Drivers to green consumption: a systematic review

• Published in: Environment, development and sustainability Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 4826 - 4880
• Main Authors: Testa, Francesco, Pretner, Gaia, Iovino, Roberta, Bianchi, Guia, Tessitore, Sara, Iraldo, Fabio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-04-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Consumption; Demographic variables; Demography; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Economic Geology; Economic Growth; Environment; Environmental behavior; Environmental behaviour; Environmental degradation; Environmental Economics; Environmental Management; Environmental perception; Green products; Psychology; Public opinion; Review; Social sciences; Sociodemographics; Sustainable consumption; Sustainable Development; Systematic review; Drivers to green consumption; Green economy; Green product; Purchase intention/behavior; Sustainable consumption
• ISSN: 1387-585X; 1573-2975
• DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00844-5

Environmental degradation is increasingly attracting the attention of public opinion; however, the rise in environmental concern is not accompanied by a parallel growth of green product consumption. This paper aims to detect and classify all the main drivers to green consumption in an attempt of systematizing previous research results and identifying the most relevant drivers for pushing the transition toward a greener economy. The paper systematically analyzes 113 articles published from 2000 to 2018 within major peer-reviewed English-language scholarly publications in management, economics, environmental, agricultural and biological, decision and social sciences, energy and psychology that adopted a survey-based quantitative approach to measure drivers to green consumption. The research is identified using the keywords green, sustainable, environmental or pro-environmental behavior/intention/purchase or consumption/consumer. The analysis highlights the identification of seven categories of drivers to green consumption: behavioral factors, socio-demographic variables, intrapersonal values—environment, intrapersonal values—non environment, personal capabilities, products and producers-related factors and context-related factors.