Nudging and Other Behaviourally Based Policies as Enablers for Environmental Sustainability

Recent years have shown that traditional regulatory techniques alone are not effective in achieving behaviour change in important fields such as environmental sustainability. Governments all over the world have been progressively including behaviourally informed considerations in policy and law making with the aim of improving the acceptance and impact of sustainability-oriented measures. This led to the arrival of alternative regulatory tools, such as nudges. The effectiveness of nudges for environmental sustainability (green nudges) has been widely reported, but the practical and ethical implications are still largely neglected by academic research. In this contribution, nudges are conceptually distinguished from boosts and their ethics are briefly explained. The analysis is made in light of European and US American academic literature.

Automated summary

Traditional regulatory techniques are not effective in achieving behavior change for environmental sustainability. Governments around the world have started incorporating behaviorally informed considerations in policy and law making, leading to the emergence of alternative regulatory tools such as nudges. While the effectiveness of green nudges has been widely reported, their practical and ethical implications have been neglected in academic research.