Sustainable development and consumers a perspective from the Netherlands

The Dutch Government intends to place a new emphasis on the role which consumers will have to play in putting the Netherlands onto the path of sustainable development when it publishes a revised version of its national environmental plan later this year. A study commissioned from Environmental Resources Management (ERM) has outlined how lifestyle changes could help to reverse the present unsustainable trends in consumption of goods and services - and suggested how social marketing techniques could be used to persuade consumers to change established behaviour and aspirations without reducing quality of life.¹