Consumption, domestic life and sustainability in Brazil

•Sustainability discourses and practices often contradict each other.•Sustainability awareness is growing but is class- and age-differentiated.•Everyday domestic unsustainable consumption highlights difficult to change habits.•Hygiene, cleaning, cooking, and electricity usage habits are deeply unsustainable.•More research is needed on domestic impediments to a culture of sustainability.

Much of the research on environmental awareness and sustainability targets the impact of production on the environment and the need for more sustainable production practices. However, a disproportionate amount of all environmental impact comes today from consumption and everyday life, particularly in how purchased products are put to use by concrete individuals in their daily lives. Such daily practices, moreover, are always deeply embedded in historical, cultural, and social specificities. Thus, we suggest, alongside other scholars, that sustainability studies should also consider routinized domestic practices. In this article, we do so by examining some everyday habits linked to eating, personal hygiene, and cleaning in Brazil, as well as discourses that are currently developing around sustainability in this country. We contrast the two and show that, oftentimes, individuals' awareness about sustainability is at odds with their own consumption practices. Based on qualitative and quantitative research, we investigate (1) routinized, potentially environmentally-unsustainable practices of washing, cleaning, and eating in Brazil, and (2) Brazilian consumers' perceptions about sustainability, ultimately suggesting that both perceptions and practices are indicating substantial impediments to a more sustainable way of life. These varied data and analyses are intended as a first step towards future studies on whether and how it might be possible “re-socialize” Brazilian consumers towards domestic sustainability, thus leading to the emergence of more sustainable homes.