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Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education pp 1–7Cite as

Conscious Consumption and Sustainable Development

Definition

To consume consciously is a process of deliberation to purposefully and thoughtfully consume what is beneficial and necessary and not consume unconsciously things that are unhelpful or harmful. Conscious consumption also is a philosophy and growing social movement that encourages citizens to become aware of the impact of their consumption practices on their own health and well-being and to consider the social, economic, environmental, and communal implications. This movement pays attention to the effects of media and advertising on citizen-consumer behavior. Conscious consumption may form part of government strategies used to promote ways to address the growing crises of climate change and noncommunicable diseases.

Sustainability requires a focus on principles of equity, inclusion, and distribution and the long-term state of the environment (Hopwood et al. 2015). Sustaining species and ecosystems must be done in ways that allow them to go on renewing themselves indefinitely...

Keywords

  • Consciousness
  • Consumption
  • Climate change
  • Reflection
  • Values education
  • Reduction

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Business & Social Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, Canada

    Kathleen Kevany

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  1. Kathleen Kevany
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Correspondence to Kathleen Kevany .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Economics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Madhavi Venkatesan PhD

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Kevany, K. (2019). Conscious Consumption and Sustainable Development. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_269-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_269-1

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