Marketing sustainable lifestyles

Oksana Mont, Patrick Elf and Amy Isham
The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Sustainability | April 2025

Summary

Marketing sustainable lifestyles requires a rapid reorientation away from perpetuating unsustainable behaviours and lifestyles with far-reaching implications for people and the planet. This chapter thus sets out to circumscribe how the enormous potential of the marketing discipline can be used as a positive force for sustainability. As a first step, this chapter defines sustainable lifestyles and differentiates them from specific sustainable behaviours before it delves into the principles of marketing sustainable lifestyles. It then outlines how marketing can evolve to accommodate and promote alternative ways of living within planetary boundaries by conceptualising a sustainable marketing mix tailored explicitly for sustainable lifestyles. Next, this chapter explores the motivations driving companies to market these lifestyles, the strategies that can be employed to promote sustainability, and the challenges or ‘lock-in’ factors businesses encounter in this endeavour. This chapter introduces the notion of a Lifestyle Change Support System as a vision and conceptual Northstar to provide businesses with a direction of travel. The concluding section summarises the key insights, underscoring the potential of marketing to foster sustainable behaviour and consumption.

About the Handbook

This handbook reviews current research on the relationship between marketing and sustainability, examining both how marketing can support more sustainable goods and services, and how broader marketing systems impact environmental and social outcomes. It brings together contributions from international scholars, covering topics such as product development, packaging, fair trade, and sustainable lifestyles across sectors like food, mobility, tourism, and sport. The volume draws on both socio-economic and physical systems perspectives to explore marketing’s role in shaping more sustainable and equitable futures.

Further Reading