Review on Impact Factors for sustainable consumption

Abstract

Sustainable consumption represents a core pathway for addressing global environmental challenges and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This paper systematically analyses four major categories of factors influencing sustainable consumption: Firstly, intrinsic consumer factors: such as environmental awareness, value alignment, and ecological anxiety, which form the psychological foundation for behavioral shifts. These drive consumers towards selecting eco-friendly products, paying price premiums, and developing green identity recognition. Second, product and design factors: eco-design and technological innovation enhance environmental performance and market competitiveness by incorporating sustainable materials (such as renewables and recycled components), thereby lowering barriers to sustainable consumption. Third, market and information factors: brand communication, transparency, and green digital marketing foster consumer trust, reduce the inaccurate information, and promote behavior change to enable consumers to make sustainable choices. Fourth, external environmental fac tors: Macro pressures such as resource scarcity and climate change accelerate consumption transformation, compelling enterprises to refine production processes and implement circular economy practices. Current sustainable consumption still faces challenges including greenwashing and information opacity. It is suggested that enterprises enhance technological innovation and transparency construction. Also, the government improve the policies and market mechanism, and through differentiated communication strategies and cross-departmental cooperation. This can build a sustainable consumption ecosystem to promote the transformation of consumption patterns towards sustainability.