Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12

Kazantsev Nikolai; Ahmet Onur Agca; Orsolya-Anna Mate; Kamran Chatha; Jan Godsell

doi:10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018

Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12

Kazantsev Nikolai
, Ahmet Onur Agca
, Orsolya-Anna Mate
, Kamran Chatha
, Jan Godsell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

10 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the pursuit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) – ‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ - a significant challenge persists: the misalignment between consumer demand for environmentally harmful products and the need for sustainable manufacturing practices. Through seven workshops with consumers, manufacturers, and academics, we explore innovative solutions using systems thinking. Our key finding reveals that calculating individual ecological footprints can catalyse change by triggering guilt in consumers and shame in manufacturers. We propose a three-stage model for policymakers to nudge gradual yet structural changes towards SDG12 by implementing rankings targeting the most polluting supply chains. This research offers theoretical insights into emotion-driven sustainability efforts and practical guidance for industry leaders to align consumer behaviour and manufacturing practices with global sustainability goals.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	95-105
Number of pages	11
Journal	Sustainable Production and Consumption
Volume	57
Early online date	17 May 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018
Publication status	Published - Jul 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

Funding

This work was supported by the UKRI Made Smarter Innovation Challenge and the Economic and Social Research Council via InterAct [Grant Reference ES/W007231/1].

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Keywords

sustainability reporting
Social sustainability
Responsible operations
Green consumer behaviour
Circular economy
System dynamics

Access to Document

10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018Licence: CC BY 4.0

Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12
Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).
Final published version, 3.3 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

@article{ad6a23168d5e451099236637d95b50d9,

title = "Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12",

abstract = "In the pursuit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) – {\textquoteleft}Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns{\textquoteright} - a significant challenge persists: the misalignment between consumer demand for environmentally harmful products and the need for sustainable manufacturing practices. Through seven workshops with consumers, manufacturers, and academics, we explore innovative solutions using systems thinking. Our key finding reveals that calculating individual ecological footprints can catalyse change by triggering guilt in consumers and shame in manufacturers. We propose a three-stage model for policymakers to nudge gradual yet structural changes towards SDG12 by implementing rankings targeting the most polluting supply chains. This research offers theoretical insights into emotion-driven sustainability efforts and practical guidance for industry leaders to align consumer behaviour and manufacturing practices with global sustainability goals.",

keywords = "sustainability reporting, Social sustainability, Responsible operations, Green consumer behaviour, Circular economy, System dynamics",

author = "Kazantsev Nikolai and Agca, \{Ahmet Onur\} and Orsolya-Anna Mate and Kamran Chatha and Jan Godsell",

note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).",

year = "2025",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018",

language = "English",

volume = "57",

pages = "95--105",

journal = "Sustainable Production and Consumption",

issn = "2352-5509",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12

AU - Nikolai, Kazantsev

AU - Agca, Ahmet Onur

AU - Mate, Orsolya-Anna

AU - Chatha, Kamran

AU - Godsell, Jan

N1 - Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

PY - 2025/7

Y1 - 2025/7

N2 - In the pursuit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) – ‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ - a significant challenge persists: the misalignment between consumer demand for environmentally harmful products and the need for sustainable manufacturing practices. Through seven workshops with consumers, manufacturers, and academics, we explore innovative solutions using systems thinking. Our key finding reveals that calculating individual ecological footprints can catalyse change by triggering guilt in consumers and shame in manufacturers. We propose a three-stage model for policymakers to nudge gradual yet structural changes towards SDG12 by implementing rankings targeting the most polluting supply chains. This research offers theoretical insights into emotion-driven sustainability efforts and practical guidance for industry leaders to align consumer behaviour and manufacturing practices with global sustainability goals.

AB - In the pursuit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) – ‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ - a significant challenge persists: the misalignment between consumer demand for environmentally harmful products and the need for sustainable manufacturing practices. Through seven workshops with consumers, manufacturers, and academics, we explore innovative solutions using systems thinking. Our key finding reveals that calculating individual ecological footprints can catalyse change by triggering guilt in consumers and shame in manufacturers. We propose a three-stage model for policymakers to nudge gradual yet structural changes towards SDG12 by implementing rankings targeting the most polluting supply chains. This research offers theoretical insights into emotion-driven sustainability efforts and practical guidance for industry leaders to align consumer behaviour and manufacturing practices with global sustainability goals.

KW - sustainability reporting

KW - Social sustainability

KW - Responsible operations

KW - Green consumer behaviour

KW - Circular economy

KW - System dynamics

UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550925000922?via%3Dihub

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105005844217

U2 - 10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018

DO - 10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.018

M3 - Article

SN - 2352-5509

VL - 57

SP - 95

EP - 105

JO - Sustainable Production and Consumption

JF - Sustainable Production and Consumption

ER -

Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this