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The Environmental Impact of Consumption Lifestyles: Ethically Minded Consumption Vs

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The Environmental Impact of Consumption Lifestyles: Ethically Minded Consumption Vs sustainability Article The Environmental Impact of Consumption Lifestyles: Ethically Minded Consumption vs. Tightwads Laurie Touchette * and Marcelo Vinhal Nepomuceno * HEC Montréal, 3000 Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada * Correspondence: [email protected] (L.T.); [email protected] (M.V.N.) Received: 20 October 2020; Accepted: 23 November 2020; Published: 28 November 2020 Abstract: This study investigates the environmental impact of anti-consumption lifestyles and compares it to environmental concern and ethically minded consumption. Environmental impact was measured in a sample of 357 individuals with a carbon footprint calculator capturing all greenhouse gases released by an individual’s activities. Three types of anti-consumption lifestyles were considered: frugality, voluntary simplicity, and tightwadism. Results suggest that tightwadism is negatively associated with environmental impact. This negative association is stronger when participants are knowledgeable about the emissions impact of their behaviors. These findings suggest that tightwadism can lead to positive outcomes to achieve sustainability. Surprisingly, frugality and voluntary simplicity, as well as environmental concern, are not significantly associated with environmental impact, whereas ethically minded consumption correlates positively with the latter. This study demonstrates that increasing consumers’ environmental and ethical concerns alone might not be an effective way to lead them towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Such findings have important implications for sustainability and public policy makers. Keywords: anti-consumption lifestyle; sustainability; environmental impact; tightwadism; voluntary simplicity; frugality; environmental concern; ethically minded consumption 1. Introduction The environmental consequences of human activity have earned the interest of academic research since the 1960s [1]. To find solutions to environmental issues, the key role of consumption in driving environmental impact has long been recognised. To this end, authors have examined the psychological processes and motivations behind individuals’ environmentally friendly behaviors [2–4]. However, given today’s significant environmental challenges such as climate change [5], policies that seek to promote pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., to encourage incremental consumption shifts from regular products to “greener” ones) may not be a sufficient solution in favour of sustainability [1]. Some authors question the environmental reform strategy largely based on promoting green and ethical consumption behaviors, as it will be offset by substantial growth in global consumption [6,7]. They suggest that more effective alternatives to environmental degradation in industrialized nations lie in changing the dominant lifestyles and consumption patterns, which are considered unsustainable. More specifically, these scholars discuss the need to limit consumption for sustainable development purposes [7–11]. In particular, research has focused on understanding how to reduce meat consumption [12–14], energy consumption [15], and car usage and purchase [16–18], as these have strong impact on the environment. This paper builds on previous literature and stems from the intersection between the fields of consumer behavior and sustainability. Past research suggests that the adoption of anti-consumption lifestyles might contribute to achieving sustainability goals [1,2,19–21]. Anti-consumption urges consumers to buy less products [2], resulting in a voluntary reduction in the acquisition, use, Sustainability 2020, 12, 9954; doi:10.3390/su12239954 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2020, 12, 9954 2 of 22 and disposal of commoditized goods and services [22]. Following this definition, individuals who adopt anti-consumption lifestyles are motivated to minimize their consumption levels [23], which should lower their negative impact on the environment [20]. This occurs because when consumers systematically resist consumption as an integral part of their lifestyle, fewer resources are requested, and less impact is generated on the environment [24]. However, while the emerging topic of anti-consumption is gaining more attention in the field of consumer behavior, its contribution to sustainability remains largely underexplored. In particular, it is still unclear to what degree anti-consumption lifestyles should reduce one’s environmental impact. To the best of our knowledge, only one study to date has investigated the extent to which the adoption of anti-consumption lifestyles might be associated with lower environmental impact [20]. Its authors found that tightwadism and voluntary simplicity are associated with lower environmental impact than environmental concern and frugality. The present study adds to this existing research and assesses the validity and reproducibility of the findings. It does so by using a more comprehensive measure of environmental impact (i.e., a carbon footprint calculator—Carbon Footprint Ltd., Hampshire, UK 2017). This calculator uses emissions factors considering all greenhouse gases (i.e., CO2,N2O, methane, etc.). Differently from past research, this method considered individual carbon emissions caused by not only food-related consumption, but also energy, transportation, clothing, and numerous other types of products and services (see Tables1 and2) allowing for a better representation of all activities undertaken over a year in a highly detailed manner [25]. Table 1. Real score attributed to individual actions according to their potential in reducing CO2 emissions. tCO /Year Real Score Attributed Individual Action 2 Reduction Potential (on a Scale of 1 to 7) More than 0.8 tCO2/year Have one fewer child 58.6 7 Live car free 2.40 6 Avoid one transatlantic flight (i.e., have the means 1.60 5 to take a transatlantic flight, but still avoid it) High impact Buy green energy (e.g., install solar panels in your 1.40 5 actions home; buy an Energy Star HVAC system) Buy a more efficient car (i.e., a car with at least 5 1.19 4 miles per gallon above the American average) Adopt a plant-based diet (i.e., avoid the intake of 0.80 4 animal products such as meat, milk, eggs, etc.) Between 0.2 and 0.8 tCO2/year Moderate Replace gasoline car by hybrid * 0.50 3 impact Wash clothes in cold water 0.25 2 actions Recycle 0.21 2 Hand-dry clothes 0.21 2 Less than 0.2 tCO /year Low impact 2 Upgrade lightbulbs 0.10 1 actions Plant a tree 0.03 1 * Increasing fuel economy might be more effective in terms of tCO2 reduction than switching to a hybrid car (Wynes and Nicholas 2017). In addition to using a more comprehensive measure of environmental impact, the current research compares frugality, tightwadism, and voluntary simplicity not only to environmental concern, but also to ethically minded consumption. Within the literature, there remains a debate as to the commitment towards ethical purchasing [26]. Since many studies have found a gap between the ethical attitudes consumers say they hold, and their actual purchase behavior [26–31], it was thus important to include ethically minded consumption in this study, as it has yet to prove its positive environmental effects. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9954 3 of 22 Table 2. Calculation of CO2 emissions per expense category. Expenditure 1 Metric ton of CO e is Survey Indications Sub-Categories 2 Categories Equivalent to: Electricity $2894 y Natural gas $9 y Participants had to estimate their Heating oil $40 y Household household consumption ($USD) of each Coal $12 Energy y type of energy for the past 12 months. Liquefied petroleum gas $405 (LPG) y Propane $388 y Wood pellets $14 y Participants had to provide details about their travel itineraries by plane over the last Amount of $USD for 1 metric 12 months, specifying the city of departure ton of CO e depends on Flights 2 and destination, the stops made, and class many variables, such as the type they traveled in (e.g., economy, class type, the itinerary, etc. business, etc.). Participants had to report the number of miles driven with their vehicle(s) in the last Amount of $USD for 1 12 months, providing accurate information metric ton of CO e depends on the vehicle: manufacturer, model, year Car 2 on many variables, such as of manufacture, the fuel type, whether it is Transportation the fuel type and efficiency. manual or automatic, its trim level and fuel efficiency (miles/gallon). Amount of $USD for 1 If participants have a motorcycle, they had metric ton of CO e depends to provide the motorcycle type they own as Motorcycle 2 on the motorcycle type and well as the number of miles driven. fuel efficiency. Commuter train 14,286 miles If the participants used public transport in Long-distance train 100,000 miles the last 12 months, they had to indicate the Local bus 5882 miles mileage travelled (per week, month, or Coach bus 25,000 miles year) by commuter train, long-distance Subway 20,000 miles train, local bus, coach bus, subway, tram, Tramway 16,667 miles and taxi. Taxi 4167 miles Food and beverages * $1250 Pharmaceuticals $2500 Clothing, textiles and shoes $3750 Telephone, mobile/cellphone $2041 call costs Hotel, restaurants and pubs $2439 This is a measure of the emissions caused Banking and financial sector through the manufacture, delivery and (mortgage and interest $6667 Other disposal of products and services payments) Expenses participants buy. Participants had to Insurance $4000 (products and estimate the amount spent (per week, Paper-based products (e.g., services) $1886 month, or year) on different categories of books and magazines) goods and services. Computer and equipment $1923 Television, radio and phone $3226 (equipment) Motor vehicles (excluding $1613 fuel costs) Furniture and other $2500 manufactured good Education $5000 * Indicates CO2 emissions that were divided by the number of people in the household. y For electricity, 1 metric ton of CO2e at 0.053 kgCO2e/kWh is equal to 18,867 KWh. The amount in dollars is 15.34¢/kWh. For natural gas, 1 metric ton of CO2e is equal to 5000 KWh. The amount in dollars is 0.18¢/kWh. For heating oil 1 metric ton of CO2e is equal to 104 US gallons. The amount in dollars is 2.60/US gallon.
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