Special Issue "Sustainability and Consumption"

Guest Editor
Dr. Jack Barkenbus
Climate Change Research Network within the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy & Environment, PMB 407702, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
Website: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/vcems/barkenbus.html
E-Mail:
Interests: sustainable development; energy; climate change; clean technology

Dear Colleagues,

It is clear that our current consumption patterns are producing environmental degradation that imperils future generations. More prudent resource consumption must replace over-consumption in the wealthier states and accompany growing consumption in the developing states. While these principles are widely-acknowledged, the path to a more sustainable future is still unclear. Low-carbon technologies, of course, have an important role to play; but they must be accompanied by resource consuming behaviours capable of sustaining a global population of 9 billion inhabitants in the year 2050.

This issue seeks manuscripts that highlight research at the intersection of consumption and sustainability. Multidisciplinary contributions are welcome ranging from a social-psychological perspective on individual behaviour change to a broader institutional approach. It is recognized that consumption occurs in a collective socio-cultural context, and policy tools designed to address contextual influences can be important. Articles dealing with consumption from a comparative perspective are especially welcome, revealing established habits and practices across states, as well as segmentation of the populace within states. The results of efforts to frame or transform consumption in new, more resource-conserving, ways, need highlighting as well, looking at how the media can be enlisted in the cause. Though earth-friendly lifestyles are not uncommon in any society, the challenge is to make such lifestyles palatable and attractive to the mainstream; this issue seeks to explore wide-ranging policy approaches that attempt to do so.

Dr. Jack Barkenbus
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• sustainable lifestyles
• policy framing and policy tools
• behavioural change
• socio-psychological research
• cultural change
• resource conservation systems
• comparative perspectives
• market segmentation
• behavioural economics