How to Sustain Sustainable Practices? The Journey Toward Zero Waste Lifestyle

Abstract Sustaining sustainable practices in a market whose infrastructure continues to prioritize unsustainable options is not easy. It is even more difficult when living sustainably involves interwoven practices that are embedded and connected together. We focus on one such system of sustainable practices and explore consumers’ journey toward Zero Waste lifestyle, a system of practices not yet institutionalized. Using a qualitative multimethod study and a practice theoretical lens, this research uncovers the iterative process through which this system of practices develops around the Zero Waste meta-meaning, a driving force common to all practices. Our analyses reveal a set of adaptive capabilities that allow carriers of practices to gradually grow and stabilize the system of interwoven practices that scaffold the Zero Waste lifestyle. The institutionalization of the system of practices requires a mutualization of capabilities amongst carriers who hold a common meta-meaning. This mutually reinforcing process and reciprocity enables the gradual institutionalization of the system of practices. By approaching the maintenance of sustainable practices with a practice theoretical lens, this research offers new ways to encourage and promote the transition toward more sustainable lifestyles.