Item UOW/11/CFSD/5 - “Every little bit helps…” Overcoming the challenges to researching, promoting and implementing sustainable lifestyles

“Every little bit helps…” Overcoming the challenges to researching, promoting and implementing sustainable lifestyles, Dr Tracey Bedford, Prof Peter Jones and Dr Helen Walker (London: CfSD, University of Westminster, March 2004).

Funded through a New Horizons Research Programme contract from the Department for Transport.
Government Ministers have often referred to the need to promote 'sustainable lifestyles' and much research has examined the components of sustainability at a sector, but as far as we are aware no work in this country has directly audited complete daily living patterns in terms of their sustainability. This is an important omission both technically, because there are likely to be significant interactions between sectors, and in terms of encouraging behavioural change, since people are interested in knowing how becoming 'more sustainable' is going to affect their lifestyle, as a whole. This exploratory study seeks to define and measure the concept of 'sustainable lifestyles', through a combination of conceptual development, dialogue with relevant professionals in many disciplines, and secondary data analysis. It will then conduct a preliminary policy audit, to identify areas where policy initiatives may be helping or hindering moves towards sustainable lifestyles. And will also start to address the question: "how can sustainable lifestyles be made more attractive than many of the current lifestyles that are relatively resource intensive?" This question clearly also has relevance in a wider, global context.