Published in

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1(140), p. 011102

DOI: 10.1115/1.4038252

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Exploring the Effects of a Product's Sustainability Triggers on Pro-Environmental Decision-Making

Journal article published in 2017 by Jinjuan She, Erin F. MacDonald
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The gap between consumers saying that they want and selecting sustainable products can be addressed through product design. Our previous research proposed a method for creating visible product features that trigger pro-environmental behavior in consumers, termed sustainability triggers (STs). The study below designed two experiments to mimic real-world decision scenarios and demonstrated that exposure to these STs caused pro-environmental behavior in two test versus control experiments. The experiments used both realistic prototypes and images of toasters. In experiment 1, a qualitative preference-elicitation method demonstrated that exposure to STs increased thoughts of sustainability—related decision criteria. In experiment 2, subjects' prioritization of “hidden” sustainability-related attributes, shipping method and energy usage, was higher if exposed to the STs. This was indicated by choice, information search, importance rating, and eye tracking. Thus, the novel design method to create product STs is demonstrated effective in the test case and has the potential to broadly benefit the success of sustainable products in the market.