Material Footprint of Low-income Households in Finland – is it Sustainable?

Lettenmeier, Michael; Aalto, Kristiina; Laakso, Senja; Hirvilammi, Tuuli; Lähteenoja, Satu

doi:10.3390/wsf-00729

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Such a concept of dematerialization argues that current environmental problems (such as climate change and biodiversity loss) are closely related to the volume of material and energy used in the production of goods and services; if the input decreases, the overall environmental impact will decrease as well. The calculations call for absolute reductions of material flows by a factor of four (Weizsäcker et al, 1998) or a factor of ten (Schmidt-Bleek, 2008), depending on which materials are considered (Lettenmeier, 2018).…”

Section: The Limits Of Decoupling and The Need For Dematerializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Environment in Global Sustainability Governance

2023

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after conducting research on the relation between climate science and politics at Harvard University's program on science, technology and society. His research interests include environmental governance, power relations and the politicization of climate change. Jens is the author of How Power Shapes Energy Transitions in Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2017) and coeditor of Governing Climate Change in Southeast Asia (Taylor & Francis, 2021), and has published articles about non-state climate action, populism and the imagination.

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Section: The Limits Of Decoupling and The Need For Dematerializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Environment in Global Sustainability Governance

2023

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“…Further, material inputs per service unit as material intensity factors (Hinterberger and Schmidt-Bleek 1999) in combination with questionnaires and consumption monitoring was used to calculate TMR for an average Finnish household (Kotakorpi et al 2008) of approximately 40 t/cap, and 18 low-income Finnish households (Lettenmeier et al 2012) ranging from 7 to 35 t/cap. In both cases, housing, mobility, and nutrition were the most important categories, although share of nutrition was higher in the latter.…”

Section: The Materials Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a general agreement in considering the rise of income level as an important factor for HEI for energy requirements (Herendeen 1978;Reinders et al 2003;Moll et al 2005;Lenzen et al 2006), material requirements (Kotakorpi et al 2008;Lettenmeier et al 2012), and emissions (Hertwich and Peters 2009). Some researchers consider expenditure as a better predictor than income given that it is more related to the actual household consumption (Wier et al 2001).…”

Section: Income or Expenditurementioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolism and Environmental Impacts of Household Consumption: A Review on the Assessment, Methodology, and Drivers

Donato¹,

Lomas²,

Carpintero³

2015

J of Industrial Ecology

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SummaryThe focus when analyzing the environmental requirements and impacts of the economic system is usually placed on production activities. But all production is associated with final consumption, and recently many studies have also been dedicated to final consumption. This article comprehensively reviews the biophysical assessment of households from the point of view of materials and energy required and emissions and wastes resulting from household consumption patterns. Although the aggregation bias and methodological variability make comparisons difficult, some patterns can be recognized. Results show that for many Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and a few developing countries, household metabolism has been mainly assessed from the energetic perspective, stressing household responsibility for emissions of greenhouse effect gases and climate change. Few studies deal with other emissions and wastes. There is a lack of information about material requirements, too. Environmental input-output (I-O) analysis and life cycle assessment are the methods usually employed, together with the use of economic, environmental, and expenditure information. Information about direct inputs and outputs is complemented with data on the environmental requirements associated with the consumption of goods and services. Multiregional I-O techniques have been used to capture upstream requirements in an attempt to avoid errors owing to truncation and domestic technology assumptions. Housing, food, and mobility are the most important consumption categories, but the shares of these categories in the requirements are different according to environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic factors. Finally, challenges for further research are discussed based on the need for new methodological developments, as well as the potential of the metabolic narrative to elaborate information relevant to sustainable consumption policies.

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Material Footprint of Low-income Households in Finland – is it Sustainable?

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

The Environment in Global Sustainability Governance

The Environment in Global Sustainability Governance

Metabolism and Environmental Impacts of Household Consumption: A Review on the Assessment, Methodology, and Drivers

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