Education for Sustainable Consumption through Mindfulness Training: Development of a Consumption-Specific Intervention

Abstract

Several widespread approaches to Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) have emerged from the tradition of consumer information. A major shortcoming of such cognitive-focused approaches is their limited capacity to facilitate reflection on the affective processes underpinning peopleís engagement with consumption. More holistic pedagogies are thus needed to increase the effectiveness of ESC. The concept of mindfulness has recently received growing attention in research on sustainable consumption, given its potential to address both cognitive and affective processes and to stimulate reflection on the drivers of often routinized consumption practices. Despite this recent interest, mindfulness has to date not been systematically connected to ESC. This paper provides a reflexive case study of the development of mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) specifically tailored to ESC (ìBiNKA-trainingî). It elaborates the conceptual connections between mindfulness and ESC, offers insights into the process of adapting MBI to ESC and concludes with lessons learnt and an outlook on future work seeking to tap the potential of MBIs to form more holistic approaches to sustainability education.

Are Gender Perspectives Included in Education for Sustainable Consumption and Waste Education Programs? A Systematic Literature Review

“…For instance, in six articles the focus was on the design process of programs, frameworks, or a lesson plan (Hadiyanti, 2016;Kossieris, Panayiotakis, et al, 2014;Leger and Pruneau, 2012;Nowak, Hale, Lindholm, and Altaf, and Troccoli, 2017). There were also literature review studies, at times resulting in curriculum development and methodology proposals (Chandra, 2014;Davis, 2008;Oto, Cobanoglu, and Geray, 2012;Stanszus et al, 2017;Wahba, 2012). The remaining articles include a policy framework analysis, problem evaluations, the description of the implementation of a theoretical framework, and cultural and historical analysis (González-Gaudiano, 1990;Painter, Thondh-lana, and Kua, 2016;Pankina, Khrustalyova, Egarmin, and Shekhova, 2016;Ruini et al, 2016;Vieira and Echeverria, 2007).…”

“…As such, education is indispensable (Avan, Aydinli, Bakar, and Alboga, 2011;McKeown, Hopkins, Rizi, and Chrystalbridge, 2006). As Stanszus et al (2017) stated, "The nexus of education, consumption and sustainable development has been at the top of the agenda since the very inception of the political process towards sustainable development at the Rio Conference in 1992." Accordingly, Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) has the specific role of provisioning knowledge, values, and skills to enable individuals and social groups to become actors of change towards more sustainable consumption lifestyles.…”

“…Accordingly, Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) has the specific role of provisioning knowledge, values, and skills to enable individuals and social groups to become actors of change towards more sustainable consumption lifestyles. Consumers' rights are therefore integrated into ESC, in order to empower them and to enable their full participation in both public debate and the economy in an informed, confident and ethical way (Choi and Didham, 2009;Stanszus et al, 2017;UNEP, 2017).…”

The reflective assessment on the acquisition of life value in customer education as a character building dimension

“…Last but not least, skills are defined as the knowledge in performing certain things. With regards to the Customer Education Course, the orientation of the competence mastery in the course is: 1) students' cognitive aspect attainment in the form of understanding and motivation; 2) self-reflection; and 3) students' capacity to actively contribute to the development of mindful consumers in the community (Stanszus et al, 2017). The mastery of these orientations will reflect how important the application of Customer Education into the daily life context is, since Customer Education shapes the students' characters for performing their consumption more wisely.…”

Mindfulness Training at School: A Way to Engage Adolescents with Sustainable Consumption?

“…The intervention consisted of eight weekly group sessions of 90 min, one half-day session of four hours ("Day of Mindfulness"), and 15 min of daily meditation practice at school or at home supported by audio files recorded and provided by the trainer. The first four weeks of the training focused more on mindfulness-specific topics and the establishment of a meditation practice, whereas the second half of the training increasingly addressed consumption-related topics and exercises (see Reference [47] for more information concerning the training development and contents, and Reference [48] for some practical exercises).…”