Special Issue in the Journal Sustainable Production and Consumption

Submission deadline: 30 September 2025

Guest editors:

• Managing editor: Göran Finnveden, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• Manisha Anantharaman, the Centre for Sociology of Organizations, SciencePO, France
• Karin Bradley, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• Merethe Dotterud Leiren, Climate Policy, Cicero (Centre for International Climate Research), Norway
• Thomas Gibon, Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity, Luxembourg Institute of Technology, Luxembourg
• Tom Erik Julsrud, Climate and Society, Cicero (Centre for International Climate Research), Norway

Special issue information:

It is becoming clear that, in order to reach climate targets, technological improvements will not be sufficient and that changes in consumption are necessary. This is for example illustrated by the IPCC (2022) who in their latest mitigation report included a chapter on demand-side measures. At the same time, it is becoming clear that new efforts are needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable consumption needs, therefore, to be a broad concept including a range of social, environmental, and economic impacts.

Much is known about the problems of current consumption patterns and levels, as well as the potential remedies. However, successful examples of mainstreaming sustainable consumption remain scarce. This special issue focuses on the challenges, strategies, and successes of mainstreaming sustainable consumption. For this special issue, we welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions. Themes include, but are not limited to:

- Change of Practices, including rethinking Sustainable lifestyles, Rebound and spillover ef-fects and Behaviour interventions

- Society and Culture, including Consumption corridors, Consumer cultures, Inequality, agency and power in consumer society, Sustainability and art, and Wellbeing

- Economy and Society including Alternative economic models, Sustainable business models, Dematerialisation and digitalization

- Policy and Governance including Overcoming political barriers, Consumption-based policies, Policy packages

- Measurement and Assessment including Modelling and measuring change, Scenario and pathway building, Case studies

- Leadership and Examples including Examples of successful mainstreaming of sustainable consumption, Examples of political leadership, The role of civil society

The special issue builds on the conference “Mainstreaming Sustainable Consumption” held in Lund, Sweden, from 8-10 April 2025, jointly organised by SCORAI-Europe, the research programmes “EU 1.5o C Lifestyles” and “Mistra Sustainable Consumption”, and The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. Papers presented at the conference are welcome, along with other submissions.

Manuscript submission information:

We invite submission of original research articles and reviews on the abovementioned and other topics related to “Mainstreaming Sustainable Consumption”. The deadline for submission of full papers is 30 September 2025. All papers will be published as soon as they are accepted.

All manuscripts should be submitted at https://www.editorialmanager.com/spc/.

Please select “VSI: Mainstream Sust Con” during the submission process. For more information about the journal, its scope, and guidelines for authors please visit the Sustainable Production and Consumption website.

For any queries related to the special issue, including the suitability of the paper for the journal, please contact Pippa Wright at pwright [at] icheme [dot] org.

References:

IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA.