Swiss Sustainability Lifestyle Typology
The Swiss Sustainability Lifestyle Typology is a detailed description of 6 sustainability-relevant lifestyle types and their prevalence in Switzerland, incl. policy recommendations.
The 6 lifestyle types were identified based on a survey conducted in Switzerland. For this purpose, over 1500 people representative of the Swiss population in terms of age and gender were surveyed. The participants were asked questions about various environmentally relevant behaviours in different domains (housing, mobility, food) and settings (private life, work, etc.), lifestyle preferences and behavioural motivations. Furthermore, information on sociodemographic characteristics and wellbeing was collected to obtain a comprehensive picture of the different lifestyle types.
Statistical methods (cluster analysis) were used to divide the survey participants into groups of people with similar behaviours, lifestyle preferences, and psychosocial behavioural drivers. In total, six lifestyle types were identified.
The Swiss Sustainability Lifestyle Typology provides a comprehensive understanding of environmentally relevant behaviours and preferences of different lifestyle types and serves as a basis for the development of targeted and tailored intervention and communication campaigns.
The lifestyle type descriptions include detailed information (in text form and mean scores) about:
- Different types of behaviour: sufficiency, efficiency, smart living, circular economy, policy support, environmental activism
- Different behavioural domains: housing, mobility, food
- Different behavioural settings: private life, work, leisure, public sphere
- Lifestyle preferences: voluntary simplicity, technological innovativeness, openness for new experiences, hedonism, price consciousness, need for privacy, striving for social status, desire for high standard of living, health consciousness,….
- Psychosocial behavioural drivers: personal norms, social norms, efficacy beliefs, environmental self-identity, social identity
- Values
- Socio-demographics
- Work arrangement
- Wellbeing, satisfaction with life
- Prevalence in the Swiss population
- Illustration and descriptive naming (incl. short name for communication with the public)
→ The publication on this can be found here: Sustainability Lifestyle Typology.
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Example of one of the six lifestyle types
Socially Connected Techie (10%) / Techie Tony
Socially connected techies are open minded with a marked interest in technological solutions, including smart applications at home. They aim to maintain a good work-life balance and are socially well connected. Furthermore, it is important to them how they are perceived by others. Accordingly, they are strongly involved in society and take part in activities for the environment. With regard to sustainable behaviour, however, they are rather unwilling to behave sufficiently, for example, to carefully control the heating and washing temperature. Open to new experiences, they are willing to break new ground. This is reflected in their high and multimodal mobility, characterized by travelling by public transport and bike but also frequent flights, and their car use, driving electric or hybrid cars. It also shows in their trying of alternatives to conventional food, their occasional use of sharing options, and their adoption of home office and co-working practices. However, their satisfaction with life is rather moderately pronounced. Overall, socially connected techies are young, predominantly male, have a small living space, a moderate income and a high education or are still in training.
Sustainability-relevant behaviour of the Socially Connected Techie. a) Different types of sustainable behaviour in different domains, b) Use frequency of different modes of transport. Blue area depicts behaviour of the Socially Connected Techie, red line depicts sample average. Answer scales range from 1-5.
Policy recommendation:
This lifestyle group could be targeted by policy makers through opinion leaders, e.g., through peer group marketing on social media where innovative vegetarian or vegan recipes are showcased or by subsidising combined offers for various environmentally friendly forms of mobility, for example, by including the use of e-scooters in train tickets.
