ABSTRACT
Habit is significant in the context of approaching sustainability, as many environmentally relevant behaviours are habits which are recurrent, stable and persistent. Habitual aspects of the behaviour have been approached from two different academic disciplines: social psychology and sociology. This chapter explores how design alters or interjects change in habits to encourage more sustainable consumption. Changing behaviour is thought to have a considerable environmental impact. Within social psychology, habit is studied as an individual psychological construct. Sociologists have developed an alternative theoretical account of what psychologists term habitual behaviour. Instead of targeting individual behaviour, practice theory takes social practice as a unit of analysis for understanding consumption but also a unit of intervention for a greater reduction in consumption. Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) is a field in sustainable design concerned with the application of behavioural theory to understand users, and behaviour changing strategies to design products, services and systems that encourage more sustainable use.
