Changing consumer demands, forthcoming legislation and an increase in pressure from stakeholders
has encouraged companies to integrate sustainability principles into their business and marketing
strategies (Sarkis, Gonzalez-Torre & Adenso-Diaz 2010). As a result, many improvements have been
achieved with respect to sustainable consumption and production. However, there still remains the
need to address the social and environmental impacts associated with the purchasing, use and end of
life of products and services (Mont, Bleischwitz 2007).
This paper presents preliminary findings from doctoral research aiming to build a model supported by
user-centred design (UCD) that can guide companies to influence sustainable consumption (SC). The
paper will first describe the role of industry in influencing SC and argue that to motivate consumers to
purchase, use and dispose of products more sustainably; decisions must be made at a strategic level
so that actions towards SC are incorporated throughout the business, not just within product design
and marketing. The authors will explain how the research drew on the principles of user-centred
design (UCD), but developed a more holistic perspective to create a self-assessment and
implementation model that can increase opportunities for companies to leverage SC at a strategic
level. The findings of empirical research, which formed the framework theory and led to the
development of the BCDS model, will be discussed. Then the BCDS model and accompanying
Sustainable Consumption Index (SCI), which measures the levels of SC that a company can achieve
through selecting and implementing different consumer-focused strategies devised from this doctoral
research, will be introduced. Finally, the paper will conclude with an outline of future work to be
conducted.
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