The process towards environmental sustainability and the influence of perceptions : A comparative qualitative case study on perceptions of pro-environmental consumption among students at Linnaeus University

Sammanfattning: Consumption is a major contributor to environmental harm, and also one area where the Swedish performance is in urgent need of improvement. While it is well known that changes are needed on all societal levels for sustainability to be realized, it is unclear whether the population is aware of which changes that refers to, since the impacts from individual consumption remain high. Previous research has identified psychological, cultural, social, and economic determinants as barriers to change, however, removing those barriers will not be sufficient if it results in changes entailing only marginal environmental benefits. The question that initiated this research is whether common people in Sweden can identify which changes are efficient enough to provide visible results, or if the current environmental discourse generates misperceptions, hindering concrete change. Meeting the objective to contribute to the identification of obstacles to sustainability by studying the perception of pro-environmental consumption among potential adopters, a qualitative interview-based case study was conducted on students at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The research followed an abductive approach, whereby primarily the Diffusion of Innovations theory was used for structure and interpretation. The findings reveal several barriers to sustainability associated with individual perceptions, including perceptions of the concept of pro-environmental consumption as complex, a perceived lack of trustworthy information from authorities, a perceived abundance of misleading information from profit-driven actors, as well as some controversy on where to place responsibility. Alongside this, misperceptions of environmental impacts from consumption were revealed, whereby accurate perceptions and environmental education were somewhat correlated. While highlighting an unrecognized but concrete issue, this research involves a small sample, suggesting that further research is required.