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

Abstract

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.

What Leads to Lunch—How Social Practices Impact (Non-)Sustainable Food Consumption/Eating Habits

“…Furthermore, the field of nutrition has been named as one of the meaningful fields of action for a sustainable future [5,6]. It is responsible for a significant share of the resource consumption of society and results in considerable material footprints [7][8][9][10][11]. Thus, the food sector has to transform towards more sustainable ways: Ultimately, resource consumption for this sector has to be cut by at least 30% [8].…”

Dematerialization—A Disputable Strategy for Resource Conservation Put under Scrutiny

“…This corresponds to the concepts and logic of eco-and resource efficiency or respective productivity [31]. The factor X approach is applied not only to national economies but also to products, services, sectors, industries, and needs [55]. Precursors of the factor X approach can be found in Daly [56] and Ayres [57] whose environmental models also emphasized the necessity of dematerialization, but above all a significant increase in productivity of natural resources.…”

Assessment of Policy Integration of Sustainable Consumption and Production into National Policies

“…Addressing each of these concrete policy sectors is essential for promoting SCP because the consumption and production of goods and services occur in association with these key sectors. According to footprint studies [33,34] and the sustainable consumption literature [35,36], areas such as food, housing, mobility, consumer goods, and leisure are considered key areas causing upstream resource extraction and associated environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle. Regardless of the importance of these sectors in addressing sustainable consumption, urban planning (closely related to mobility), tourism (leisure), building and construction (housing) have only limited integration of SCP objectives.…”