Abstract
Life-course transitions are often identified as good points for interventions to encourage pro-environmental behaviour. This chapter critically evaluates this through a longitudinal qualitative study of everyday consumption during the transitions to motherhood and retirement. We understand sustainable consumption as having social, economic and environmental elements, highlighting aspects of relational, social, economic, cultural and infrastructural context which shape how it is understood, facilitated or hindered. Our longitudinal analysis highlights that rather than being 'moments of change', life course transitions involve ongoing change with everyday practices shifting over time in response to fluidity in identity, temporality and finances. In conclusion, rather than promoting interventions for individual behaviour change at points of transition, we prioritise the identification and facilitation of infrastructures, policies and services which are both environmentally sustainable and support everyday quality of life at distinct life-course stages.