The global ‘consumer class’ is predicted to reach 5.7 billion within the next decade. As the demands on the planet’s natural resources continue to grow, this group—especially the wealthier segments—has a key role to play in mitigating climate change and environmental degradation through sustainable consumption.   

To date, however, this has proved challenging – people have genuine environmental concerns, but frequently fail to translate these into sustainable, environmentally friendly consumer habits. Our latest research explores why this is the case and how we can address the problem, identifying a range of barriers to sustainable consumption and ways for consumers, businesses and policymakers to overcome them.  

Mapping the problem 

To understand the obstacles, it’s useful to break them down into three main categories: market, individual and societal. Market obstacles relate to products and services themselves, including price, availability and perceived quality. Individual obstacles are rooted in people’s motivations and beliefs, including awareness, biases and understanding of impact. Societal obstacles relate to influences that arise from the social environment, such as norms, political identity and socioeconomic status. 

Within each of these categories, barriers can be overcome in two ways. They can be directly removed or reduced through targeted interventions (minimisation). And when structural constraints make barriers too entrenched to minimise, they can be worked around with creative solutions (circumvention). 

Market obstacles 

Differences in the availability of a product or action, or how visible or convenient it is, can influence consumers’ decisions. Sustainable options and practices often suffer in this regard – recycling and repair take more effort than throwing things away or replacing them, while eco-friendly options can be outnumbered by plastic-wrapped rival products, for example. The sustainability premium that sees eco-friendly choices cost more is another barrier to sustainable consumption, while consumers may also view some of these products as lower-quality.  

Policymakers can reduce the visibility advantage of unsustainable products by, for example, banning single-use plastics and taxing companies for excessive packaging, while making environmental benefits clearer through mandating consistent sustainability messaging on products, packaging and ads. Right-to-repair laws, meanwhile, can trigger the growth of a repair-and-reuse infrastructure.  

Alternatively, retailers could further increase the availability and salience of second-hand options, which often happen to be more sustainable and cheaper than the conventional alternatives. Manufacturers and shops could bundle unsustainable and eco-friendly options together, giving consumers the opportunity to at least try more sustainable options.  

Marketing campaigns that attach sustainability perceptions to manufacturers as a whole, rather than to individual product features, provide an opportunity to boost overall perceived quality and link quality and sustainability in consumers’ minds. 

Individual obstacles 

Sustainable choices are strongly impacted by the extent to which consumers spontaneously think of sustainability when considering their options, and the perceived impact that an eco-friendly choice might have. Common biases towards wanting to own items or preferring the default option, meanwhile, are strong drivers of waste and overconsumption.  

Education can help, both by more entrenching sustainable principles in consumers’ minds and by teaching them about the environmental impact of ownership and choices. At the same time, it can also be helpful to embed sustainability into product attributes people already prioritise, for example, focusing on the health impacts of microplastics to encourage eco-friendly packaging choices.  

On a simpler level, changing the narrative by presenting sustainable options as the status quo (rather than the alternative) can help circumvent biases by relying on inertia rather than engagement. Research has found this to be effective in normalising renewable energy, reducing meat consumption, and boosting sustainable investing. It may also help overcome the tendency to own a product rather than to rent it.  

Societal obstacles 

In much of modern life, unsustainable consumption has become the norm, including in transport, household energy and nutrition. People’s political views and class perception can strengthen these norms and set them against change. Socioeconomic differences exacerbate the damage this causes, with the wealthiest responsible for the most environmental damage, and the least wealthy worst affected by the consequences. 

Messaging is key to overcoming these barriers. For example, sustainability communication that is more in line with one’s political identity is more likely to be effective. If these messages are delivered by a body or an individual with existing standing among a particular group, they can be even more impactful. 

Similarly, messaging or events that deliberately or spontaneously signal a green norm can help change behaviours. Consumers are more likely to install solar panels or heat pumps if they see their neighbours doing so. Gamifying sustainable habits, e.g. by offering points and rewards for eco-friendly choices, can also help to reset norms by activating alternative motivational pathways. 

Future potential 

Our research sets out the primary obstacles to sustainable consumption, some proven and promising ways to minimise or circumnavigate them, and – critically – the gaps where further research could explore new or more impactful solutions. In this way, it can serve as a roadmap for developing our understanding of environmentally friendly consumption and how to promote it, which will be vital as we move towards an ever more consumer-driven global society. 

This article draws on findings from “Obstacles and Opportunities for Sustainable Consumption: A Comprehensive Conceptual Model, Literature Review, and Research Agenda” by Eduardo B. Andrade (Imperial College London) and Yan Vieites (FGV-EBAPE (Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas))