Motivations for Sustainable Living
Market insights that drive sustainable living action.
To mainstream sustainable living, we need to understand what motivates people. A certain percentage are primarily driven by environmental values; for everyone else, sustainable living can be woven into their existing motivations.
Our Motivations Insights help you design services, products, policies, and infrastructure that embed sustainability into what people already want, reaching far beyond the already-converted to support transformative action at scale.
Partners and Collaborators
- Vancity
- Sitra (Finnish Innovation Fund)
- Share Reuse Repair Initiative
- RECYC-QUÉBEC
- Guelph-Wellington (Our Food Future)
- Canadian Centre for Food and Ecology
- The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Project Highlights
A Motivations lens helps us understand how to encourage sustainable choices across people with diverse attitudes and values. People rarely act for environmental reasons alone: they're driven by health, frugality, convenience, social belonging, or local pride.
Our research bears this out. In Quebec, key Motivations include "Healthy Lifestyle and Local Community" and "Comfort and Practicalities." In British Columbia, they include "Waste Not, Want Not" and "Eco-Trends."
Different places, different levers. In-depth interviews and large-scale surveys shape our Motivations work, which helps municipalities, businesses, and community organizations connect with audiences more effectively. The goal: help everyone live more sustainably, in their own way and for their own reasons.
“In Hong Kong, interviews indicate that sustainable living may be driven more by thrift and self-sufficiency than by trends or peer influence.”
Key Takeaways
A Motivations lens reveals diverse drivers behind everyday sustainable actions.
Many people act sustainably without the planet as their primary motive.
Health, wellness, frugality, climate and waste avoidance all drive sustainable behaviours.
Understanding Motivations broadens the audience for sustainable living engagement.
Businesses, cities and others can reach more people with aligned campaigns, services and products.
Designing for Motivations makes sustainable choices easier, more relevant and more appealing.
A Motivations lens reveals diverse drivers behind everyday sustainable actions.
Many people act sustainably without the planet as their primary motive.
Health, wellness, frugality, climate and waste avoidance all drive sustainable behaviours.
Understanding Motivations broadens the audience for sustainable living engagement.
Businesses, cities and others can reach more people with aligned campaigns, services and products.
Designing for Motivations makes sustainable choices easier, more relevant and more appealing.
Engage With Us
Your business, organisation, municipality, or campaign can use our Motivations research to:
- Support audiences to embrace sustainability-aligned offerings more broadly
- Reach new target audiences and markets
- Deepen insights from your existing market research
Motivations research has supported sustainable living action across Canada and in Finland. When 160 businesses in Guelph-Wellington were introduced to this approach, they wove Motivations insights into their business models and expanded their markets. For example, a consumer goods company ramped up social media outreach, and a new downtown store highlighted both the style and thriftiness of second-hand goods, accelerating growth for both.
See more case studies below or download them here.
Insights Studies
In Canada, we’re collaborating with Vancity, the Share Reuse Repair Initiative, RECYC-QUÉBEC, and Guelph-Wellington to explore Motivations insights across diverse regions. Our approach draws on early work with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, where we served as advisors on their latest report. We're now building on this work in Hong Kong with the HK University of Science and Technology, tailoring the framework to local needs.
Insights Study
British Columbia Motivations
People motivated by Healthy Life & Planet make choices for the planet and are equally driven by health considerations: they’re systems thinkers.
Download (pdf)
Insights Study
Guelph-Wellington Motivations
What an opportunity: Eco-Trends (an environmental Motivation) can act as a wayfinder for sustainable norms, and Shop, Style and Social picks up and amplifies those trends.
Download (pdf)
Motivations Study by Sitra
Finnish Motivations
In Finland, one of the 7 segments is Thrifty Optimisers, who show how everyday frugality and careful consumption can lead to sustainable actions even without explicit ecological intent.
Motivations Study by HKU
Hong Kong Motivations
In Hong Kong, interviews indicate that sustainable living may be driven more by thrift and self-sufficiency than by trends or peer influence — a hypothesis the upcoming Motivations survey will explore.
What People Are Saying
Methodology
Our approach combines in-depth interviews with statistically valid surveys. Rather than asking directly about the environment, we talked with people about their daily choices across food, stuff, mobility, home, and community. Cluster analysis then identified distinct motivational segments defined by shared attitudinal patterns.
This builds on work by Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, which identified seven dominant motivations for sustainable living, which was then adapted by OneEarth Living and the Share Reuse Repair Initiative for British Columbia and Quebec. These motivations now help businesses, organisations, and municipalities strengthen engagement and support a more just, green, and resilient economy.
Motivations by Region
Every place has its own motivational landscape. Explore the segments we've identified and put them to work in your context.
7 Motivations for Sustainable Living
7 Motivations of Sustainable Lifestyles in Finland
English (2021), Finnish (2021), English Original (2018)
This Motivations work conducted by Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) in Finland inspired our approach, and we advised on the most recent report.
The Finnish Motivations are:
- Uncompromising eco warrior (16%)
- Wellbeing & nature nurturer (17%)
- Everyday juggler (21%)
- Thrifty planner (14%)
- Headstrong traditionalist (16%)
- Tribal follower (7%)
- Ambitious experience hunter (9%)
Case Studies
Everyone helping to mainstream sustainable living can use the Motivations — from private sector innovators and support programs to cities and nonprofits. Across sectors, organizations are using the Motivations to refine outreach, design services, and align climate action with what matters most to people. Whether you’re shaping a new campaign, building a business case, or rethinking engagement strategies, the Motivations can help you connect more meaningfully and spark lasting change. Here are some examples.
Global Outdoor Products Brand
Identify Growth Opportunities
The motivations framework helped size and illuminate North American growth segments for their circular strategy.
The Ethical Chair, Revivify with Share Reuse Repair Iniative
Clarify Target Market
The Ethical Chair tested ‘eco-good’ vs. ‘social good’ messages (reduce waste to landfill vs. support local repair jobs) via a method called an A/B test to gauge which was most compelling to their audience.
Järki Särki (Sitra case study)
Expand Customer Base
With very few domestic fish options on the market in Finland, a food waste entrepreneur used the motivations to seize new market opportunities for the Järki Särki brand.
OPEN Technologies and Vancity Credit Union
Contextualize Consumer Choices
OPEN Technologies and Vancity Credit Union teamed up to identify the factors that are holding back the shift from natural gas home heating towards clean alternatives, such as electric heat pumps.
Guelph-Wellington Waste Diversion
Improve Sorting and Organic Waste Diversion
Guelph-Wellington Local Government
Insights from the Motivations study led the local Guelph-Wellington government to take a pro-social approach to improve compost sorting and organic waste diversion.
Flavour Harvest
Reach New Customers
The Canadian Centre for Food & Ecology worked together with One Earth living to see how the motivations overlaid with the customer base of a Toronto-based grocery store - the Sweet Potato.
The Guelph Box
Create Buzz for Upcycled Ingridients
Insights from the Motivations study led the Guelph Box to harness pro-social motivations thereby increasing their sales and creating excitement around upcycled ingredients.
OPEN Technologies and Vancity Credit Union
Contextualize Consumer Choices
OPEN Technologies, a software company helping people that shape our cities make pro-climate decisions, and Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, expected that people who own a heat pump would likely do so because they are motivated ‘by the planet.’
A set of questions designed to apply the Motivations was added to a survey of 750 homeowners in Southwest BC. Surprisingly, the survey data showed that people motivated by ‘the planet’ are actually LESS likely to own a heat pump. The 7% of the BC population with a ‘Work Hard, Live Large’ Motivation are more than twice as likely to own a heat pump. These are people motivated by personal comfort and product performance.
This may be explained by the strong correlation between heat pumps and the type of home that ‘Work Hard Live Large’ are more likely to occupy: suburban, single-family detached homes built after 2000. With clarity that structural factors are more important drivers of heat pump adoption than homeowners being motivated ‘by the planet’, OPEN, in their public research report ‘Stuck’ (2022), could confidently call on policymakers to overcome the barriers that stand in the way for homeowners.
Global Outdoor Products Brand
Identify Growth Opportunities
An American manufacturer of outdoor products (ice chests, stainless-steel drinkware and soft coolers) expanding into Canada at the same time the team was developing a circular economy strategy. The motivations framework helped size and illuminate North American growth segments for their circular strategy. A set of questions designed to apply the motivations was added to a survey of Canadian and US customers and potential customers. Survey analysis identified the estimated percentages across the 7 motivations.
Interest in circular programs (such as recommerce and product take back) was measured for each of the segments. The Shop Style & Social segment represents the biggest growth opportunity for the brand (41% of audience in Canada, 37% of the audience in the US) but they are not currently interested in circular programs. The insights and data tell us it’s likely that people with a Shop Style & Social motivation need to see others engaging in circular programs to feel it's ‘the norm’ or the trendy thing to do. While Eco-Trends is a smaller % of the audience, it was recommended that the brand consider first engaging people with an Eco-Trends motivation to participate in its circular programs. They in turn, will influence the larger Shop Style & Social segment.
Flavour Harvest
Reach New Customers
The Canadian Centre for Food and the Environment worked together with OneEarth Living to see how the Motivations overlaid with the customer base of a Toronto-based grocery store chain - The Sweet Potato is one of the largest suppliers of local, organic food in Ontario.
They wanted to reach people beyond their existing core customers, helping change what they eat and how they shop. We applied the segmentation to the Sweet Potato customer base and 35% had the Eco-Trends motivation (almost double the general population). The Eco-Trends segment, is motivated to reduce their environmental impact, to be a good example to others in their shopping choices (i.e., through social media sharing) and to ‘buy local.’ However people with this motivation need to be engaged with simple & positive messages.
They focused in on mothers with an Eco-trends motivation, and encourage the uptake of organic carrots through an engaging campaign which included in-store tastings and a charismatic bunny. A free, two day event at The Sweet Potato store was designed to do the heavy lifting of delighting and educating parents and children together.
The Ethical Chair, Revivify with Share Reuse Repair Initiative
Clarify Target Market
The Ethical Chair is a concept-stage program of Revivify that sells reclaimed and upcycled pre-owned furniture. Their mission is to reduce furniture going to landfill while creating jobs for refugees. The Ethical Chair team tested ‘eco-good’ vs. ‘social good’ messages (reduce waste to landfill vs. support local repair jobs) via a method called an A/B test to gauge which was most compelling to their audience. They tested the two messages on Instagram, measuring the number of “likes” and “follows”.
When the Ethical Chair team originally considered the 7 motivations they weren’t sure if their target market would be Eco-Trends or Waste Not, Want Not. By doing the A/B test, they learned and gained confidence that their target is those with an Eco-Trends motivation. The test saw strong “likes” for both social good and eco-good (57% vs. 43%) and both are core values and attributes of the Ethical Chair brand. These findings also reinforced the importance of messaging about both eco good and social good in branded content.
Järki Särki (Sitra case study)
Expand Customer Base
With very few domestic fish options on the market in Finland, a food waste entrepreneur used the motivations to seize new market opportunities for the Jarki Sarki brand. Järki Särki brand is a Finnish fish delicacy made of what’s called ‘roach’ fish, an invasive species that degrades the water quality of lakes. Normally, it would be wasted.
Järki Särki team was part of The Sitra Smart Everyday Development Program which taught Finnish entrepreneurs how to apply Sitra’s segmentation to their sustainable business idea. They were first asked to compare the motivations to their customers. Then they were asked to identify their potential customers as well as the reasons they would be interested in the product. Through the lens of the motivations, the team understood that Finns are motivated to buy Järki Särki for different reasons:
- Preference for domestically produced products
- To reduce food waste
- Shifting their diet from red meat to more sustainable alternatives
And that their early adopters likely represented only 9% of Finns. With some product design and messaging changes, the brand could reach two more motivations (53% of Finns). With the motivations insight informing the brand story, the team was able to expand distribution to thousands of stores in Finland. In the first year of the re-brand, sales grew +50%. In the second year, +30%.
Guelph-Wellington Waste Diversion
Improve Sorting and Organic Waste Diversion
Guelph-Wellington Local Government
Based on the insight from the Motivations study that Shop, Style & Social is the main motivation in Guelph-Wellington, the local government adopted a pro-social approach approach which greatly improved sorting and organic waste diversion. They placed gold stars on the compost bins of residents with exemplary food scrap sorting practices, to signal to neighbours who has a “clean bin.” and paired this with a social media campaign and a celebratory community dinner.
The Guelph Box
Clarify Create Buzz for Upcycled Ingridients
The Guelph Box project harnessed pro-social motivations by offering an innovative “upcycled food box” during the holidays, packed with locally sourced ingredients that might otherwise have been tossed. A shareable social media campaign resonated with consumers and led to nearly 100 boxes sold, prompting an additional run in March.
the number of “likes” and “follows”.
Your Next Steps
In Canada? You’ll find:
- Summary Table of the Motivations – Use our research across different geographies to identify the top Motivations of your target audience, whether it’s reducing waste, staying healthy, caring for the planet or something else (7 Motivations for BC, 7 Motivations for Guelph-Wellington, 6 Motivations for Quebec).
- Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Activation Toolkit – Learn how to put the Motivations to use in your organization or business, with actions in five key areas: eating, stuff, moving around, home and general sustainable living. Identify which Motivations to target and how to align your campaign, product or service to specific characteristics.
- Resources to host a virtual or in-person workshop or give a presentation – We can provide your team with a slide deck in English or French, handouts, AI prompts and a workshop agenda. There are also quotes and audio clips of different Motivations, bringing them to life. We also offer tailored speaking engagements and workshop facilitation. Email us!
- Support for “sizing” the segments to your target audience – We can work with you to add Motivations segmentation to an upcoming survey you’re doing so you can identify the share of, say, “Eco-Trends” in your customer base or across residents.
Outside Canada?
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Conduct Motivations research in your region: We’re happy to talk about supporting your adaptation in another country or region, as we’re doing in Hong Kong.
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Reach out to learn more: info@oneearthliving.org.
Project Team
Dagmar Timmer
Managing Director - Strategic Initiatives
Majid Khoury
Advertising and Brand Strategist
Alka Tandan
Research and Service Design Strategist
Lisa Mastny
Communications Strategist
Edna Catumbela
Communications and Information Design
With Our Sponsors:
Co-Sponsors of the BC Motivations:
Acknowledgements
With thanks to our project teams:
With gratitude to those working with, sponsoring and adapting the Motivations:
BC Motivations
Cora Hallsworth, Manager, Municipal Programs
Quebec Motivations
Project Team Member, Position / Title
Project Team Member, Position / Title
Project Team Member, Position / Title
Guelph-Wellington Motivations
Project Team Member, Position / Title
Project Team Member, Position / Title
With gratitude to those working with, sponsoring and adapting the Motivations:
Vancity
Kira Gerwing, Position / Title
Krista Loewen, Position / Title
Michelle Bonner, Position / Title
Sitra
Markus Terho, Position / Title
Sari Laine, Position / Title
Our approach builds on motivations research in Finland by Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund.
CCFE
Lindsey Boyle, Position / Title
Alan Levine, Position / Title
…and the team at The Sweet Potato.
Modo
Serena, Position / Title
With Our Sponsors:
Co-Sponsors of the BC Motivations: