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defined by materialist values, who have been shown to be more predisposed to
demonstrate and practice environmentally sensitive behavior (Woodrum and Wolkomir
1997
). These actions seem to have less to do with a value commitment and more to
do with the need to be frugal, a stance emanating from both their materialist values
and their relatively low incomes.
In this context, the concept of environmentalism is different from environmental
behavior. The former is an attitude toward the environment, whereas the latter
represents real actions and behavior that impact the environment. Environmental
behavior includes both environmentally friendly and detrimental activities.
Environmentally friendly behavior is termed sustainable environmental behavior
(Schultz and Zelezny
1998
).
Consumerism, environmentalism, and environmental behavior have implications
in terms of sustainability. Consumerism is a cause of unsustainable development,
whereas environmentalism contributes to sustainable development. In this sense,
postmodern society is faced with the dilemma of these two conflicting cultures'
coexistence. Recently, Merz et al. (
2008
) argued that consumerism is still globalizing,
glocalizing, and localizing. Some scholars (e.g., Dove
2008
) have argued that new
environmentalist concerns emphasize that all social organizations (e.g., govern-
ments, non-governmental organizations, and the mass media) should play a crucial
role in enhancing the culture of environmentalism.
Because both consumerism and environmentalism are attitudes, environmental
behavior is a more significant indicator and determinant of sustainable development
than either of the former two concepts. Environmentally friendly behavior encompasses
actions leading to the protection of the environment through changes in a consumption-
oriented lifestyle (Goodwin et al.
1997
), the ultimate goal being to achieve sustainable
development. Recently, such an environmentally friendly behavior has been termed
consumer non-purchasing ecological behavior
(Tilikidou and Delistavrou
2008
).
These three concepts interact and of their significance for sustainable develop-
ment, including their impact on sustainable development policies (Spaargaren and
Van Vliet
2000
; Lafferty and Meadowcroft
2001
). However, This chapter reports
on a study that empirically analyzed the level, structure, and relationship of these
three concepts - consumerism, environmentalism and environmental behavior - but
ignoring their interaction and their significance in relation to sustainable develop-
ment (Lafferty and Meadowcroft
2001
; Spaargaren and Van Vliet
2000
).
Data Collection and Methodology
Survey
The data were collected by means of a survey of 500 people over the age of
20 among the total population of 550,000 in Jeju. This sample size includes a sam-
pling error of ±5.0% at a significance level of 99%. Interviewees were selected
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