Sustainable Living: The Push and Pull of Everyday Practices

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the enactment of sustainability practices in everyday life through a “Living Green” campaign. The authors explore how these practices are embraced, challenged or renegotiated in situ within broader networks of routines and sociohistorical understandings.

Design/methodology/approach A three-phase sequential qualitative multi-method approach was used. Data were collected through brainstorming workshops, in-depth interviews, digital diaries, participant observation and introspection journal entries.

Findings The findings highlight the interplay between historically embedded practical understandings and daily (un)sustainable consumption. The authors develop an empirically grounded typology comprising four practice states – pro-transition, constrained embodiment, negotiated continuity and in-reversal – to illustrate how cultural frames and ontological concerns shape the fluidity of social practices throughout the campaign.

Research limitations/implications The five-week duration of the campaign may limit insight into longer-term shifts in sustainable consumption. Study was conducted in New Zealand, often framed by a “clean, green” national identity which may limit generalisability of findings beyond this context. The predominance of younger participants may limit the applicability of findings to other demographics whose routines differ.

Practical implications The findings inform the design of public campaigns and policy interventions promoting sustainable behaviours. They also provide guidance for individuals seeking to cultivate more sustainable lifestyles.

Originality/value This study advances sustainable consumption research through a practice-theoretical lens, foregrounding the ontological underpinnings of everyday action. It offers theoretical insight into how sociohistorical meanings, teleoaffective orientations and sources of ontological security shape the fluid, contested nature of sustainability practices as they unfold in lived contexts.