| Title |
Environmentally sustainable household consumption: from aggregate environmental pressures to priority fields of action |
| ID_Doc |
79405 |
| Authors |
Spangenberg, JH; Lorek, S |
| Title |
Environmentally sustainable household consumption: from aggregate environmental pressures to priority fields of action |
| Year |
2002 |
| Published |
Ecological Economics, 43.0, 2-3 |
| DOI |
10.1016/S0921-8009(02)00212-4 |
| Abstract |
Unsustainable consumption patterns of the North (or rather of the global affluent consumers class) have been identified by Agenda 21 as one of the key driving forces behind the unsustainable development. However, neither accounting based on the system of national accounts SNA nor household economics provide the proper instruments to assess the environmental impact of household decision making. Eco-efficiency assessments as familiar in the business sector provide no appropriate tool for households. As an alternative an environmental space based assessment scheme is suggested covering the major pressures on the environment caused by household decisions. The methodology is used twice: once to analyse the environmental relevance of the main activity clusters of household consumption and once to identify the dominant acts of consumption within each cluster. The latter provide the basis for deriving environmental performance indicators. A rough analysis of household influence potentials permits to identify housing, eating and mobility as the three priority fields for action for minimising the environmental impact of households. Extending the influence analysis actor matrixes are derived allocating influence and thus responsibility for environmental pressures to different groups of economic agents. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. |
| Author Keywords |
sustainable consumption; consumption clusters; environmental space; indicators; land use; material flows |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000179932600002 |
| WoS Category |
Ecology; Economics; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Studies |
| Research Area |
Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Business & Economics |
| PDF |
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