Towards living sustainably: a study of Australian consumers' sustainable behaviours and intentions

Recognising the need to increase society’s concern for the environment and natural resources, governments and organisations have moved towards developing and adopting policies to promote the uptake of sustainable behaviours, such as recycling and reducing the reliance on non-renewable energy sources. Driven by the author’s interest in the environment and conservation, the principal motive for this research study is to understand the success of initiatives to encourage Australian consumers to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives. Using an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), it explores the effects of Australians’ attitudes, perceived behavioural control (PBC), subjective norm, personal normative motives (PNM), internal ethics and moral intensity in predicting their sustainable behaviour and intentions. To achieve the aims of this study, four research questions and 17 hypotheses are examined in detail using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The survey questionnaire is based on the extant literature, adapted to the sustainable context and pre-tested using depth interviews. The quantitative data is collected using an online survey with a final representative sample of 511 Australians. The study demonstrates that sustainable behaviour and intention is most reliably measured by 'likely behavioural intention' (LBI) and 'lifestyle behaviour'. The sample was most likely to adopt sustainable practices which involved little effort or cost, and least likely to adopt more expensive products such as double-glazed windows. The key driver of sustainable behaviour and intention was consumers’ 'internal ethics' which reflects their beliefs that they have an obligation to live sustainably. The other exogenous constructs had a lesser effect on their behaviour and intention, suggesting that the TPB was only moderately useful in predicting behaviour and intention. While many Australians have started their journey towards adopting sustainable practices, this study suggests that the theory does not provide a complete account of the reasons for sustainable intention and behaviour. Engaging in sustainable practices is a highly complex topic, and further research is required to understand the additional measures and constructs that need to be included in order to better explain the variance in Australians’ behaviour. This particularly applies to understanding the issues that drive behavioural change as well as the limiting factors that prevent their adoption, particularly the cost. Understanding the factors that would make consumers pay more for sustainable products and services, as well as the factors that would increase their sense of ethical obligation, could also be a topic for future research.