Abstract
International policy documents call for the application of life-cycle assessment (LCA) in the development of sustainable patterns of consumption and production. We describe how LCA, in combination with input-output analysis and household consumption data can be used to determine the environmental impact of consumption patterns. We shortly review results from studies focussing on CO2 emissions as environmental indicator. This household environmental impact (HEI) assessment can be used to analyse differences among households according to socioeconomic variables, age, settlement characteristics, and lifestyles. The change of the total environmental impact over time can be attributed to underlying variables such as efficiency gains, changes in consumption levels, structural changes, and changes in the population. This provides an understanding of causal factors influencing the development of HEIs, which can be used in scenario modelling. In addition, we describe how HEI assessment can be used to inform policy implementation, both through ex-ante analysis of the possible effect of an intended measure and through the ex-post evaluation of implemented policy measures.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
United Nations General Assembly, 2002, World Summit on Sustainable Development: Plan of Implementation, UN Division for Sustainable Development: Johannesburg.
Hertwich, E.G., 2005, Lifecycle Approaches to Sustainable Consumption: A Critical Review, Environmental Science & Technology 39/13:4673–4684.
Bullard III, C.W. and R.A. Herendeen, 1975, Energy Impact of Consumption Decisions, Proceedings of the IEEE 63:484–493.
Herendeen, R.A. and J. Tanaka, 1976, Energy Cost of Living, Energy 1:165–178.
Rønning, A., K. Magnussen, and I.S. Modahl, 1999, A life over 365 days: CO2 balance and human life-cycle, OR 04.99, østfold Research: Fredrikstad, Norway.
Frischknecht, R., N. Jungbluth, and M. Nauser, 2002, Embodied greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland: A case study for the trade with products from the energy and food sector, ESU Services: Ulster, Switzerland. p. 21.
Pachauri, S., 2004, An analysis of cross-sectional variations in total household energy requirements in India using micro survey data, Energy Policy 32/15:1723–1735.
Wier, M., M. Lenzen, J. Munksgaard, and S. Smed, 2001, Effects of household consumption patterns on CO2 requirements, Economic Systems Research 13/3:259–274.
Vringer, K. and K. Blok, 1995, The direct and indirect energy requirements of households in the Netherlands, Energy Policy 23/10:893–910.
Norland, I.T., E. Holden, and W.M. Lafferty, 2005, Consumption of Energy and Transport in Urban Households: The role of urban planning vs. 'green consumerism' in promoting sustainable consumption, pp.139–160 in Sustainable consumption: The contribution of Research, Oslo.
Brower, M. and W. Leon, 1999, The consumer's guide to effective environmental choices. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Fukushima, Y. and M. Hirao, 2004. “EcoLife” as a Navigator for Consumers. pp. 113120 in Proceedings, The Third International Workshop on Sustainable Consumption. Tokyo, Society for Non-Traditional Technology.
Peters, G.P. and E.G. Hertwich, 2006, The importance of import for household environmental impacts, Journal of Industrial Ecology 10/2.
Schor, J.B., 2005, Prices and quantities: Unsustainable consumption and the global economy, Ecological Economics 55/3:309–320.
Munksgaard, J., K.A. Pedersen, and M. Wier, 2000, Impact of household consumption on CO2 emissions, Energy Economics 22/4:423–440.
Schipper, L., F. Unander, S. Murtishaw, and M. Ting, 2001, Indicators of energy use and carbon emissions: Explaining the energy economy link, Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 26:49–81.
Unander, F., I. Ettestol, M. Ting, and L. Schipper, 2004, Residential energy use: an international perspective on long-term trends in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Energy Policy 32/12:1395–1404.
Weber, C. and A. Perrels, 2000, Modelling lifestyle effects on energy demand and related emissions, Energy Policy 28/8:549–566.
Rood, G.A., J.P.M. Ros, E. Drissen, and K. Vringer, 2003, A structure of models for future projections of environmental pressure due to consumption, Journal of Cleaner Production 11/5:491–498.
Duchin, F., 2005, The sustainable consumption of food: A framework for analyzing scenarios about changes in diets, Journal of Industrial Ecology 9/1–2:99–114.
Takase, K., Y. Kondo, and A. Washizu, 2005, An analysis of sustainable consumption by the waste input-output model, Journal of Industrial Ecology 9/1–2:201–220.
Hertwich, E.G., 2005, Consumption & the Rebound Effect: An Industrial Ecology Perspective, Journal of Industrial Ecology 9/1–2:85–98.
Fritsche, U.R., 2002, Nachhaltige Stadtteile - die Rolle des Warenkorbs der Konsumenten, in Nachhaltiger Konsum: Auf dem Weg zur gesellschaftlichen Verankerung, G. Scherhorn and C. Weber, Editors. Ökonom Verlag: Munich. 335–342.
Brohmann, R., U. Fritsche, S. Hartard, M. Schmied, C. Schmitt, C. Schoenfelder, N. Schuett, et al., 2002, Sustainable Districts on Urban Areas: Material Flow Analyses as an Instrument for Evaluation - End Report (German), Oeko-Institut.
Briceno, T., G. Peters, C. Solli, and E.G. Hertwich, 2005, Using life cycle approaches to evaluate sustainable consumption programs: Car-sharing, IndEcol Working Paper 2005/1, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Industrial Ecology Program: Trondheim.
Hertwich, E.G. and M. Ornetzeder, 2005. The Environmental Benefit of Car-free Housing: A Case in Vienna. pp. 161–170 in Proceedings, Sustainable Consumption: The Contribution of Research. Oslo.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hertwich, E., Peters, G. (2006). Feasibility and scope of life cycle approaches to sustainable consumption. In: Brissaud, D., Tichkiewitch, S., Zwolinski, P. (eds) Innovation in Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Development. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4617-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4617-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4601-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4617-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)