The Impacts of Household Consumption and Options for Change

Tukker, Arnold; Cohen, Maurie J.; Hubacek, Klaus; Mont, Oksana

doi:10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00208.x

Cited by 194 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Mobility, housing, and nutrition make up 84% of the average Finn's material footprint (recalculated on the basis of [45,46]). Compared to other studies on the environmental impact of consumption [47][48][49], this is a similar, though even slightly bigger, share of these central consumption components.…”

Section: Present Level Composition and Diversity Of Resource Usementioning

confidence: 69%

Eight Tons of Material Footprint—Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland

2014

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Abstract:The paper suggests a sustainable material footprint of eight tons, per person, in a year as a resource cap target for household consumption in Finland. This means an 80% (factor 5) reduction from the present Finnish average. The material footprint is used as a synonym to the Total Material Requirement (TMR) calculated for products and activities. The paper suggests how to allocate the sustainable material footprint to different consumption components on the basis of earlier household studies, as well as other studies, on the material intensity of products, services, and infrastructures. It analyzes requirements, opportunities, and challenges for future developments in technology and lifestyle, also taking into account that future lifestyles are supposed to show a high degree of diversity. The targets and approaches are discussed for the consumption components of nutrition, housing, household goods, mobility, leisure activities, and other purposes. The paper states that a sustainable level of natural resource use by households is achievable and it can be roughly allocated to different consumption components in order to illustrate the need for a change in lifestyles. While the absolute material footprint of all the consumption components will have to decrease, the relative share of nutrition, the most basic human OPEN ACCESSResources 2014, 3 489 need, in the total material footprint is expected to rise, whereas much smaller shares than at present are proposed for housing and especially mobility. For reducing material resource use to the sustainable level suggested, both social innovations, and technological developments are required.

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Section: Present Level Composition and Diversity Of Resource Usementioning

confidence: 69%

Eight Tons of Material Footprint—Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland

2014

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“…Food is an important element in a sustainable environment (Tukker et al 2010). Reducing "food miles" helps to reduce a city's energy footprint (Lang and Heasman 2004), even though the production methods (Weber and Matthews 2008) and the type of local distribution (Coley et al 2009) also have to be taken into account.…”

Section: Towards Local Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Grand Paris”: regional landscape change to adapt city to climate warming

Masson

Lion²,

Ambenje³

et al. 2012

Climatic Change

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"Grand Paris" is a study carried out by ten teams of researchers and city planners in the aim of putting forward general guidelines for Paris urban area's evolution by 2030. All the teams suggest making the area "greener" in some way, to combat climate warming by CO 2 sequestration. Our team also shows that extending the nearby forests by 30 %, favouring short farm-to-consumer circuits and using lighter coloured building materials will decrease the urban heat island, reducing the mortality during heat waves as well as the need for air-conditioning. These results lead us to reverse the way of thinking urban planning: the geographic and natural aspects should replace the urban infrastructure as a driver for planning urban development. This new strategy allows city changes on quite a large scale, that will have a favourable impact in terms of economics, leisure activities, greenhouse gas emissions and the local microclimate.

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“…New types of media and new devices are continuously being created that can be used to consume media content as well as to communicate with others. More energy-efficient devices and communication networks need to be combined with sufficiency, not with increasing consumer demands [41]. Some new media solutions seem to inherently fulfill this condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Action needs to be taken at different levels of society to achieve this, as "consumption choices are based not only on individual choices but also on existing and available infrastructure and on established social norms" ( [41], p. 21). In order to foster environmental benefits from electronic media based on their dematerialization potential, the overall resource use and emissions throughout the life cycle of media product systems and more importantly at the macro level of total global media production and consumption need to be lowered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dematerialization Through Electronic Media?

Coroamă

Moberg

Hilty

2014

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

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While the traditional roles of the computer as a machine for scientific calculations, text editing, and graphic design are still significant, computers are increasingly perceived as means of accessing information and interacting with other people -i.e., as electronic media. The aim of this chapter is to analyze digital electronic media and their effects on environmental sustainability. Two fields of application are addressed: electronic media that may replace or augment traditional print media such as newspapers or magazines, and videoconferencing as a potential substitute for traveling to a face-to-face meeting or conference. In both cases, the environmental costs of the electronic media are compared to those of their conventional counterparts. The examples show that electronic media can represent an energy-efficient alternative to traditional activities such as long-distance travel. But they can also be added on top of existing activities instead of replacing them. In such cases, a net increase in the environmental impact results. The availability of small, energy-efficient devices being used as electronic media does not guarantee dematerialization. The overall resource use and emissions throughout the life cycle of the media product systems and, more importantly, at the macro level of total global production and consumption need to be considered. To achieve the dematerialization potential of new electronic media solutions, their efficiency needs to be combined with sufficiency; thus additional measures are necessary to turn the dematerialization potential of electronic media into environmental relief. Abstract. While the traditional roles of the computer as a machine for scientific calculations, text editing, and graphic design are still significant, computers are increasingly perceived as means of accessing information and interacting with other people -i.e., as electronic media. The aim of this chapter is to analyze digital electronic media and their effects on environmental sustainability. Two fields of application are addressed: electronic media that may replace or augment traditional print media such as newspapers or magazines, and videoconferencing as a potential substitute for traveling to a face-to-face meeting or conference. In both cases, the environmental costs of the electronic media are compared to those of their conventional counterparts. The examples show that electronic media can represent an energy-efficient alternative to traditional activities such as long-distance travel. But they can also be added on top of existing activities instead of replacing them. In such cases, a net increase in the environmental impact results. The availability of small, energy-efficient devices being used as electronic media does not guarantee dematerialization. The overall resource use and emissions throughout the life cycle of the media product systems and, more importantly, at the macro level of total global production and consumption need to be considered. To achieve the dematerialization potential...

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The Impacts of Household Consumption and Options for Change

Cited by 194 publications

References 89 publications

Eight Tons of Material Footprint—Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland

Eight Tons of Material Footprint—Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland

“Grand Paris”: regional landscape change to adapt city to climate warming

Dematerialization Through Electronic Media?

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