Research explores gap between green thoughts and action in Australia

New research Exploring the Attitudes-Action Gap in Household Resource Consumption surveyed three environmental lifestyle segments representing the spectrum of attitudes, opinions and intentions across the population in Melbourne: “committed” greens, “material” greens and “enviro-sceptics”. Despite a divergence of attitudes, opinions and intentions, few differences were found in relation to each segment’s actual consumption of energy, water, housing space, urban travel and domestic appliances. The persistence of well-ingrained habits and practices among individuals and households and the lack of norms and values in western societies that explicitly promote environmental conservation among its population are fundamentally involved in this attitude-action gap.