“Mum, did you just leave that tap running?!” The role of positive pester power in prompting sustainable consumption

Abstract

This paper offers novel insights on the socio‐structural factors that sustain (or break) everyday behaviours in the home. Specifically, the adoption of sustainable consumption in the home as influenced by Green‐School children is explored. The findings presented are derived from surveys with Green‐School (Eco‐School) children and in‐depth interviews with their parents. The process of sustainable consumption adoption in the home, in the context of the Green‐Schools programme, is explored with an aim to understand if, and how, Green‐School children affect behaviours in the home. The findings enlighten our understanding of not only how environmental education programmes are reconciling the Dominant Social Paradigm with the New Environmental Paradigm, but also in terms of how sustainable consumption in the home, such as recycling and water and energy conservation, are initiated and reinforced by children through their use of positive pester power.

Normalising the “ugly” to reduce food waste: Exploring the socialisations that form appearance preferences for fresh fruits and vegetables

“…Being aware about the different facets of the food waste problem can empower children to take actions in their own way to help reduce waste, such as choosing suboptimal produce for oneself. Further, discussing sustainability issues in school is effective in continuing such conversations in the home (Larsson, Andersson, & Osbeck, 2010; O'Neill & Buckley, 2019), potentially socialising families to value food and reduce food waste.…”

“…Learning about food waste and particularly suboptimal produce waste evoked concern and consequentially lead some of the older children to choose suboptimal produce for themselves from supermarkets. This also shows how children can act as agents of change because they are not only learning about sustainability, but are also applying sustainability ideologies and practises in different social environments (e.g., O'Neill & Buckley, 2019). This underlines the importance of educating and reminding young consumers about sustainability issues (such as food waste), which may hopefully lead to more mindful future behaviours.…”

“…For instance, providing information about food waste avoidance is effective in increasing suboptimal food choice in‐store (Aschemann‐Witzel, 2018; Aschemann‐Witzel et al, 2018). Similarly, knowledge and awareness about sustainability issues result in children's use of positive pester power to influence family consumption practises at home (O'Neill & Buckley, 2019). As children's involvement in the family's food decisions has increased (Ekström, 2010; Marshall, O'donohoe, & Kline, 2007), their voices are being increasingly heard by parents, governments, and researchers (Gram, 2015; Gram & Grønhøj, 2016).…”

Too fatigued to consume (ir)responsibly? The importance of work‐related fatigue and personal values for responsible consumption

“…Situational context variables have been proposed as important conditions for translating buying intentions into buying behaviour (Belk, 1975;Carrington et al, 2010). However, to date, The question of how other life domains beyond the consumption sphere affect responsible purchase decisions has been investigated recently in empirical studies on family influence (Frank, 2018;O'Neill & Buckley, 2019;Ritch & Brownlie, 2016), but research on influences of the work domain remains at a conceptual stage (Carrington & Neville, 2016;Devetter & Rousseau, 2011;Muster, 2012). The present study is the first to empirically investigate how working conditions may influence responsible purchase decisions.…”

“…Limited research has closely examine situational barriers to responsible purchasing (Carrington et al, 2014;Grimmer & Miles, 2017), but the impact of momentary psychological conditions (such as fatigue) remains to be examined. Additionally, a limited multidisciplinary approach has led to a neglect of influences from other life domains to responsible consumerism, aside from the family domain Carrigan & Szmigin, 2006;Frank, 2018;Heath et al, 2016;O'Neill & Buckley, 2019). This is particularly the case for the work-related life domain, which is surprising, given that the majority of consumers in Western industrialized societies are employed (Suedekum, 2005), and therefore, make their individual consumption decisions before, after or even during work.…”