Written evidence, Dr Caroline Moraes, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK (CCE0019)

Written Evidence submitted to the UK Parliament, House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee (submission reference number IXD889257, call available at https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/628/).

Evidence published on 26 January 2022 (publication code CCE0019, available at https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/41624/html/).

Evidence cited in final report: House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, 1st Report of Session 2022–23, “In our hands: Behaviour change for climate and environmental goals”, Published by the Authority of the House of Lords, 12 October 2022, HL Paper 64, available at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/30146/documents/174873/default/

Abstract: Sustainable consumption is motivated by consumer attitudes but also by what it means to consumers, their social groups, what it communicates about them and their social identities, and by what it enables in the context of everyday social practices. A focus on social practices rather than just individual attitudes when encouraging green choices and behaviours can help to design interventions that capitalise on the more social functions of consumption and therefore have the potential to be more effective. Any consumer intervention will need to be monitored and achieved in tandem with a distribution of responsibility among relevant stakeholders and particularly businesses, by determining regulations and incentives for sustainable commercial activities, and by requiring that businesses make sustainable alternatives available, easy to adopt and accessible to consumers.