Is it up to them? Individual leverages for sufficiency

Abstract

Sufficiency is one important strategy for sustainable development. At an individual level, we need a better understanding of the relationship between sufficiency attitude and CO2 footprint. In this paper, we analyze sufficiency as a psychological determinant of low-carbon lifestyles and introduce an empirical measurement scale for individual sufficiency attitudes.Sufficiency aims at a total reduction of resource consumption, which is urgently needed to achieve our climate and sustainable development goals. This paper explores individual attitude towards a sufficiency-oriented lifestyle as a driver of a low carbon footprint. Survey data of 310 participants was analyzed to test whether individual sufficiency attitude manifests in people’s carbon footprint. The results provide evidence for this relationship but its strength varies between behavioral domains ‐ that is, heating, electricity, food consumption, everyday mobility, air travel. Potential structural and individual barriers to reducing CO2 emissions are discussed as possible factors that could explain differences between the behavioral domains. We argue that intrapersonal factors matter for sustainable lifestyles but that policy-making and structural change should complement and facilitate voluntary endeavors to achieve low-carbon lifestyles.

Do online environments promote sufficiency or overconsumption? Online advertisement and social media effects on clothing, digital devices, and air travel consumption

“…From this point of view, primarily the consumption of need satisfiers with high resource‐intensity that are not indispensable for the fulfillment of objective needs should be curbed (Brown & Cameron, 2000; Di Giulio & Fuchs, 2014; Thøgersen, 2014). An individual consumption level that exceeds planetary boundaries has been defined as overconsumption (Brown & Cameron, 2000; Thøgersen, 2014), whereas sufficiency‐oriented consumption has been defined as the voluntary restraint or reduction with regard to product and service purchase, including the choice of smaller dimensions of acquired products and services, and energy‐saving use patterns (Jenny, 2016; Verfuerth et al, 2019). This reduction in product purchase often implies alternative consumption behavior, such as acquiring second‐hand products, repair and sharing practices (Bocken & Short, 2016).…”

Can reflective diary-writing increase sufficiency-oriented consumption? A longitudinal intervention addressing the role of basic psychological needs, subjective well-being, and time affluence

“…As sufficiency has not received much attention within psychology (but see for example Frick et al, 2020;Joanes, 2019;Verfuerth et al, 2019), there is little literature on how to strengthen it using interventions. This is the first study testing if daily reflection on sufficiency and consumption increases actual sufficiency orientation.…”

“…to 7 (strongly agree). Furthermore we used six items by Verfuerth et al (2019) from the Sufficiency Attitude Scale (e.g., "All the new things that are sold all the time are a big waste of resources to me") and seven own items (e.g., "Abstaining from consumption can significantly reduce the extent of global warming"). Participants answered these items on five-point Likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

“…In this paper, we use the term sufficiency orientation to capture a composite of attitudes and behaviors. In terms of an attitude it captures one's endorsement of a sufficiency-oriented lifestyle and the extent to which one wants to act upon this goal (Verfuerth et al, 2019). Only lately has eco-sufficiency been targeted by environmental psychologists.…”

“…Only lately has eco-sufficiency been targeted by environmental psychologists. People who score high on sufficiency orientation are more likely to engage in less resource intensive (consumption) behavior causing lower ecological footprints (Gorge et al, 2015;Linz, 2004;Verfuerth et al, 2019), more sustainable clothing consumption (Joanes, 2019), and behavior in online shopping environments (Frick et al, 2020). Such a decreased focus on materialistic consumption and value-orientation is associated with increased subjective well-being (SWB, overview by Kasser, 2016), across cultures (Dittmar et al, 2014), and over time (Kasser et al, 2014).…”