Moving beyond unlearning unsustainable consumption

The notion of sustainable consumption has mainly been taken up in the educational community as a challenge to unlearn unsustainability and reverse (or at least mitigate) the hazardous consequences of consum
erist lifestyles. This conceptual paper criticizes this response for its inherent negative framing of consumption that is also reflected in teaching resources and practical materials, as this bears the danger of patronizing students and causing discourage and apathy rather than opportunities to acquire competences for sustainable consumption practices. It proposes that ad-
vancements towards a more positively oriented consumer education for sustainable development (CESD) are needed and suggests to employ a salutogenetic approach that has informed a change in thinking and practice in health education away from focussing on what causes disease pathogenesis)
towards exploring what contributes to health and well-being (salutogenesis)
. The argument of this paper is that in a salutogenetic approach CESD should have its emphasis on substantiating the conceptually underdeveloped relation between human needs, different types of satisfiers and their contribution to achieving a good life for oneself as well as others today
and in the future. The paper merges these strands and provides a starting point for further discussion on consumer educational approaches that enable tudents to think positively beyond consumption.