Perceived Justice on Sustainable Consumption
V. Rachmadi Parmono
1
and Phong Thanh Nguyen
2
1
Business Administration Department, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
2
Department of Project Management, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Vietnam
Keywords: Sustainable Consumption, Equality, Equity, Resource Scarcity, Moderator.
Abstract: This study aims to analyze the effect of individuals’ perceived justice on sustainable consumption, which is
moderated by the scarcity of resources, and to examine the influence of resource scarcity on the effects of
perceived justice on sustainable consumption. The experimental method was employed. The result of this
study is that perceived justice determines sustainable consumption.
1 INTRODUCTION
Environmental problems and sustainable
consumption are included in justice issues. Rising
consumption is recognized as a source of the
exploitation of environmental resources. Individual
consumption can change the environment in ways
that may harm us or, on the other hand, lead to a better
environment. Some people consume less, but some
others consume more than their sustainable share of
resources. The mitigation of environmental problems
could impose burdens on individuals, from limiting
consumption to increasing financial costs. It is a
justice problem, so the fair distribution of burdens and
benefits is therefpre crucial. Consumption processes
should not distract from individuals’ perceived
justice, and sustainable consumption should realize
environmental justice.
According to Seyfang and Paavola (Seyfang and
Paavola, 2007), there are gaps between sustainable
consumption scholarship and environmental justice
scholarship regarding agency, orientation, and focus.
According to sustainable consumption scholarship,
an individual is an actor that influences the
environmental sustainability. Meanwhile,
environmental justice scholarship sees individuals as
victims of the environment. Sustainable consumption
is a forward-looking orientation that considers how to
make the environment better, whereas environmental
justice stream is a backward-looking orientation that
focuses on the impact of environmental problems on
people.
This paper intends to integrate sustainable
consumption scholarship and environmental justice
scholarship and aims to examine the influence of
individual's justice perception toward sustainable
consumption behavior, as well as the role of resource
scarcity on the relationship between perceived justice
and the willingness to engage in sustainable
consumption.
2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Based on Agenda 21 of the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, the source of global environmental
problems was unsustainable consumption, and the
summit invited a pattern shift of consumption toward
a more sustainable path that would reduce pressure on
the environment without ignoring basic needs.
Despite many definitions of sustainable consumption,
needs fulfillment, life quality improvement, efficient
utilization of resources, waste minimization, lifecycle
perspective application, and attention to the issue of
justice are the agreement (UNEP, 2001). The
realization of environmental justice should not be
ignored.
Environmental Environmental justice is unbiased
treatment and needs the significant involvement of
people from all backgrounds. Environmental justice
refers to the equal distribution of environmental
effects such as pollution, and also the benefits of
those effects. It implies that no group should shoulder
a disproportionate share of negative environmental
impacts. There are two popular modes of norms of
allocation. The first is the equity principle allocation,
which functions to maintain productivity. The
distribution of benefits or harms is based on the input
726
Parmono, V. and Nguyen, P.
Perceived Justice on Sustainable Consumption.
DOI: 10.5220/0008435907260728
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inclusive Business in the Changing World (ICIB 2019), pages 726-728
ISBN: 978-989-758-408-4
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
or cost to people. The second is the equality principle,
according to which distribution of benefits or harms
should be equal. Environmental justice affects an
individual’s willingness to try for sustainable
consumption(Pellow, 2000). Negative experiences do
not drive individuals to engage in sustainable
consumption, but when facing any environmental
injustice, they will do so (Montada and Kals, 2000).
These findings can be a basis to build Hypothesis H1
as described in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Conceptual Model.
H1: Perceived justice influences willingness to
engage in sustainable consumption
Justice has been a critical part of public discourse
in environmental discussions. The justice issue
matters when addressing resource scarcity(Clayton,
2000). The lower the resource availability, the higher
the demand for fair distribution. The decline of
resource availability causes individuals to adapt their
needs to the carrying capacity of the environment and
must consider others’ needs. Scarcity could shape the
perceived justice of resource distribution and
willingness to contribute to the common interest
(Terman, 2007) . Resource scarcity could encourage
the individual's preference for equity justice in
communities that have different backgrounds(Smith,
1990).
On the other hand, communities with similar
backgrounds favor the equality justice principle as a
means to distribute resources (Carson,2000). These
findings can be a basis to build hypotheses:
H2: Resource scarcity moderates the influence of
equality justice on willingness to engage in
sustainable consumption.
H3: Resource scarcity moderates the influence of
equity justice on willingness to conduct
sustainable consumption
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research employed a laboratory experiment
method. The participants of the experiment were
grouped into four: Group of Scarce Equality, Group
of Scarce Equity, Group of Abundant Equality, and
Group of Abundant Equity. The scarcity condition
was symbolized by lower availability of water in
gallons and the abundant condition with the abundant
water.
The environmental problem is classified as one of
public goods. The sustainability of the environment is
determined by the public’s willingness to cooperate
in keeping the environment safe, manifested in
sustainable consumption. The problem might be the
free riders. Social dilemma analysis can be used to
analyze the people's willingness to cooperate or to be
free riders. We employed a one-shot five-player
public goods game. By upholding sustainable
consumption, individuals are prioritizing the common
interest rather than their self-interest. Each participant
decided how they would contribute to a shared public
resource, represented by a gallon of drinking water
from an endowment of Rp.100.000,00. The
researcher informed the participants that any money
they contributed would be doubled and would be
distributed evenly among all members of the groups.
If a participant chose to keep his or her endowment,
while the other four group members contributed their
earnings, they would receive earnings that would
maximize their total earnings. The dependent variable
was the amount of money contributed that represents
the willingness to conduct sustainable consumption.
The perceived justice measures to what extent the
participant perceives the distribution of public
resources. To manipulate participants' understand the
perceived justice as either equality or equity justice,
we alter the wording of the instructions according to
the condition. The public goods were presented with
amounts of drinking water distributed. In the equality
distribution, participants were told that "they could
equally take glasses of water regardless of how much
they contributed." In the other justice principle, the
equity principle, the participants were informed that
"those who contributed more could take more glasses
of water than those contributed less.”
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Using simple regression analysis, the result of this
research shows that H1 is not rejected, meaning that
perceived justice influences sustainable consumption
(B =0,85). The ANOVA revealed that there is an
interaction between perceived justice with resource
scarcity (F=51,67, sig=0,00) indicating that resource
scarcity moderates the perceived justice to
sustainable consumption, as described in Figure 2.
Perceived
Justice
Willingness to do
sustainable
consumption
Resource
Scarcity
Perceived Justice on Sustainable Consumption
727
The significant influence of perceived justice on
sustainable consumption and the positive relationship
between them shown in this research means that the
higher the level of perceived justice, the higher level
of sustainable consumption. Therefore, there is a
possible synergy between environmental justice
scholarship and sustainable consumption scholarship.
It was affirmed that the feeling of justice would drive
people to make the environment better and
convenient. Injustice causes some inconvenience, so
that people usually intend to ignore such situations
4
.
From this research, we also know that the influence
of perceived equality justice on sustainable
consumption occurs more often in a scarcity
environment. Resource scarcity has a positive
relationship with perceived equality justice but a
negative relationship with perceived equity justice
(Hegtvedt, 1987). It means that in a scarcity
environment people tend to prefer harmony and
justify equal outcome (Kazemi, 2006).
Figure 2: The interaction between perceived justice and
resource scarcity.
Returning to the research gaps, the position of
people as the object of an environmental problem can
be empowered as a subject of the environmental
solution. The feeling of injustice can drive people to
shift their behavior to create a new and better
environment.
5 CONCLUSION
We can conclude that perceived justice influences
sustainable consumption, and that scarcity of
resources moderates the relationship between
perceived justice and sustainable consumption. In an
abundant resource situation, the influence of
perceived equality justice on sustainable
consumption is higher than the influence of perceived
equity justice. On the contrary, when resources are
scarce, the influence of perceived equity justice is
higher than that of perceived equality justice. This
research shows that people might be the object of
environmental justice, but they can be the subjects of
sustainable consumption. Environmental injustice
drives people to curb it by engaging in sustainable
consumption. The integration of environmental
justice scholarship and sustainable consumption
scholarship opens up a new perspective in exploring
environmental problems.
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