Making Sustainability Desirable: Experiential Pathways to the Water-Energy Transition

Abstract

Many sustainability initiatives supporting water conservation and energy transition struggle to achieve widespread societal adoption because they are framed primarily through narratives of restriction, scarcity, and responsibility. The transition toward sustainable water and energy systems is therefore not only a technological and policy challenge but also a human-centered socio-technical challenge requiring effective user engagement alongside engineering and infrastructure development. Drawing on experiential consumption theory (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982), Consumer Culture Theory (Arnould & Thompson, 2005), and the cultural construction of risk (Beck, 1992; Douglas & Wildavsky, 1982), this paper develops a conceptual perspective explaining how experiential mechanisms may complement technological and policy interventions by supporting user engagement with sustainability initiatives. The study introduces the concept of experiential pathways to sustainability and proposes a conceptual framework in which experiential engagement is theorized as a mediating mechanism linking sustainability initiatives within the water-energy nexus to the adoption of sustainable behaviors. Rather than replacing existing socio-technical approaches, the framework complements them by highlighting the experiential processes through which engineering solutions and sustainability initiatives can become meaningful and desirable for end users.