Hasan, SWooliscroft, BGanglmair-Wooliscroft, A2025-12-042025-12-042024-10-28Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online. ISSN: 1177-083X (Print); 1177-083X (Online), Taylor & Francis Group, 20(4), 1338-1347. doi: 10.1080/1177083X.2024.24184851177-083X1177-083Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/20268Overconsumption and environmental pollution in New Zealand are leading to the depletion of its resources, threatening its ecosystem. This paper explores New Zealanders’ ethical and sustainable consumption behaviour, and the motivations and values that drive them. Seventy in-depth interviews with a variety of ethical consumers were conducted and analysed using laddering technique to uncover drivers behind ethical consumption habits. Results reflect the complexity and variety inherent in ethical consumption, and its motivations and drivers. Most ethical behaviours are environmentally focused, aimed at pollution reduction and environmental conservation. Ethical behaviours with a social focus are directed at the local or the international community. Social justice, equality and unity of nature (all sub-values of universalism) are revealed as drivers of ethical behaviours, and are complemented by personal achievement (feeling capable) and feelings of enjoyment–consuming ethically can also be ‘fun’. The complexity of the findings highlights the need for customised messaging from policymakers and businesses to increase ethical consumption behaviours in New Zealand.© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour8.3 Policy, ethics, and research governanceEthical consumptionsustainable consumptionenvironmental concernladdering techniqueJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1080/1177083X.2024.2418485