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 becomes even more challenging when living sustainably involves interwoven practices that are deeply embedded and interconnected. We focus on one such system of sustainable practices and explore consumers’ journey toward Zero Waste lifestyle—a system of practices that is not yet institutionalized. Using a qualitative multimethod approach 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 associated practices. Our analysis reveals a set of adaptive capabilities that enable carriers of these practices to gradually develop and stabilize the interwoven system that scaffolds the Zero Waste lifestyle. The gradual institutionalization of this system of practices requires a mutualization of capabilities among carriers who share a common meta-meaning. By examining the maintenance of sustainable practices through a practice-theoretical lens, this research offers new ways to encourage and promote the transition toward more sustainable lifestyles.