Sustainable consumption: Introspecting across multiple lived cultures

The idea of sustainable consumption is one that receives a great deal of attention. Everyone from the scientific research community, to Green Peace, to Nobel Laureate Al Gore has argued convincingly and forcefully that our current level of consumption of natural resources is unsustainable. Our aim is to provide a deeper and more mature understanding of the layers of richness, collectively shared meanings, common values and environmental factors that both enable and discourage sustainable consumption practices. Using a method of subjective personal introspection, SPI, the authors uncover several dimensions that, taken together, form a more comprehensive explanation of why individuals may or may not succeed in their effort to consume more sustainably. Several of the dimensions revealed included the presence or absence of public infrastructure of one's place of residence, family composition, and the educational awareness of consumers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.