The role of mindfulness in harmonising sustainable lifestyles

Education is a key factor to respond to the threat of climate change, increasing not only knowledge but also encouraging changes in attitudes and behaviors to adopt sustainable lifestyles. Scholars and practitioners in the field of education call for innovative ways of engaging youth—a reason why gamification has gained more attention in recent years. This paper aims at exploring the role of gamification in affecting pro-environmental behavioral change and searching for best practices for educational purposes. For that aim, pro-environmental gamification platforms are identified and analyzed by applying two different frameworks: the Octalysis Framework and the Climate Change Engagement through Games Framework. After scanning 181 cases, a final sample of six is analyzed and two of them are selected as best practices with higher potential to engage users in pro-environmental behavioral change: SaveOhno and JouleBug. Meaning, ownership, and social influence, as well as achievability, challenge, and credibility, are seen as core elements that can increase the success of gamification platforms. In conclusion, the more attributes are enclosed in the gamification design, the stronger physical and mental connections it builds up with participants. Insights from this study can help educators to select best practices and gamification designers to better influence behavioral change through game mechanics.

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Use and Perceptions of Pedestrian Navigation Apps: Findings from Bologna and Porto

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10070446 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 446

Author(s):

Fernando Fonseca ◽

Elisa Conticelli ◽

George Papageorgiou ◽

Paulo Ribeiro ◽

Mona Jabbari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Statistical Tests ◽

Spatial Knowledge ◽

Design And Development ◽

Google Maps ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Pedestrian Navigation ◽

Sustainable Lifestyles ◽

Navigation Service ◽

Space Recognition

Pedestrian Navigation Applications (PNAs) provide assistance in terms of self-localization, space recognition, and turn-by-turn navigation. The use, motivations and perceptions associated with these applications have been under investigated due to users being insufficiently involved in their design and development. This paper analyses the extent to which PNAs are used for assisting people to walk, the frequencies and reasons of using these applications, the perceptions about them, and the barriers preventing them from being used. The study is supported by a questionnaire (N = 1438) that was administered in Bologna (Italy) and Porto (Portugal). Results indicated that 42% of the respondents use PNAs mainly on an occasional basis to find locations and the shortest routes. Google Maps was the preferred navigation service. Statistical tests showed that PNAs were more likely to be used by younger adults and students. The lack of need was the main reason for not using these apps, due to the good spatial knowledge of the cities or the non-use of the pedestrian mode for regular trips. Respondents would like to have apps that are more accurate, usable, and adjusted to pedestrian navigation. The findings described in this paper could be helpful for future designs of PNAs, especially to match pedestrian needs more effectively and to enhance the role of these apps in promoting healthier and sustainable lifestyles.

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An Agent-Based Model for Awareness-Based Sustainability

Green Services Engineering, Optimization, and Modeling in the Technological Age - Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-8447-8.ch006 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 149-166

Author(s):

Giovanna Sissa ◽

Ernesto Damiani

Keyword(s):

Limited Resource ◽

Resource Consumption ◽

Agent Based Model ◽

Agent Based ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

Sustainable Lifestyles ◽

Social Sanctions ◽

Ict Tools ◽

Sustainable Behavior

This chapter discusses the effects of social interaction on collective behavior regarding the reduction of limited-resource consumption. Our working hypothesis is that key societal and psychological mechanisms leading to sustainable lifestyles can be enabled by ICT tools. We envision tools supporting social norms, i.e. rules governing an individual's by social sanctions that encourage sustainable behavior on the part of user and consumers. As enabling technology we identify smart metering systems that allows users to compare their consumption patterns with the ones of other consumers, as well as to dynamically re-define and share their personal reduction goals. We present an Agent-Based Model (ABM) to explore the role of awareness in the consumption of a scarce resource. Our agents represent households that use a resource – e.g. energy or water – whose consumption has to be reduced. Agents influence each other; such influence improves their awareness that, in turn, impacts on resource consumption.

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ROLE OF SOCIETY IN CONVERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH ◽

10.29121/granthaalayah.v3.i9se.2015.3168 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (9SE) ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

Sandhya Singh

Keyword(s):

Natural Resources ◽

Equal Opportunity ◽

Environmental Resources ◽

Self Renewal ◽

Sustainable Lifestyles ◽

The Earth ◽

Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽

The Right ◽

Mother Earth

Everyone has the right to live in this world and also every individual has responsibility to use natural resources judiciously. This will give equal opportunity to all to use the resources for the benefit of whole mankind. All living creatures belong to mother earth and they all have their shine of resources available. All these resources like land, energy, mineral, food, water, forest etc. have to be distributed in an equitable way for sustainable lifestyles of all creatures. Conservation of natural resources is now usually embraced in the broader conception of conserving the earth itself by protecting its capacity for self-renewal. Finally, the aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the role of society members in the conservation of our natural or environmental resources.

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Stressful sustainability: a hermeneutic analysis

European Journal of Marketing ◽

10.1108/ejm-12-2016-0712 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (3/4) ◽

pp. 550-574 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Carmen Valor ◽

Paolo Antonetti ◽

Isabel Carrero

Keyword(s):

Design Methodology ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Social Constraints ◽

Structural Constraints ◽

Content Type ◽

Sustainable Lifestyles ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Practical Implications

Purpose Research on sustainable consumption (SC) has shown how, faced with barriers that prevent them from embracing a sustainable lifestyle, consumers experience classic symptoms of distress. Although distress emerges as a constitutive dimension of sustainable lifestyles, research has not yet provided a comprehensive account of how consumers cope with it. This paper aims to provide such an account. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 people who defined themselves as sustainable consumers. A hermeneutic approach was adopted for the analysis. Findings The analysis shows that consumers enact two different coping strategies: adjustment or episodic coping and structural coping or deradicalization. Both sets encompass reappraisals and meaning-making strategies to maintain motivation while simultaneously appeasing tensions. They also comprise the strategic enactment of emotions to energize the self and/or to appease distress. Coping influences how SC is appraised and lived, as these practices are dynamically changed to navigate structural constraints. Practical implications SC campaigns have traditionally focused on cognitive empowerment. However, the evidence suggests that emotional empowerment could be a more effective way to promote the practice. Originality/value This paper provides the first in-depth examination of the strategies adopted to cope with distress. The analysis shows that consumers reconfigure how SC is appraised and implemented, while emphasizing the crucial role of emotion work in the coping repertoire. Although SC is stressful due to structural and social constraints, consumers are able to remain committed to it to varying degrees.

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