I hope you will appreciate if I share a past research I conducted when I was a PhD candidate (and would love to delve into it adequately), but I didn’t have the time to follow it up properly because I am currently employed in a non-academic job (but I still love making scientific research in the field of economics, and probably I will never stop doing it).
I was initially asked to look for a clear definition of sustainability, and faced enormous difficulties in enclosing it in a single and universally accepted topic. What I understood is that sustainability stems from the need to find solutions against any market failure that hinders the quality of life of the poorest (be it conventional or multidimensional poverty it depends on us). And this leaves us to imagine what we prioritize as urgent problem that needs a solution, be it a social or environmental issue. Therefore I tried to focus on a single aspect. What is challenging to me is to find a widely shared idea of it, and I hope that my empirical article I link here could be used as a hint for a starting point to untangle it in terms of environmental awarenes:
although confined to several case studies (i.e. the choice of eco-friendly goods, waste recycling), it seems to outline a perspective with a cross-country relevance by decades. However there is still room for further discussion on this matter. For example, I personally believe that interest in sustainability-related topics may be positively correlated to pro-environmental behaviors (as I have monitored through the lens of the World Values Survey database).
I leave to you all an invitation to express interest in this regard. Feel free to comment and reply without any hesitation or embarrassment. If anyone may feel comfortable in conducting such a study, I would be glad of it (and please, reply here to me).
Thank you very much in advance!