Influencing individual sustainability: a review of the evidence on the role of community-based organisations

Academics and policymakers claim that community-based organisations can mobilise citizens to take on more sustainable behaviours. The evidence for the influence of activities run by community-based organisations on individual sustainability is in relatively short supply, particularly in developed country contexts. There is limited understanding of the contextual conditions that are favourable for such interventions, the types of individuals that are likely to be affected and the decision-making processes of individuals in taking on particular behaviours. This paper presents a descriptive model built from current empirical literature in the area, and the wider pro-environmental behaviour literature, which begins to explain the causal factors present in interventions of this type.