Proposal for a model to analyze commitment to sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability has been pointed out as a solution for current environmental problems. However, this concept is presented in a broad sense, encouraging its use in many different speeches, not always demonstrating commitment to nature or humanity as a whole. In this context, this paper aimed to develop a model that could work as a guide for studies devoted to analyze individual and collective commitment to sustainability. On the elaboration of this work, it was considered that the different environmental paradigms determine how individuals or group of individuals deals with nature and how they position themselves on environmental issues. From the two predominant paradigms, anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, in its individualistic and collectivist approaches, it was proposed a third one, sustainability-centrism, which would overcome the dichotomy humanity/nature prevailing in the first two. The model proposed represents a first effort to characterize and relate the different environmental paradigms, allowing its adoption in empirical studies.