The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that followed put a stop to consumption as we knew it. Across the globe, shops physically shut, supply chains were disrupted and consumers increasingly began to rely on online orders. Without everyday distractions, large numbers of us also reconnected with nature on our daily permitted walks. Life became quite simple. So, has this made us all more environmentallyconscious shoppers? Many big businesses like Apple seem to think so, and it was not long ago that Unilevercommitted £1bn to eradicating fossil fuels from its products. Post Covid-19, many consumers will be far more savvy. They will expect more from their products and trusted brands. But how do you engage customers with the bigger, greener picture? A lot of attention is being directed towards customers becoming more sustainable in the marketplace – but what we have come to expect and ‘consume’ in the home and at work has been largely ignored; until now. In our latest research, conducted jointly with Kaunas University of Technology and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania, we wanted to discover which factors affect sustainable consumption behaviour in the workplace and home environments. Ourfindings suggest that consumers like to feel good about contributing to a more sustainable environment. We found that moral identity is an important factor for triggering sustainable consumption behaviour – which sets it apart fromearlier studies. We also found that to consume anything sustainably, we have to be ‘engaged’ with the bigger sustainability picture. Our study comprised a questionnaire and data from585 respondents collected across Lithuania and theUnited Kingdom, and encompassed single, cohabiting andmarried respondents, both with andwithout children. The novelfindings suggest that working consumers who value such internal qualities as fairness, honesty and carefulness have a strongermoral identity. Peoplewith those characteristics demonstrate higher engagement in sustainable consumption in theworkplace and home environment. Engagement is key. Our study suggests that the more engaged in sustainable consumption a working consumer is, the stronger their sustainable consumption behaviour. Such consumer engagement in sustainable consumption is evident throughfive specific components: enthusiasm, attention, identification, absorption and interaction. Ourfindings suggest enthusiasm and attention stand out as being particularly important. Enthusiasm denotes a strong willingness to partake in sustainable consumption-related decisions, while attention demonstrates a high awareness of and strong concentration on sustainable consumption-related activities. Absorption, identification and interaction, although still important, have less influence on respondents’ decisions regarding sustainable consumption. Thesefindings tell us that consumers with a stronger moral identity would be more enthusiastic about consuming sustainably because they would feel that they could contribute positively to the environment with their habits. They feel pleasure and enjoyment when consuming responsibly and are willing to spend time considering the damage to the environment caused through unnecessary consumption. These 28 |
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