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The purpose of this paper is to investigate attitude of Indian consumers towards sustainable living. For the same, the construct of sustainable living is defined and its dimensions are explored. Then, consumers are segmented based on dimensions and profiles of identified segments are discussed upon.

A questionnaire was developed and introduced on a sample of one thousand consumers from three geographical areas of North India including Haryana (A Northern State), Delhi (National Capital Territory), and Chandigarh (Northern Union Territory). For analysis, principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, cluster analysis, correlation, and chi-square were the statistical techniques applied.

Seven types of people attitude including attitude towards conserving ecology, anticipating mounting waste, need for recycling, civic norms, overcoming green myopia, environmental thinking, and norms for sustainable mobility were obtained. Based on cluster analysis, five consumer segments, namely, role models, upbeaters, rosy, bewilders, and disorients were observed. It is further found that major proportion of Indian consumers fall under the category role models with highest proportion of respondents in this segment.

The determinants of attitude and testing the theories of attitude formation can be an interesting area to study on Indian consumers. This kind of studies too can be replicated in other cultures and varied contexts. A unique point of further research emerges with the finding of variable gender. Hence, gender differences regarding sustainability or sustainable living can be investigated and reasons can be found out for gender gap.

In light of the findings, this research offers a unique 3 Ss stop → stare → speedup strategy to national as well as international marketers. The stop strategy is for bewilders and disorients segments. Stare strategy is for consumers of upbeaters and rosy segments, and the word speedup stands for role models. Accordingly, marketers need a comprehension on profile of role models as identified in the study in terms of aged males, highly educated married people who live in joint families.

Consumers as part of society can play a big role for enhancing green practices, thus, need to take initiatives and revolutionary actions regarding protection of environment. If consumers will be more willing to help solve environmental problems, then there will be less need for government interventions.

Attitude towards sustainable living in India has been explored; and to the best of researchers’ knowledge, the kinds of findings on Indian consumers are reported for the first time in literature. The information generated may have beneficial practical information for the businesses which see India as their potential target market. This study also uniquely identifies three components of sustainable living in the form of civic norms, environmental thinking, and norms for sustainable mobility.

To create a sustainable environment, the aim of this study is to explore and identify the components of environmental attitude that can drive the specific ecological behaviour of Indian consumers. Further, it defines environmental attitude components as moderators and investigates them as predictor of ecological behaviour.

The constructs of environmental attitude (EA) and ecological behaviour (EB) are measured using standardized scales with modifications that represent demography of Indian consumers, then, introduced among 300 respondents. Factor analysis, correlations of the factors, and regression analysis are used to draw the results.

Constructs of EA and EB are found to be multidimensional and support the literature. Many of their components are found to be significantly correlated inferring that consumers behave ecologically in specific manners depending on the formed attitude. Also, findings suggest that EA components work as predictors of EB. Further, developing a positive environmental attitude is a step to achieve sustainable environment.

An attempt is made to improve scales to best suit Indian conditions but development of a reliable and valid measure never ends. This may partly limit the generality of the results. To study fresh issues on Indian conditions, a new scale index can be tested. Researcher, producers, media, policy planners and executives will get a cue to generate relevant value of their work.

The paper is a maiden attempt on Indian consumers and has enough potential to change the behaviour for achieving sustainable living. It will strengthen the literature in extrapolating the consumer classes besides identifying two new components of EB: costly exercise and uncaring behaviour.