The current and future challenges of sustainable development require a massive transformation of habits and behaviors in the whole society at many levels. This demands a change of perspectives, priorities, and practices that can only result from the development of more aware, informed, and instructed communities and individuals. The field of design for sustainable behavior is answering this need through the development of products, systems, and services to support the change of people’s habits and decision-making processes. In this regard, Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool: it has already been explored to drive sustainable behavior change in several situations, through a wide range of devices, technologies, and modalities. This variety provides uncountable opportunities to designers, but it comes with a series of ethical, psychological, and technical questions. Hence, VR developers should be able to distinguish and identify possible strategies, delivering suitable solutions for each case study. In this work, we present a framework for the development of VR experiences to support sustainable behavior change, based on a systematic review. We consider the various features to manage and possible alternatives when creating a VR experience, linking them to the behavioral aspects that can be addressed according to the project’s aim. The framework will provide designers with a tool to explore and orient themselves towards possible sets of optimal choices generating tailored solutions.

The massive presence of plastic in the oceans, both in the form of large debris and micro-plastic, is raising global concern due to its severe effects on the marine environment and fauna, causing loss of biodiversity and potentially threatening human health. Even though this is due to poor waste management, the great production and consumption of single-use plastic is a significant exacerbating factor. Despite policies and bans can be effective measures, there is also the need to raise consumers’ awareness, so they can make more sustainable choices when purchasing, using, and dismissing products. In particular, educating young citizens and encouraging them to engage in pro-environmental behaviors is a fundamental task to reach this goal. In this work, we present Contact from the future, a digital game on plastic pollution for children, to create awareness and stimulate pro-environmental behaviors, discussing the definition of objectives and requirements, as well as the design and development of the application.