ATTRIBUTES OF THE CONSUMPTION PATTERN TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to disentangle the relationship between the terms used in the academic literature to describe the relationship between consumption and sustainability. For this purpose, the exploratory and descriptive methodology was used along with the technical procedure of collecting information known as bibliographic research. The results of the research allowed identifying a hierarchy, with some overlaps, of the various concepts of consumption. The most comprehensive level is represented by the concept of sustainable consumption when identifying consumers aware of the social and environmental consequences of their actions, which require changes in habits and value collective action. In the second level, there are the concepts of conscious, responsible, and ethical consumption. With different degrees, they share the concern of the effects of consumerism on society and the environment. Finally, green and ecological consumption that value individual consumption actions guided by concern with the effects on the environment.