Sustainable Living Interventions: State of the Science and Future Opportunities

Much research has focused on promoting sustainable living practices. However, this body of research is largely dispersed and fragmented across fields such as basic psychology, public health, environmental science, civil engineering, and construction management. This review seeks to examine this body of research and summarize key themes to provide answers such as: what interventions have been proposed to enhance sustainable living, what interventions have been empirically tested, what problems can the interventions tackle, and what are the benefits of adopting these sustainable living interventions? The objective of the article is to provide a critical review of the literature to identify areas where progress has been made and areas where progress is yet to be made. The findings demonstrate that most of the sustainable living interventions have been designed to target key areas which include energy consumption, water conservation, transportation issues and challenges, and waste management. A variety of intervention elements such as the provision of relevant knowledge, feedback on performance, and rewards for portraying desirable behaviors were found in the literature. The article can serve as a resource to practitioners, researchers, policymakers, teachers, and students—who seek to understand the fragmented literature and wish to be informed about the state of the science. It is also expected that the article will empower readers with practical interventions that they themselves can adopt to promote sustainable living and public wellbeing in their communities.