Introduction: Rapid urbanization and the intensification of environmental challenges such as climate change, natural resource depletion, and air pollution highlight the urgency of transitioning toward sustainable lifestyles. A sustainable lifestyle encompasses individual and collective behaviors and choices that align with responsible resource use, waste reduction, and environmental protection. However, such transitions in urban contexts face multifaceted barriers that extend beyond individual decision-making. These barriers are shaped by cultural values, social structures, institutional support, and infrastructural capacities. Hence, a multidimensional and participatory approach is needed to systematically identify and analyze these obstacles and propose effective interventions.

Materials and Methods: This applied qualitative study combined a literature review with a collective intelligence methodology. Initially, a broad set of barriers was extracted from previous research, spanning awareness, culture, economy, infrastructure, policy-making, and psychological factors. These barriers were then validated, refined, and categorized during a structured collective intelligence workshop involving experts in urban planning, environmental sciences, green technologies, economics, and civil society organizations. The workshop applied brainstorming, nominal group techniques, and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to establish causal relationships among barriers and to prioritize them based on expert consensus. This participatory and systemic approach minimized researcher bias and enhanced the validity of findings.

Results: The analysis identified ten critical barriers to sustainable lifestyles in urban settings. Among them, three emerged as the most influential: (1) lack of scientific and technical education, (2) absence of continuous public awareness programs, and (3) shortage of financial and human resources for program implementation. Mid-level barriers included consumerist cultural values, unawareness of the compatibility of sustainable lifestyles with cultural and religious principles, entrenched consumption habits, and weak social support networks. At the infrastructural level, inadequate facilities for clean transportation and recycling, as well as higher costs of sustainable products and services, were highlighted. The ISM model revealed that knowledge- and resource-related barriers are upstream factors that indirectly reinforce other obstacles, creating cascading effects across cultural and infrastructural domains.

Discussion:The findings underscore the need for multi-level and coordinated interventions to advance sustainable urban lifestyles. The first priority is to invest in educational programs and human and financial capacities, which serve as prerequisites for overcoming cultural resistance, reshaping habits, and strengthening social networks. The second priority is to reform infrastructures and policy frameworks to enable sustainable choices in practice. The results further indicate that short-term subsidies or fragmented policies are insufficient unless they are integrated with knowledge-building, cultural transformation, and institutional support. By combining theoretical insights from environmental psychology, social identity theory, and complex systems approaches with participatory methods such as collective intelligence, this research provides a holistic framework for analyzing barriers and designing effective strategies. The study offers actionable guidance for policymakers, urban managers, and civil society actors seeking to align education, culture, and infrastructure in fostering sustainable lifestyles.

Discussion:The findings underscore the need for multi-level and coordinated interventions to advance sustainable urban lifestyles. The first priority is to invest in educational programs and human and financial capacities, which serve as prerequisites for overcoming cultural resistance, reshaping habits, and strengthening social networks. The second priority is to reform infrastructures and policy frameworks to enable sustainable choices in practice. The results further indicate that short-term subsidies or fragmented policies are insufficient unless they are integrated with knowledge-building, cultural transformation, and institutional support. By combining theoretical insights from environmental psychology, social identity theory, and complex systems approaches with participatory methods such as collective intelligence, this research provides a holistic framework for analyzing barriers and designing effective strategies. The study offers actionable guidance for policymakers, urban managers, and civil society actors seeking to align education, culture, and infrastructure in fostering sustainable lifestyles.