Sustainable coffee and consumer behaviour change
Date
2021
Authors
Bowie, Matthew Jared
Editors
Advisors
Cassey, Phill
Dietrich, Timo
Koh, Lian Pin
Dietrich, Timo
Koh, Lian Pin
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Thesis
Citation
Statement of Responsibility
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Abstract
Reversing biodiversity loss is one of the most significant challenges for our global community. Our individual and collective behaviours are the primary drivers of biodiversity loss, either through direct cause-and-effect or indirectly through complex causal links. By altering behaviours that impact nature negatively, we can achieve positive change that benefits biodiversity, propels sustainable development, and produces a healthier, more equitable world. Conservation researchers and practitioners are increasingly implementing behaviour change interventions to address threats facing biodiversity. Such interventions require substantial market research to ensure their effectiveness or risk failure, wasted resources, or unintended consequences. Therefore, conservation behaviour change needs to draw on learnings from other fields while developing methods specific to biodiversity applications. My thesis builds on the growing interdisciplinary behaviour change literature and showcases contributions to the specific case of consumer behaviour change for sustainable coffee. Specifically, I highlight: (i) the current state of sustainable coffee certification policies featuring a novel evaluation of how eleven prominent standards address critical threats to biodiversity from coffee agriculture, with discussion on opportunities to improve these policies through upstream social marketing; (ii) apply a machine learning algorithm to select variables showing the highest correlation with stated willingness to purchase environmentally friendly coffee from 1142 coffee consumers that participated in an online questionnaire, with discussion on how these insights could inform the design of a targeted behaviour change intervention to increase consumer demand for environmentally friendly coffee; and (iii) present the application of a seven-step co-design process, which showcases the value of user-centred design approaches to behaviour change interventions for biodiversity conservation, making important contributions towards the translation of consumer ideas into concrete prototypes. Together, my research contributes to advancing conservation behaviour change, emphasising reproducible methods for designing interventions to support sustainable development that benefits biodiversity and people.
School/Discipline
School of Biological Sciences
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Biological Sciences, 2022
Provenance
This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals