Our Mission

The Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) is a knowledge network of professionals working at the interface of material consumption, human well-being, and technological and cultural change. We aim to foster a transition beyond the currently dominant consumer society.

The network provides a forum for scholars and practitioners striving to understand the drivers of the consumerist economy in affluent technological societies; to formulate and analyze options for post-consumerist lifestyles, social institutions, and economic systems; and to provide the knowledge for emergent grassroots innovations, social movements, and public policies.

Our Partners

The SCORAI network collaborates with several affiliated organizations. It is a founding member of the North American Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption (NARSPAC) and a member of the New Economy Coalition. International partners include SCORAI-Europe and the Global Research Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption (GRF-SPaC). The SCORAI network is actively involved in encouraging and facilitating development of sister organizations in China and other parts of the world and engages with the United Nations Environment Agency (formerly the United Nations Environment Programme) and its constituent programs.

Communication among members of SCORAI occurs primarily via a moderated listserv and a monthly newsletter. If you would like to participate in the ongoing discussion and/or receive announcements about SCORAI activities, please subscribe to the listserv or send a message to info@scorai.org.

Colloquium on Consumption and Social Change got underway on April 16, 2014, with the first presentation in this year-long discussion on consumption and social change. The series seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with social change into sustained and free-flowing interaction that will hopefully generate novel insights, inform policy processes and political activism, and contribute to new research directions.

SCORAI Executive Board

Halina Szejnwald Brown, Clark University
Maurie J. Cohen, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Philip J. Vergragt, Tellus Institute and Clark University                                                                      
John Stutz, Tellus Institute
Jeffrey Barber, Integrative Strategies Forum        

Advisor: Cindy Isenhour, University of Maine