reduction, food waste
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Pears, Katherine Elizabeth, and katherine pears@student rmit edu au. "Fashion Re-consumption; developing a sustainable fashion consumption practice influenced by sustainability and consumption theory." RMIT University. Architecture and Design, 2007. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080109.084214.
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This thesis explores the problem of wasteful fashion consumption in light of the current need for individuals to develop a sustainable way of living. The Agenda 21 report from the Rio Earth Summit (1992) determined that sustainable consumption is an issue to be addressed in terms of resource conservation, waste reduction and a reduction of production pollutants. To date, in Australia, there are no policies or strategies in place to reduce wasteful consumption from the consumer's perspective and it is this research and policy deficit that this thesis research addresses. According to a recent national study of wasteful consumption, Australians spent approximately 1.7 billion dollars in 2004 on fashion garments and accessories that they did not wear (Hamilton et al. 2005). However, landfill statistics revealed that only a small proportion of textile waste (of which clothing is a subsidiary category) contributes to landfill (ABS, 1998). This discrepancy between the annual expenditure and the contribution of clothing to landfill informed the research hypothesis; that the greater majority of these inactive fashion garments are hoarded in wardrobes rather than disposed of. This hypothesis was tested through an action research case study in the form of a clothing exchange event and related data collection and analysis (part 2 of the thesis). The additional objectives of the clothing exchange event were to activate
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Ede, James, Sophia Graine, and Chris Rhodes. "Moving Towards Sustainable Food Consumption : Identifying Barriers to Sustainable Student Diets." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för ingenjörsvetenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-3354.
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Adopting more sustainable consumption habits has been identified as a necessary step in the progression towards a sustainable society. In the area of sustainable consumption, personal food behaviour represents a strong leverage point. University students have been identified as a strategic audience; habits established during this transformative period can track forward into later life. This study seeks to identify the barriers inhibiting students from eating more sustainably. Perceived benefits of eating more sustainably, student food preferences, and student definitions of sustainable food are also identified. Focus groups, surveys, and interviews were carried out at universities in Europe, North America and Australia. Results show that perceived cost of sustainable food and a lack of knowledge, time and availability were ubiquitous barriers preventing students from adopting more sustainable eating habits. In addition to gathering the perceptions of others, the authors’ understanding of the challenges and benefits of eating more sustainably was augmented by a month-long self-study. Results from the self-study show that it is feasible to eat more sustainably without incurring additional costs. Recommendations informed by the focus groups, surveys, interviews and self-study are made to help students overcome the barriers to eating more sustainably.
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Dogbe, Wisdom. "Sustainable consumption: fiscal policies and household behaviour." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667983.
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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of climate and health policies on personal well-being and the environment or both as well as how household behaviour influences the sustainability of health goals – prevalence of obesity. The most important contribution of this thesis is the application of new methods, use of experimental data and incorporation of national climate and health policy goals into our analysis. The thesis has six chapters, the first chapter deals with the introduction of the thesis whilst the last chapter summarizes the conclusion from the four main chapters comprising of four papers. The second Chapter investigates the effectiveness of carbon tax to promote climate-friendly food demand, welfare and diet quality in Spain. Tax policy scenarios were based on EU alternative social cost of emissions. Own- and cross-price elasticities of sixteen food groups were calculated from incomplete Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) food demand system. Results show that price increases due to the tax reform reduces the consumption of the food products associated with higher CO2 equivalent emissions but improves diet quality. Even though the tax reform simultaneously improved both the environment and health, the tax was more regressive on low-income citizen’s welfare. The third Chapter investigates the effectiveness of a health tax reform on consumer welfare and diet quality. In this case, the tax policy scenario was based on internalizing the social cost of obesity in Spain. Using the 2012 Kantar homescan data, the EASI demand model was used to estimate nutrient price and expenditure elasticities. Results suggest marginal improvement in the quality of diet, although not in the very short term. Moreover, the consumption of health damaging nutrients such as saturated fatty acid, sodium, and cholesterol decreased tremendously. From the welfare perspective, all household segments had expenditure savings. In Chapter four the thesis took a behavioural perspective due to the marginal impact of the taxes on reducing the consumption of both environmental and health damaging foods. As a result, this chapter assessed the link between psychological attitudes such as risk attitudes, time inconsistencies and body mass index (to account for the prevalence of obesity) in Catalonia. Experimental data on consumer attitudes towards risk, time inconsistencies and sociodemographic characteristics were collated from a section of Catalonian households in 2014. Econometric approaches based on prospect theory and time discounting were used to estimate the risk and time parameters, respectively. The results support a strong influence of risk aversion on the development of body mass index. Furthermore, time inconsistencies significantly influence individuals propensity to increase body mass index. The fifth Chapter brings together all the covariates that influence the development of obesity by investigating the psychological, behavioural and socioeconomic drivers of obesity in Catalonia using path model analysis. Experimental data that elicited risk preferences, time inconsistencies, believes about obese persons, attitudes towards obesity, body perception, body image dissatisfaction and body mass index consumers were used. A multivariate path model was used to estimate the path parameters linking the covariates. Results suggest significant direct and indirect relationships between obesity and most variables. Obesity is also directly influenced by believe that obesity is controllable, correct body image and body image dissatisfaction. Second, significant indirect relationship was found between obesity and attitudes towards persons with obesity. Socioeconomic factors that have significant influence of obesity include age and gender. Risk attitudes did not have any direct or indirect effects on obesity.El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es investigar la influencia de políticas climáticas y de salud sobre el bienestar personal y el medioambiente, así como, la forma en que el comportamiento de los hogares influye en la sostenibilidad de los objetivos de salud. La contribución principal de esta tesis es la aplicación de nuevas metodologías, el uso de datos experimentales y la incorporación de los objetivos de políticas nacionales de clima y salud en nuestro análisis. El presente documento se divide en seis capítulos, el primero consiste en una introducción a la temática, los cuatro siguientes, donde se desarrollan los contenidos, corresponden a las publicaciones científicas, mientras que el último recoge las conclusiones de los capítulos anteriores. El segundo capítulo investiga la efectividad del impuesto sobre las emisiones de carbono en la promoción de la demanda de alimentos medioambientalmente sostenibles, bienestar social y calidad de la dieta en España. Se han diseñado diferentes escenarios de políticas de impuestos basados en las alternativas de costes de emisiones de la Unión Europea. Las elasticidades propias y cruzadas de los precios de dieciséis grupos de alimentos se han calculado a partir del sistema de demanda de alimentos - EASI. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el aumento de precios producido por la reforma de impuestos conlleva a una reducción del consumo de alimentos asociados con mayores emisiones de CO2 equivalente, a la vez que mejora la calidad de la dieta. Aunque se observa que la reforma de los impuestos mejora simultáneamente la salud y el medioambiente, esta parece afectar en mayor grado a segmentos de población con bajos recursos y niveles de bienestar. El tercer capítulo investiga la efectividad de la reforma de los impuestos en el bienestar y la calidad de la dieta de los consumidores. El escenario de política de impuestos se basa en internalizar el coste social de la obesidad en España. Para estimar el precio de los nutrientes y las elasticidades de gasto de la compra de los hogares se utilizan los datos del panel de hogares de Cataluña recolectados en el 2012. Los resultados sugieren una mejora marginal de la calidad de la dieta, aunque ésta no se observa a corto plazo. Además, el consumo de nutrientes dañinos para la salud como ácidos grasos saturados, sodio y colesterol, disminuyen enormemente. Desde el punto de vista de bienestar, el régimen neutral de los impuestos afecta a hogares de todas las clases sociales. En el cuarto capítulo evalúa el vínculo entre las actitudes psicológicas como las actitudes de riesgo, las inconsistencias temporales y el índice de masa corporal (para tener en cuenta la prevalencia de la obesidad) en Cataluña en 2014. El enfoque econométrico se basa en la teoría de la perspectiva y el descuento de tiempo- ambos se utilizan para estimar los parámetros de riesgo y tiempo, respectivamente. Los resultados apoyan una fuerte influencia de la aversión al riesgo en el desarrollo del índice de masa corporal. Además, las inconsistencias de tiempo influyen significativamente en la propensión de los individuos a aumentar el índice de masa corporal. El quinto capítulo reúne a todas las covariables que influyen en el desarrollo de la obesidad mediante la investigación de los factores psicológicos, de comportamiento y socioeconómicos de la obesidad en Cataluña mediante el análisis de modelos de diagramas causales. Los resultados sugieren que existen relaciones significativas directas e indirectas entre la obesidad y la mayoría de las variables. Se observó que la obesidad está directamente influenciada por la creencia que está bajo el control de la gente que la padece, que tiene una imagen corporal correcta y la gente que sufren insatisfacción de su imagen corporal. Además, se encontró una relación indirecta significativa entre la obesidad y las actitudes hacia las personas obesas, edad y el género. En cambio, las actitudes de riesgo no tuvieron ningún efecto directo o indirecto sobre la obesidad. El gobierno debe considerar las interacciones que existen entre los diversos determinantes de la obesidad al formular políticas relacionadas con la esta.
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Oredugba, O. "A review of sustainable consumption in Nigeria." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2012. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/26674.
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Quitalo, Luisa. "A NOMOLOGICAL NETWORK AROUND SUSTAINABLE FASHION CONSUMPTION." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1417171982.
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Brown, David. "Changing modal values through sustainable consumption of food." AUT University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/1001.
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This thesis offers one step in a direction that will help consumers make better choices in response to a growing demand for a more sustainable living (Grant 2008, Pollan 2008). In a world of seismic economic, environmental and social change the need for a more sustainable way of behaving is rapidly becoming a priority for mere survival (Porritt 2006). Indeed, it has been suggested that the collapse of economic growth in 2008 has primarily been the result of a dependence on outmoded models of consumption (Hamilton 2003, James 2008). The first section of the thesis documents as a narrative the shift from a label design, which is the result of a research paper, to the launch of a food brand within a university community, which is the commercial outcome of research. The second section of the thesis is the study that examines a nascent label design consisting of a list of ingredients as semiotic triggers that inform the consumer about the product at the point of purchase. The methodology is drawn from mediated discourse analysis (Scollon 2005, Norris & Jones 2005) and multimodal discourse analysis where each mode is viewed as a system of representation with rules and regularities attached to it (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). I focus on the nascent shift in modal values of packaging design within the site of engagement of a supermarket. The site of engagement is where mediated actions at moments in time and space occur (Norris & Jones 2005). These mediated actions are the focus of attention of the relevant participants (Scollon 2005), and operate at different levels of attention (Norris 2004). The third section contains the appendices.
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Baker, Keith John. "Sustainable cities : determining indicators of domestic energy consumption." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/4118.
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Pepper, Miriam. "Christianity and sustainable consumption : a social psychological investigation." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.441694.
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Kareinen, Kira, and Sonja Kainulainen. "No fashion victims? - Motivations for sustainable fashion consumption." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-297704.
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The tension between fashion and sustainability has been recognized, as it has been argued whether fashion can be sustainable. This is due to the several ethical dilemmas the fashion industry is facing, including not only environmental but also social problems. These issues have gained an increasing amount of consumers' attention during the last years. Even if these problems are recognized, consumers are still having an attitude-behaviour gap towards sustainable consumption, where positive attitude does not reflect on actions. Therefore, this study takes a deeper look into the consumption behaviour of sustainable fashion consumers and aims to clarify, what motivates to purchase sustainable fashion products. With the help of a means-end theory, this exploratory research aims to understand consumers' values behind their purchasing behaviour. The empirical data was collected using an existing sustainable fashion company's customer base in the Netherlands, as their customers have already shown interest towards sustainable fashion. This study is based on nineteen qualitative in-depth laddering interviews, lasting around 25 minutes. The data resulted in several means-end chains that presented which attributes, consequences and values motivate and influence on consumers' purchasing of sustainable fashion. After collecting the data, content analysis was conducted and as a result emerged four dominant motivational themes that motivate consumers to buy sustainable fashion products: self-expression, protect the future, contribution as well as help, care and responsibility. These motivational themes show what consumers value when they make sustainable fashion purchases. In the end, the results of this research are contributing to the holistic understanding of sustainable fashion consumption as well as give insights to the under-researched topic of motivations to purchase sustainable fashion.
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Fernandes, Pedro Manuel Simões. "Consumer reaction to sustainable food consumption : motivations shaping meat consumption frequency in semi-vegetarians." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/19723.
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Mestrado em MarketingA maior consciencialização da população sobre a necessidade de diminuir o consumo de carne é uma realidade dos dias de hoje. A indústria pecuária gera cerca de 14,5% das emissões de gases responsáveis pelo efeito de estufa, sendo atualmente o segundo maior emissor dos gases responsáveis por este fenómeno e, por inerência, um dos principais causadores das alterações climáticas. Adicionalmente, a causa do bem-estar animal e a relação do consumo excessivo de carne a doenças crónico-degenerativas são alguns dos exemplos que têm levado a mudanças no comportamento de alguns consumidores em relação ao consumo de carne. Neste estudo, motivações para o consumo de carne foram investigadas em omnívoros que reduzem significativamente o consumo de carne, mais conhecidos como semi-vegetarianos. Este estudo, que teve lugar em Portugal, utilizou uma abordagem quantitativa, obtendo, através de um questionário online e autoadministrado, uma amostra de 442 semi-vegetarianos com o objetivo de avaliar como as motivações relacionadas com a saúde, o prazer associado ao consumo de carne (hedónico), aspectos sociais, o ambiente e o bem-estar animal, influenciam a frequência do consumo de carne. Os resultados sugerem que a frequência do consumo de carne em semi-vegetarianos é melhor explicada por motivações hedónicas (impacto positivo no consumo de carne) e por motivações relacionadas com a saúde (impacto negativo no consumo de carne). Motivações relacionadas com a causa ambiental e a causa animal não parecem ser relevantes para explicar a frequência de consumo de carne neste estudo.
Increasing public awareness of the need to reduce meat consumption is a reality nowadays. The livestock industry accounts for about 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, currently being the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and, inherently, one of the main drivers of climate change. Additionally, the animal welfare cause and the relation between excessive meat consumption and noncommunicable diseases (NCD's) are some of the examples that have led to changes in the behaviour of some consumers regarding meat consumption. In this study, motivations about meat consumption were tested in omnivores that significantly reduce meat consumption, better known as semi-vegetarians. This study, which took place in Portugal, was conducted using a quantitative approach, obtaining, through an online self-administered questionnaire, a sample of 442 semi-vegetarians with the purpose of assessing how motivations related to health, pleasure associated with meat consumption (hedonic), social aspects, environment and animal welfare, influence meat consumption frequency. The results suggest that the frequency of meat consumption in semi-vegetarians is best explained by hedonic motivations (positive impact on meat consumption) and health-related motivations (negative impact on meat consumption). Environmental and animal causes do not seem to be relevant in explaining meat consumption frequency in this study.
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Taylor, Aaron. "Shelf life addressing consumption, permanence through adaptability /." This title; PDF viewer required. Home page for entire collection, 2006. http://archives.udmercy.edu:8080/dspace/handle/10429/9.
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Stålmarck, Emma. "Addressing Sustainable Consumption in the Global Climate Change Agenda." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Social and Economic Geography, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-126092.
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This thesis explores a framework for understanding why sustainable consumption could be important to address further in future development of the UN climate change agenda, which has been developed under the Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). The ultimate objective of the Convention, and objectives concerning equity in relation to developing country needs, have been the target (and the normative warrant) of the study. A multidisciplinary perspective related to policy analysis has been used as a theoretical and methodological research framework. This investigation has focused on four main areas; the policy content of the UNFCCC and some proceeding documents, policy content on sustainable development which have been adopted in UN fora, summaries of research results on greenhouse gas emission trends and global footprints, and lastly, material which convey official standpoints of developing and developed country representatives. A conclusion drawn from this study is that a consumption perspective of sustainable development is found in UN policies on sustainable development, but is largely missing in the current climate change agenda. A second conclusion is that there is a lot of research which back up the thought that a consumption perspective is important in addition to a production perspective. This also seems to be a conclusion which in well established in parts of the UN such as the UNEP, and incorporated in key documents on sustainable development. A third conclusion is that there are reasons to believe that developed country parties will try to downplay a focus on consumption. In total these are the main points which are presented as a framework for understanding why a greater inclusion of sustainable consumption in the agenda could be important.
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Jonsson, Fredrik, and Lisa Bylund. "Design of a Household Concept Motivating Sustainable Consumption Behavior." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-43822.
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In common households today the awareness of the electricity, water and waste consumption are rather low. This generates a behavior that conicts with the existing goals of sustainable living. Together with Stockholm City and other companies The Interactive Institute is working with a project called Stockholm Royal Seaport, where the goal is to implement a solution for how smart grids and visualizations in the household could motivate a change of this behavior. This master thesis examines how to do this using an in-home display and ambient interfaces in an apartment. In order to motivate the users the goal was to create a dynamic and exploring solution, that would not cause them to loose interest. The result was an in-home display interface based on dynamic home screens, social comparison and achievements, and a couple of ambient interfaces located in the household. A presentation video was made in order to visualize the coherent solution.
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HABTE, SELASSIE SARA. "Behaviours and attitudes towards a sustainable consumption of fashion." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Textilhögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-20673.
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In the western society over consumption is common, as the market is saturated. Consumers have to adjust to the consumption society and follow new trends. The consequence of consumption is a topic that has been discussed more lately. Organisations, companies as wellas consumers are starting to understand the importance of this issue and more eco-friendly materials and products are becoming available. Over consumption is however still a big problem that many people are not aware of. Consumers in the western society tends to buy and own a lot more than is needed, and are offered clothes to very low prices. Workers in the developing countries and the environment have to pay a high price to satisfy the needs of people in the west. When consumers come to buying decisions they many times act against their own cognizance. This happens when consumers become aware of something. The question is how consumers act in this situation and deal with the dissonance. The purpose of the report was to get a deeper understanding about how consumers behave and what causes their decisions. Two focus group interviews where made, which has given deeper understandings about what attitude, behaviour and knowledge western consumers have and the relation between these factors. The question is, if consumers are willing to sacrifice theirown personal needs in order to protect the environment and improve the conditions of workers.The results showed that when the respondents become aware of the consequences of consumption, they often do not reflect over their purchases. They ignore it or find ways to make their purchase acceptable. Furthermore, the respondents have a good attitude towards choosing better alternatives and reflecting more over the purchases they make. However, the respondents believed that the personal needs such as looking good, following trends, getting admiration from others, are many times prioritised over being considerate about theenvironment and other people. A person’s living situation also affects how he/she consumes and therefore this is important to consider. The conclusion is that, more knowledge is necessary to influence consumers and it will also make them aware that their actions have consequences. Through discussions more knowledge can be gained concerning the subject. Consumers need to know why they should choose an ecologic product over a regular one and how they can contribute. More information is also needed and companies have to inform about the alternatives and make such products more available.Program: Magisterutbildning i Fashion Management
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Crommentuijn-Marsh, Philippa Jane. "Understanding consumer behaviour regarding the sustainable consumption of clothing." Thesis, Open University, 2018. http://oro.open.ac.uk/56317/.
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In response to the rapidly growing consumption of clothing, environmental sustainability concerns have increasingly been expressed. While designers and industry have worked on responses, little is known about how ordinary consumers understand sustainability with regarding to clothing. A study by Defra in 2008 revealed a low awareness of sustainability and proposed sustainable fashion goals for consumers. Research on consumer clothing purchase tends to be from a marketing perspective with the ultimate aim of increasing consumer sales. Much of the literature on clothing sustainability has focused on the buying of ethical/environmentally-friendly clothing and on younger consumers. By contrast, this thesis has focused on an in-depth study of ten mothers aged between 25 and 60 in and around Leicester. The women’s clothing consumption was investigated through shopping trips, wardrobe sampling and a semi-structured interview about their shopping and ownership behaviour. Only at the end of the data gathering were the participants asked about sustainability in general before exploring their understanding of sustainability in clothing. The research revealed that while the participants were concerned about environmental issues, their awareness of sustainability in clothing was low, even though their clothes buying and use behaviour was relatively sustainable. They bought a limited number of garments and wore them for many years, bought second hand clothes and passed their own unwanted clothes to charity shops. However, their clothes buying and use behaviours were shaped by their life circumstances and their personality. The participants had a strong sense of their own personal styles and selected clothes they know would suit them from a limited number of brands and locations. They showed little interest in fast changing fashion trends, but they were influenced by their peer group. Any environmentally-beneficial behaviours were mainly a by-product of these core determining factors. A key contribution of this research is to show how more sustainable behaviour emerges when there is a good match to factors already embedded in people’s daily consumption practices. Building on these core factors, and on how knowledge develops around them, might be an important part of promoting clothing sustainability.
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Kadel, Lena. "Mindfulness for sustainable consumption behaviour - inisghts into consumer culture." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-445547.
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A large body of research implies that modern human behaviour threatens various life – sustaining resources. The excessive consumption patterns of resources by humans has been identified as one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Automatic and unconscious decision-making behaviours have become deeply internalized among individuals, resulting in unsustainable and unnecessary consumption patterns. Emerging literature has begun to explore the concept of mindfulness in relation to sustainable consumption, and reports on a positive relation to lower ecological footprints, connectedness to nature and sustainable consumption patterns. This particular study builds upon existing empirical findings and addresses the relationship between mindfulness, impulsivity and consumption. An extensive literature review and primary data collection method based on a convenience sample, were used as methodological approaches for this study. Based on the data gathered through an online questionnaire, the study finds that mindfulness has a negative relation to impulsive buying behaviour, suggesting a decrease in impulsive consumption among individuals with a higher level of mindfulness. Contrary to existing research, this study found no significant relation between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. However, there are several limitations to this study due to method bias, measurement issues as well as due to the format of the questionnaire approach, that need to be considered when discussing the findings. Overall, this research indicated that by tapping into mindfulness, individuals may become less vulnerable to automatic processing, helping to break routines and make consumers become more aware of negative effects of consumption choices. This paper recommends continued research and suggests possible future pathways.
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Lövqvist, Erika. "Nudging for sustainable water consumption : Positive vs. negative information." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för nationalekonomi och statistik (NS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-105231.
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Previous literature shows that information influences people's environmental friendly behavior, and is a surprisingly strong motivator. It is not only the content of information that significantly influences attitudes and behavior intentions, people are also sensitive for how information is framed. Recent literature shows that people react differently in the environmental context, depending on whether the information is framed as gain or loss outcomes. To the best of my knowledge, it has not been investigated whether stated information about environment situations should be positively or negatively framed to be mostly effective. I conducted an online experiment with a sample of students from Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. Treatment group 1 received positively framed information about the water situation, and treatment group 2 received negatively framed information with the same informational. A control group did not receive any information. Instead of asking respondents for their water saving intentions only, I measure their intentions through actual donation to a water charity. This way, their response is costly and therefore more credible. My experiment indicates that positively framed water conservation nudges could have an impact on real world water consumption, at a low cost of implementation.
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Oberthur, David. "What Triggers and Barriers to Practicing Consumption Ideals Must Be Addressed By Sustainable Consumption Solutions?" Thesis, School of Geosciences, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5777.
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Despite a wealth of knowledge on the psycho-social and ideological functions of personal consumption, we have yet to successfully address unsustainable consumption practices in developed urban spaces. This study develops a contemporary understanding of how people from Sydney engage in their personal consumption practices. Using both focus groups and personal consumption journals, I identified the common consumption considerations of all participants regardless of whether their goal was to minimise or maximise their resource consumption. This data was collected into eight categories of psycho-social and ideological issues that are argued to consistently contribute to the renegotiation of consumption ideals into practices. These results show that personal consumption is a fluid act that occurs anew with each decision. As such, these eight categories offer points of entry to affect sustainable consumption practices.
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Echaniz, Oriol Costa. "What is the role of sustainable consumption in the smart sustainable cites’ projects across Europe?" Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-147855.
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Current projections indicate that by 2050, two in every three people will live in urban areas, and that cities will accommodate 3 billion people during this period. Cities are consuming three-quarters of the world's energy and causing three-quarters of global pollution. To reduce these impacts, new technologies have been considered in the development of smart sustainable cities, but technology has not always favoured the idea of sustainable consumption. To address this issue, we have aimed to focus on identifying the role of sustainable consumption within implementations of smart cities’ projects across Europe. We have selected a set of smart city projects in 76 cities in Europe from CONCERTO initiatives, Mapping Smart Cities in Europe, Energy Study for the Stockholm Region and Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas and classified them according to: smart governance, smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart citizens and smart economy. Furthermore, we established a number of categories for the classification of the evaluated projects based on their relevance to sustainable consumption, and considered several solutions for the integration of sustainable consumption in smart sustainable cities. The results show that in 18.9% of the projects, sustainable consumption is not relevant at all. The second classification shows the percentage of the remaining categories where sustainable consumption is relevant; 8.3% consider sustainable consumption as relevant even though it was not implemented in the project. These cities aim to achieve a higher level of sustainable consumption, which is expected to be included in future projects. If they keep themselves in this category, their behavioural consumption patterns will not change and the impact of citizens on the cities will remain the same. The majority of the projects, 54.2%, implemented technology to reduce consumption but if the projects do not coincide with the behaviour of citizens, a big rebound effect will occur. 37.5% of the projects consider relevant sustainable consumption to its full potential and this can change citizen’s behaviour. In conclusion, sustainable consumption is relevant in most of the projects analysed, with new technologies available to help energy savings and reduction of our consumption. However, if there is a lack of smart consumption from the citizens, the technologies available might not be sufficient and consumption could increase. One quarter of the analysed smart cities projects still do not consider the consumption behaviour of the citizens. This can be changed through campaigns and explanations targeting the population on how to manage and reduce energy and resource consumption. To reduce the negative impact of the cities’ growth, projects considering smart sustainable cities need to integrate sustainable consumption policies that account for citizens' behaviour.
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Mahmoud, Abdelrahman. "Towards more circular economy and sustainable consumption : The practice of second hand clothing consumption in Sweden." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-13838.
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The rapid increase in clothing consumption over the last decades has meant a significant burden on the environment. Some examples of this are the high consumption of natural resources and land, increasing amounts of carbon emissions, excessive use of toxic chemicals, polluting air, land and water and increasing amounts of waste. The average clothing consumption in Europe is far higher than the world average, especially in Nordic countries including Sweden. Adopting and encouraging more circular economies is a part of the European commission‘s strategy to achieve sustainable consumption of resources and protection for environment. The purpose of this Research is to study the possibilities of improving the practice of second hand clothes consumption in Sweden and make it more effective towards the goal of sustainable consumption and circular economies. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the challenges and find abilities for improvement in the value chain of used clothes in Sweden, with focus on the reverse logistics system of used clothes (collection and sorting processes) as well as the market of second hand clothes. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the conceptual framework has been formulated upon studying relevant literature and results of previous studies. Value chains of three charity organizations have been studied and empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews with participants from these three organizations. The empirical findings have been interpreted in relation to the conceptual framework and the results of previous studies, in order to answer the research questions. The results of the study showed potential for improvement and development in the reverse logistics system (collections and sorting processes) of used clothes, as well as in the Swedish market of second hand clothes. However, benefiting of this potential requires collaboration between all stakeholders in the value chain of used clothes, including individuals (either in a position of donors or consumers), interested businesses (nonprofit or commercial organizations), government, municipalities, politicians and finally the private sector in clothing industry.
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Erlandsson, Martin. "A blueprint for sustainable consumption and design including performance requirements." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Civil and Architectural Engineering, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-3735.
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ASustainable Consumption Evaluation(SCE) system framework is developed which is based on anextension of current LCA methodology. The SCE system results inEnvironmental Performance Requirements(EPR's) as the key means for its implementation insustainable design that can be used for product orproduct-service system benchmarking, monitoring and evaluation.The use of EPR's follows an already well-known managementsystem, which means that they will, when applied in design, behandled together with other functional aspects. The SCE systemalso makes it possible to determine whether an individual'slifestyle is sustainable, in the respect that it meets theperformance defined in a so-calledreal-vision, while however being conscious of itsrestrictions.
A holistic way to describe the burden of the environmentalimpact is to focus on the consumption from an individual'sperspective. This way of analysing the problem provides theopportunity to evaluate the improvements that can be achievedby changing our lifestyle and our consumption patterns withinthe socially, economically and technically feasiblealternatives. Therefore, in this thesis, it was foundappropriate to divide the consumption into a number of superiorso-calledlife-supporting services(LSSs). Since these LSSs are analysed in a life cycleperspective, they cover all environmental impacts caused bymankind.
To illustrate a sustainable development, a holistic,realisable, future scenario - a real-vision -is elaboratedaccording to the SCE system framework. From this real-vision itis then possible to define acceptable impact permits dividedinto a number of LSSs. The real-vision takes part in aprocedure performed in order to define the EPR's that includethe aimed LSSs in terms of being ecologically sustainable,economically as well as technically realistic, and sociallyacceptable (including ethical impacts).
To make an assessment of what is ecological sustainabilitypossible, anEnvironmental Quality Objective(EQO) normalisation procedure is introduced. The developednormalisation procedure facilitates the reporting of differentimpact categories in a common unit that is achieved withoutincluding direct value choices. When the EQO normalisation isutilised, no limitation concerning public communication of theresult and its applications exists, according to the ISO 14 042regulation.
The result of the developed framework composes a proactivedesign tool, as well as a concurrentclassification system, if verified by the EPR. The real-vision defines the EPRsaccording to environmental class A - Sustainable. In additionto class A, it is possible to define an environmental class C -Acceptable, which means that the EPRs agree with today's praxisor comply with some regulation or standard. The environmentalclass B - Environmentally Sound is between class A and C, butstill represents a relatively ambitious performance.
Further, the outlined SCE system framework is specified andput into practice by an implementation of theLSS Living. Already accomplished consensus work that is accepted inSweden is utilised as a basis to define operationalmarket-based EPRs. The EPR category included and elaborated isImpact EPRs, which demonstrate the most innovative part of theSCE system. Impact EPR corresponds to what is often referred toas an environmental profile according to the LCA methodology.If the EPR for LSS Living according to environmental Class A -Sustainable is applied, this should result in a reduction ofabout 50 % of the current environmental impact.
Key words:Classification system, Environmental QualityObjective (EQO); EQO normalisation, Environmental PerformanceRequirement (EPR); Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); Life-SupportingService (LSS); living; real-vision; sustainable consumption;Sustainable Consumption Evaluation (SCE); sustainableconsumption; sustainable design.
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Vennström, Karin. "Sustainable Fashion Consumption : An Interactive System between Consumers and Institutions." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Centrum för modevetenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-80347.
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Sustainability in the fashion industry has become a widely discussed issue. Various actors in theindustry, brands, designer labels, fashion magazines and other media sources, as well asconsumers all contribute to this matter. Although a considerable amount of research has focusedon consumer behavior and consumption patterns, the way the fashion industry affects thesefactors has been neglected. Moreover, many studies show that consumers claim to beecologically conscious, but that they disregard this aspect when consumption actually occurs.This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between consumersand institutions and how it affects sustainable fashion consumption. The understanding of theseprocesses is done using several approaches such as Kawamura’s (2005) theory about the fashionsystem and Arnold and Thompson’s (2005) view on consumer culture theory. To obtain adeeper insight into the fashion industry, qualitative interviews with fashion mediarepresentatives and consultants within sustainability development are conducted. To ascertainthe consumer perspective a focus group discussion is moderated. Findings show how a wholesystemapproach is needed for the fashion industry to become a more sustainable environment.
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Mariadassou, Shwetha Paramananda. "Relative performance transparency : effects on sustainable purchase and consumption behavior." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112010.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-60).
We build on existing operations and marketing research focusing on the effect of information transparency on consumers by studying how transparency into the levels and changes of relative sustainability performance affects consumer behavior. Our work considers two forms of transparency: process transparency and customer transparency. We operationalize process transparency, in which information about the company's sustainability performance relative to competitors is revealed to the customer, in the product purchase domain. We operationalize customer transparency, in which the customer receives information about their own sustainability performance relative to other customers, in the energy consumption domain. In a series of online consumer choice experiments, we find that within the product purchase domain, transparency into the company's current levels of sustainability performance has a more powerful effect on influencing consumer purchase behavior than transparency into the company's changes in relative sustainability performance over time. Conversely, in the energy consumption domain, we find that transparency into the customer's changes in sustainability performance over time, relative to other customers, has a more dominant effect in motivating energy conservation than transparency into the customer's relative levels of sustainability performance. We employ structural equation models to identify the underlying mechanisms that drive these results.
by Shwetha Paramananda Mariadassou.
S.M.
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MacDonald, Margaret E. "Can Sustainable Updates Account For Gas Consumption Commuting To Work?" The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/608581.
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Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone ProjectAbstract Suburbs have long been a place near and dear to the hearts of many, they provide private property, large homes and a sense of security. They have traditionally been located far from city centers and also far from jobs. The following paper researchers whether or not suburban homes can be updated to compensate for the extra distance their inhabitants have to commute to work. The study looks at three case houses in the focus area of Continental Ranch, a Pulte suburb. The follow research was performed using a cost benefit analysis on three case homes and four case vehicles. The results were calculated using available data, estimates and website based calculators. The five upgrades calculated were CFL/LED light bulb replacement, water fixture upgrades, fridge replacement, rainwater harvesting and installation of solar panels. The case homes varied in size from 1,369 to 3,609 square feet and were built between 1989 and 2001. The homes have between two to five bedrooms and two to three bathrooms. The cars chosen as vehicle options for comparison were the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic, the Honda Odyssey and the Chevrolet Tahoe, all 2016 models. The results found that all three homes could be upgraded to compensate for the annual cost of gas consumption of all four car options. It should be noted that these calculations did not take into account the cost of the upgrades, but rather the savings it would procure.
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Vuppuluri, Prem Kiran. "Impact of Sustainable Cool Roof Technology on Building Energy Consumption." PDXScholar, 2014. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1530.
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Highly reflective roofing systems have been analyzed over several decades to evaluate their ability to meet sustainability goals, including reducing building energy consumption and mitigating the urban heat island. Studies have isolated and evaluated the effects of climate, surface reflectivity, and roof insulation on energy savings, thermal load mitigation and also ameliorating the urban heat island. Other sustainable roofing systems, like green-roofs and solar panels have been similarly evaluated. The motivation for the present study is twofold: the first goal is to present a method for simultaneous evaluation and inter-comparison of multiple roofing systems, and the second goal is to quantitatively evaluate the realized heating and cooling energy savings associated with a white roof system compared to the reduction in roof-top heat flux.
To address the first research goal a field experiment was conducted at the International Harvester Building located in Portland, OR. Thermal data was collected for a white roof, vegetated roof, and a solar panel shaded vegetated roof, and the heat flux through these roofing systems was compared against a control patch of conventional dark roof membrane. The second research goal was accomplished using a building energy simulation program to determine the impact of roof area and roof insulation on the savings from a white roof, in both Portland and Phoenix. The ratio of cooling energy savings to roof heat flux reduction from replacing a dark roof with a white roof was 1:4 for the month of July, and 1:5 annually in Portland. The COP of the associated chillers ranges from 2.8-4.2, indicating that the ratio of cooling energy savings to heat flux reduction is not accounted for solely by the COP of the chillers. The results of the building simulation indicate that based on energy savings alone, white roofs are not an optimal choice for Portland. The benefits associated with cooling energy savings relative to a black roof are offset by the winter-time penalty, and the net benefit from adopting white roof technology in Portland is small. That said, there are other potential benefits of white roofing such as impact on urban heat islands and roof life that must also be considered.
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Ingersoll, Madeline Ruth. "HOW DO COUPLES MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THEIR SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION CHOICES?" Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1469822962.
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Makhoul, Samira. "AB Småland Workshop : Interior design, responsible consumption and sustainable practice." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för design (DE), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-64738.
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The society of today has evolved into one of unsustainable consumption, with mass production of short-life and disposable products. To solve these problems we need to apply sustainability and sustainable thinking. As an interior designer, I use sustainable design to create environments that reflect the principles of economic, social and ecological sustainability. The purpose of this thesis is to create an interior space as a bespoke concept that invites people to get engaged and be aware about sustainable consumption.
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Bäckman, Daniella. "How can Swedish food retailers create incentives for sustainable consumption?" Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekonomi och organisation (Inst.), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-246068.
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Sustainable consumption is becoming more and more important when aiming to achieve a sustainable food industry in the future. A sustainable movement requires actions from diverse actors on the market such as politicians, organizations, retailers, consumers etc. This research focuses mainly on retailers and partly consumers. Past research examines consumer behaviour when it comes to sustainable consumption and companies’ incorporation of Corporate Sustainability. This research seeks to complement prior research by investigating two major retailers in the Swedish food industry, Axfood and ICA. Through semi-structured interviews, with Sustainability Managers working at these companies, the research collects qualitative data that contributes to a better understanding of the Swedish food retailing industry and how they address sustainability issues. The research highlight current trends on today’s market and identify crucial focus areas for the future.
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Wada, Yoshihiko. "The myth of sustainable development, the ecological footprint of Japanese consumption." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0015/NQ46441.pdf.
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Okumura, Ryuhei, 隆平 奥村, Dapeng Cai, and 大鵬 蔡. "Sustainable Constant Consumption in a Semi-open Economy with Exhaustible Resources." Blackwell, 日本経済学会, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/11479.
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Wilson, Garrath T. "Design for sustainable behaviour : feedback interventions to reduce domestic energy consumption." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12449.
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Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) is an emerging research area concerned with the application of design strategies to influence consumer behaviour during the use phase of a product towards more sustainable action. Current DfSB research has primarily focussed on strategy definition and selection, with little research into formalising a mature design process through which to design these behaviour changing interventions. Furthermore, understanding the actual sustainability and behavioural impact yielded through such investigations is limited in addition to the suitability and transferability of evaluation methods and results having seldom been discussed. This thesis investigated how DfSB models and strategies can be implemented within a structured design process towards a sustainable change in user behaviour. This was achieved by focussing a case study within the UK social housing sector with the aim of reducing domestic energy consumption through behaviour changing intervention, whilst maintaining occupant defined comfort levels. Following an in depth study of physical and behavioural control mechanisms as well as comfort and energy within the research context, a behaviour changing prototype was developed through an augmented user-centred design process, resulting in a physical manifestation of one specific DfSB strategy feedback; a user agentive performance indicator. In order to evaluate this feedback prototype, an evaluation framework was developed, targeted at the three fundamental questions that arise when faced with the evaluation of a DfSB strategy led intervention: (1) Did the produced design solution function for the specified context? (2) Has the user's behaviour changed as a consequence of the design intervention? (3) Is the change in user s behaviour sustainable? Applying these core questions in practice through focus groups and user trials resulted in an evaluation of unparalleled depth. The findings of this thesis illustrate the success of using this augmented design process and tripartite questioning strategy towards the design and evaluation of a DfSB strategy led intervention, building a vital knowledge platform for the formalisation of transferable DfSB theory, design and evaluation methods.
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Moreno-Beguerisse, Maria A. "A consumer-focused design approach for businesses to leverage sustainable consumption." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12303.
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Increasing economic, social and environmental problems around the world have shown that current models of economic development cannot be sustained. Thus, new patterns of consumption are needed. According to the literature, global companies are well placed to attempt leveraging sustainable consumption, as their production lines; supply chains; products and services extend across many continents, and as such the cumulative effect of their actions are wide reaching. This research sets out to better understand the intertwined factors that companies in two different contexts (Mexico and the UK), need to consider in order to leverage sustainable consumption. Through the literature review it was seen that sustainable consumption requires a multitude of changes, which have to occur at a systems level. In response to this, user-centred design (UCD) principles were seen as a valuable approach to give a broader account of the complexities around consumption and consumer's behaviour that could be communicated to higher management. A series of interviews, a focus group and a document analysis was undertaken to collect qualitative data. The findings led to the construction of a theoretical framework supported by UCD principles. The theoretical framework was then translated into the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit. The SCL Model is a mechanism that takes into account the interaction of elements in a specific business context to identify areas of opportunity to leverage sustainable consumption through a consumer-focused approach. During a series of workshops, the SCL Model and its toolkit were tested to distinguish further opportunities of improvement and to understand where global companies stand with regards leveraging sustainable consumption. The research concludes by saying that companies need to work in collaboration with other actors to build a strong sustainability and innovation strategy that could help them to find new ways of doing business that can enhance more sustainable lifestyles.
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Jonell, Malin. "Kind of turquoise : Effects of seafood eco-certification and sustainable consumption." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och botanik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-132676.
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Aquaculture and fisheries hold promise for supplying a growing world population with healthy food produced without undermining the earth’s carrying capacity. However, just as livestock production and agriculture, seafood production can have negative environmental impacts and if a continuous or even increased supply is to be guaranteed, the pressure on affected ecosystems needs to be limited. Due in part to a perceived failure of other governance mechanisms in improving the environmental performance of the sector, a large number of voluntary market based standards for farmed and wild caught seafood have been developed. Nonetheless, the knowledge base on the extent to which implementation leads to environmental improvements remains limited. Moreover, the role of consumers in driving demand for eco-labeled seafood is presently an under-researched area. This thesis aims at reducing this knowledge gap through an examination of the potential environmental effectiveness of aquaculture eco-certification and internal, psychological variables predicted to be of importance for sustainable seafood consumption. Put differently, what is the potential of eco-certification in greening the blue revolution and fuel ‘turquoise growth’, and how can consumer demand be spurred? In Paper I, the role of eco-certification in improving the growing aquaculture sector at large was explored. Results showed that environmental effects at global scale likely will be limited due to e.g. partial coverage of species groups and environmental impacts, and a lack of focus on Asian markets and consumers. In Paper II the environmental performance of eco-certified and non-certified mangrove-integrated shrimp farms in Vietnam was compared by using Life Cycle Assessment and put in relation to conventional, more intensive farms. While there was no substantial difference between certified and non-certified farms in terms of environmental impacts, emissions of greenhouse gasses were higher for mangrove-integrated than conventional farms due to mangrove land use change. The results from Paper III demonstrated that the body of literature investigating ecological effects of seafood eco-certification is limited. ‘Spatially explicit ecosystem service information’ (ES-information) on e.g. key ecosystem services and biodiversity in a given area is suggested to have potential to improve sustainability standards. Taking guidance from the pro-environmental behavior literature, consumers in Stockholm, Sweden were consulted on awareness of and attitudes towards eco-labeled seafood (Paper IV-V). Two variables, concern for environmental impacts and knowledge about seafood eco-labels were the best predictors for stated eco-labeled seafood purchasing. Moreover, there seemed to be a misalignment between consumers’ expectations on eco-labeled food in general and certification requirements for eco-labeled seafood. From this set of findings, a number of improvements of current seafood eco-certification are suggested. First, include an LCA-perspective in standards to a higher degree than presently done and provide readily available ES-information in the implementation and evaluation phase of certification. Second, introduce standardized mechanisms for capturing potential environmental improvements over time. And finally, stimulate demand by targeting Asian consumers and markets as well as strengthen consumer eco-label awareness and emotional involvement.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript.
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Мельник, Леонід Григорович, Леонид Григорьевич Мельник, Leonid Hryhorovych Melnyk, Ольга Іванівна Мельник, Ольга Ивановна Мельник, Olha Ivanivna Melnyk, Ірина Михайлівна Бурлакова, Ирина Михайловна Бурлакова, and Iryna Mykhailivna Burlakova. "Sustainable development on a basis of greening of production-consumption cycle." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2014. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/36212.
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The "greening" of the economy implies a targeted process of economic transformation aimed at reduction of ecological impact on the environment. The concept of greening is realized through a system of organized measures, innovations, restructuring, technological transformations, and environmental policy activities at macro- and micro levels. Special attentions in greening the economy is devoted to the environmental innovations, as they are both profitable and environmentally friendly.
When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/36212
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Touchie, Rachel. "Sustainable Food Consumption Practices : Case Studies and Contexts from Edmonton, Canada." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324247.
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The globalized food system poses many systemic challenges that have significant impacts on the environment and human health. In order to tackle these challenges, especially those relating to climate change, it is assumed that consumers need to be accountable for the role they play in these issues, requiring them to alter their harmful consumption habits. In terms of the food system, this means that people need to evolve into ethical consumers and become more invested in what and how much they eat, where it comes from, etc . However, throughout the literature and in policies, there remains a focus on altering what people buy, rather than reducing waste from their overconsumption. Reducing waste and consumption would have a more beneficial impact for the environment, human health, and urban sustainability, yet it remains secondary to the narrative of buying sustainable alternatives. A waste reduction narrative would encourage sustainable behaviours that would also be more accessible to households of various socioeconomic backgrounds, and would provide more tangible results in terms of money saved, reduced greenhouse gases and waste output, and increased sustainability. However, food consumption is the result of many ingrained daily food practices influenced by a multitude of factors that prevent people from consciously considering the consequences of their actions. Food consumption and waste management as a phenomenon can therefore be interpreted using Social Practice Theory (SPT), which states that all humans act autonomously and according to social norms. This means that practices are recursive and routinized, subject to change, yet somewhat unconscious. All practices lead to consumption in some way, and changing such deeply embedded routines to become more sustainable requires a full understanding of these deeply entrenched practices. Practices can be broken down into three main components that drive how practices are formed and maintained:materials, competences, and meanings. This project uses mini-ethnographic studies to highlight SPT in order to understand the factors (contextual, materials, competences, and meanings) influencing households in Edmonton, Canada as they navigate the current sustainability narrative, and how they approach sustainable food consumption and food waste management. The results from this study lend some insight into what materials, competences, meanings, and other factors drive people already somewhat aware of sustainable food consumption issues to practice such types of behaviour. These influential elements have been found in many other recently published works, and give further insight into how broad external factors and specific internal factors can drive consumption practices. Prevention and reduction behaviours were already somewhat prevalent in this group. It is important that education programs targeting sustainable food consumption behaviours understand what drives certain food related practices, and how they can target the barriers that prevent certain groups of people from adopting more sustainable habits.
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Chitewere, Tendai. "Constructing a green lifestyie consumption and environmentalism in an ecovillage /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2006.
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McMahon, Molly. "Ethical consumption among Cape Town students: a qualitative study." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20937.
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Much of current research on ethical consumption biases the North - South relationship of Northern consumers being considered ethical based on their purchasing of items from Southern producers. This establishes the dominant perspective of ethics needing to be expressed toward the distant other and to be based in a specific object, often typified by Fair Trade. These conditions of ethics have led to the assumption that Southern consumers lack ethics in their consumption. Thus this research seeks to expand the current understanding of ethical consumption to include ethics at home and ethics of care, as well as expand the demographic of ethical consumption studies to include Southern consumers. The aim of this research is to add to the developing understanding of Southern ethical consumption through the exploration of ethics in grocery shopping among students. Students from various universities in the Cape Town area were observed while grocery shopping and interviewed about their shopping habits and their thoughts on ethics and values, particularly in terms of consumption and food. Twenty - eight students were interviewed, and of those, 23 were also observed shopping. At the conclusion of this study, it is evident that students, as Southern consumers, do express ethical consideration in their consumption habits. This is based on both perspectives of ethical goods and ethical practices. However, they are more apt to act on the ethics of care at home than on the ethics of care at a distance. The strongest trends among students are thrift, care at home and care for self, as well as a significant draw toward s shopping local and supporting local producers based in their communities and nationally. The implications of this research are that it adds to the literature through its theorization within the Global South, its focus on ethical consumption as a practice instead of solely object - based and the discussion of students as a research demographic. Overall, this study demonstrates how Southern consumers do express ethics in their shopping choices particularly through care at home.
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O'Brien, Meghan [Verfasser]. "Timber consumption and sustainable forest use : Assessing the EU’s current and expected consumption of global timber in relation to the global capacity for sustainable supply / Meghan O'Brien." Kassel : Kassel University Press, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1109080808/34.
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Hudson, Daniel Alexander. "Regeneration architecture." Thesis, Montana State University, 2010. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2010/hudson/HudsonD0510.pdf.
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In a world of excess, people rarely stop to realize their impact on their environments. Our built environment is especially feeling the effect of our irresponsibility, and the solution is only a matter of re-wiring our perceptions of energy usage. Many technologies make it possible to have the impossible, but nobody stops to question whether or not these advances are beneficial. A presumably sustainable system turned out to be one of the most energy wasteful ones in existence. In the complex process of getting food from the field to your house, the best solution is to simplify. Nature will do most of the work; we need to learn to work with it. Current building practices can benefit greatly from this concept, to rethink the existing process by simply cutting out the unneeded steps and using the free energy available to us every day. Our values need to change. Because the corporation controls so much of our daily lives, they are the ones that will bring about the change in consciousness we desperately need. By re-designing Sysco headquarters to do everything that the company claims to do (and currently doesn't), and interact with the public in a new and radical way, not only can we make changes to how we think about the built environment, but we can also start to show that a change in awareness is entirely possible. If we can change the values of those that make the biggest differences in our world, then we've effectively changed an entire populations' way of thinking.
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Nedzingahe, Livhuwani. "Forecasting models for operational and tactical requirements in electricity consumption: The case of the Ferrochrome Sector in South Africa." Thesis, University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus ), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1150.
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Thesis (Mathematics) -- University of Limpopo, 2010Forecasting electricity consumption is a challenge for most power utilities. In South Africa the anxiety posed by electricity supply disruption is a cause for concern in sustainable energy planning. Accurate forecasting of future electricity consumption has been identified as an essential input to this planning process. Forecasting electricity consumption has been widely researched and several methodologies suggested. However, various methods that have been proposed by a number of researchers are dependent on environment and market factors related to the scope of work under study making portability a challenge. The aim of this study is to investigate models to forecast short term electricity consumption for operational use and medium term electricity consumption for tactical use in the Ferrochrome sector in South Africa. An Autoregressive Moving Average method is suggested as an appropriate tool for operational planning. The Holt-Winter Linear seasonal smoothing method is suggested for tactical planning. Keywords: Forecasting, electricity consumption, operational planning, tactical planning, ARIMA, Holt-Winter Linear seasonal smoothing, Ferrochrome sector
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Pervaiz, Salman. "Investigation Cooling and Lubrication Strategies for Sustainable Machining of Titanium Alloys." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Maskin- och processteknologi, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-170769.
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The manufacturing sector is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the industrialized world today. Manufacturing industry is concerned with being more competitive and profitable. Profit margins are directly related to the productivity of the company, and productivity improvements can be achieved by making manufacturing processes more efficient and sustainable. Knowledge of cutting conditions and their impact on machined surface and tool life enable productivity improvement. These days the main emphasis is not only to increase productivity, but also to make processes cleaner and more environmental friendly. This research aims to study machinability of difficult to cut, titanium alloys, in close reference to the application of different cooling/ lubrication strategies and their environmental impact. Total energy consumed (kWh) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced in machining are common environmental indicators. In this research project environmental implications of the cutting process were calculated in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy consumption analysis. The experimental work consisted of controlled machining tests with cutting force, surface roughness, power, and flank wear measurements under dry, mist, combination of vegetable oil mist and cooled air (MQL+CA) and flood cutting environments. The current study provides better understanding of the cutting performance of TiAlN coated and uncoated carbide tools. The study also investigated tool failure modes, tool wear mechanisms, surface roughness and energy consumption to improve machinability of Titanium alloys. The study revealed the promising behaviour of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) under specific ranges of cutting speed for both coated and uncoated tools. Variation in the cutting force showed close link with built up edge (BUE) formation. MQL based systems have huge potential to improve machinability of Titanium alloys and should be investigated further.QC 20140407
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He, Lei. "Consumer Behaviour in Collaborative Consumption : A study of sustainable consumption behavioural change on the online sharing platforms for products." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Naturresurser och hållbar utveckling, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-404379.
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The urgency for a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emission is emphasised in the new Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to maintain the security and sustainable development of humanity. As proposed in the report, changing individual consumption behaviour can considerably alleviate the environmental impact of consumption and emissions. However, transforming individual to sustainable consumption behaviour has proven over time to be a challenging task involving all aspects of the society and industry. Sharing practice is a form of collaborative consumption proven to be applicable in fulfilling user needs with minimised environmental impact and material consumption as well as creating a sustainable consumption behaviour. A case study is conducted on the online peer-to-peer stuff sharing platform to discover what challenges users to perform sharing practice, what influences the participation in sharing practice, and what strategy a platform can have to stimulate the participation in sharing practice. The method of this thesis is a qualitative content analysis of the user reviews from the online stuff sharing platform, and the approach is inspired by grounded theory. The findings of the thesis present the difficulties of platform users in sharing practice, i.e. information transparency, arrangement, quality, security, and user knowledge. Also, the findings state the factors underlying identified difficulties, namely social presence, competence in sharing practice, and platform responsibility. The study concludes with strategies that can be applied for optimising sharing practice and platform. Besides, the initiative of the platform is highlighted to create transformation toward sustainable consumption behaviour. Otherwise, the development of sharing practice can be jeopardised. Besides, further research is necessary to establish a holistic outlook of sharing practice and facilitating the transformation toward sustainable consumption.
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Lewin, Joanna Alice. "Global Environmental Change and the Politics of Sustainable Consumption in New Zealand." The University of Waikato, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2787.
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Consumption has emerged as a pivotal concept in environmental sustainability debates. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there has been an increasing focus on the role that consumption and consumer lifestyles play in global environmental change. Agenda 21 called on countries to promote more 'sustainable consumption' patterns and lifestyles. Despite these recommendations, there are significant political and ideological challenges to implementing effective sustainable consumption policies at a global and national level. This thesis explores the politics of sustainable consumption in New Zealand. Using critical discourse analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine consumers, I employ post-structural and cultural geography theories to unpack the problematic nature of sustainable consumption. In particular, I examine dominant environmental and consumption discourses to explore why barriers to sustainable consumption exist. It is important to examine these issues from a socio-cultural perspective, as the dominant hegemonic discourses relating to the environment and sustainability shape both policy responses and public understandings of environmental change and sustainability issues. Prevailing policy responses to environmental change in New Zealand construct the 'environmental problem' in narrowly scientific and economic terms. Concern has centred on 'managing' carbon emissions, rather than addressing the underlying drivers of environmental degradation which lie in current political-economic structures and consumption levels. As such, environmental policy has been embedded within an ecological modernisation discourse which links sustainability with notions of 'progress' and efficiency. Under this discourse, the consumer has been repositioned as an important 'political' agent responsible for fostering sustainable consumption and environmental care. Through largely non-political and non-regulatory measures, consumers have been encouraged to reduce their 'carbon footprints' by considering the environmental impacts of their daily personal consumption habits. This approach has individualised and depoliticised environmental issues, obscured the complexities of personal consumption and sustainability, and left limited options for participation in processes of change.
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Verran, Ginny Britt. "The application of value co-creation in advancing solutions to sustainable consumption." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/26575.
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The environmental sustainability challenges faced by society represent a discontinuity that requires new systemic ways of thinking and approaching problems. For business and consumers this entails finding new ways of creating value. In this respect, this study argues that an important source of value lies in efficient service co-creation between business and consumers in the consumption process. To this end, this study set out to explore the potential of business-to-consumer co-creation to advance solutions to sustainable consumption in the grocery retail setting. Exploratory qualitative research was conducted with grocery retailers and environmentally conscious consumers to gain insights into the types of initiatives that are important with respect to sustainable consumption. The willingness of business and consumers to work together to co-create solutions was gauged, and potential processes and mechanisms for co-creation were explored. The research found that both grocery retailers and consumers recognise sustainability as a systemic issue and welcomed the notion of co-creating solutions. However, the overarching narrative of the research findings with respect to the how of co-creation is that the market may not yet be ready. Retailers are driving sustainability initiatives across the supply chain, with consumers occupying a relatively passive role. This study argues that co-creation represents a fundamentally new paradigm that poses the challenge of a new orientation for the business-to-consumer relationship.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
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