Sustainability
Our sustainability research focuses on understanding the social and psychological factors which may help to understand and change (un)sustainable behaviours and practices.
Our work examines a broad range of environmental issues from the local to the global. Much of this work is multidisciplinary in nature and aims to support environmental policy and management.
Biodiversity and nature conservation
Biodiversity loss is accelerating, threatening ecosystems and human health alike. As biodiversity loss is driven by human activity, reversing it requires placing people at the heart of environmental policy and nature conservation activities. Our research applies behaviour change theory to nature conservation problems.
- Act with Nature. This project, conducted in collaboration with Tampere University and University of Jyväskylä and funded by Research Council of Finland, aims to promote both well-being and pro-environmental behaviour via nature engagement. The project involves longitudinal data collection regarding environmental behaviours and emotions, and nature-based interventions in both the UK and Finland.
- Behaviour change interventions within National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Retrospectively applying the Behaviour Change Wheel framework to national biodiversity policies to identify implementation gaps (Rode et al., 2024). The work was conducted for the IPBES Values Assessment.
- Barriers and facilitators for farmers engaging in sustainable grazing practices. This project used the COM-B model to assess EU farmers’ capabilities, opportunities and motivations for getting involved in sustainable grazing of their livestock (Rouet-Ludec et al., 2024).
- Behaviour change in pollinator conservation policies. This project retrospectively applied the Behaviour Change Wheel to identify implementation gaps in UK and EU pollinator polices (Marselle et al., 2020).
- Why do citizen scientists get involved in insect monitoring? This project assessed the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of people taking part in three insect-focused citizen science projects in Denmark, Germany and Israel (Richter et al., 2021).
Sustainable living and behaviour change
About 20% of the world’s population (in upper income countries) consume approximately 80% of the world’s non-renewable resources. Sustainable development must involve reducing the environmental impact of our lifestyles. Our work examines how this may be achieved and what this means for our wellbeing.
- Living well with less. Our work carried out as part of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) examines what it means to live well with less (Isham et al., 2019). How materialistic goals can undermine routes to living well with less (Isham et al., 2020) and possible ways to reduce the salience of materialistic goals (Parker et al., 2020).
- Pro-environmental behaviour change. Understanding behaviour change is central to help tackle environmental problems and reduce the environmental footprints. Our work examines the effectiveness of different behaviour change strategies to promote sustainable living (Handbook on Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change).
- Testing interventions. Our research tests and evaluates different behaviour change strategies to promote pro-environmental behaviour such as energy feedback (Murtagh et al., 2013) or promoting cycling (Gatersleben & Appleton, 2007), information interventions to increasing food waste recycling (Searer et al., 2017), or changing multiple behaviours through business led programs (Elf et al., 2021).
- Values and identities. Understanding the values and identities that underly the (consumer and pro-environmental) choices we make is important to help promote sustainable lifestyles (Gatersleben et al., 2019).