Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint

Weber, Christopher L.; Matthews, H. Scott

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.09.021

Cited by 439 publications

(345 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The growing field of sustainable consumption (1)(2)(3) has offered information to consumers on the climate and environmental impacts of their consumptive choices. In general, much of this research has concluded that food, home energy, and transportation together form a large share of most consumers' personal impacts (2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

Weber¹,

Matthews²

2008

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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841

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Despite significant recent public concern and media attention to the environmental impacts of food, few studies in the United States have systematically compared the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with food production against long-distance distribution, aka "food-miles." We find that although food is transported long distances in general (1640 km delivery and 6760 km life-cycle supply chain on average) the GHG emissions associated with food are dominated by the production phase, contributing 83% of the average U.S. household's 8.1 t CO 2 e/yr footprint for food consumption. Transportation as a whole represents only 11% of life-cycle GHG emissions, and final delivery from producer to retail contributes only 4%. Different food groups exhibit a large range in GHG-intensity; on average, red meat is around 150% more GHGintensive than chicken or fish. Thus, we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than "buying local." Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

Weber¹,

Matthews²

2008

Environ. Sci. Technol.

Self Cite

841

548

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show abstract

“…We employ the EASI demand 2 Utilising between-country heterogeneity, studies find affluence, measured as income or final demand, to be the principle driver of material footprints (Wiedmann et al, 2015;Pothen, 2017;Pothen and Welsch, 2017) 3 The energy footprint of households, also known as energy requirements, has been estimated since the 1970s (Herendeen and Tanaka, 1976;Herendeen, 1978). Other studies on energy and carbon footprints of households include Wier et al (2001) for Denmark, Weber and Matthews (2008) for the USA, Druckman and Jackson (2009) and Baiocchi et al (2010) for the UK, Girod and De Haan (2010) for Switzerland, Steen-Olsen et al (2016) for Norway, and Lenzen et al (2006) for Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India as well as Japan. Hertwich (2005) provides an overview.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Distribution of Material Footprints in Germany

Pothen

Reaños

2018

SSRN Journal

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. The Distribution of Material Footprints in Germany

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“…This tradition dates back to the 1970s when the first study of direct and indirect energy consumption of U.S. households was done [30]. In addition, more recent examples of such regression can be found from the literature [22][23][24][25]31,32]. However, our analysis is the first such analysis focusing on the within metropolitan area differences, with a special attention to house types.…”

Section: Research Processmentioning

confidence: 83%

Greenhouse Gas Implications of Urban Sprawl in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

2013

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Suburban households living in spacious detached houses and owing multiple cars are often seen as main culprits for negative greenhouse consequences of urban sprawl. Consequently, the effects of sprawl have been mostly studied from the viewpoints of emissions from home energy consumption and private driving. Little attention has been paid to the changes in other consumption. In this paper, urban sprawl is linked to the proliferation of semi-detached and detached housing, described as a low-rise lifestyle, at the expense of apartment house living i.e., high-rise lifestyle. We analyze differences between the low-rise and the high-rise lifestyles and their environmental effects in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, taking into account all consumption activities. Environmental effects are assessed by combining greenhouse gas intensities from a consumption-based environmentally-extended input-output (EE I-O) model with expenditure data. Then these carbon footprints are further elucidated with regression analysis. We find that low-rise lifestyles causes approximately 14% more emissions than high-rise lifestyles. However, the relative contributions of emissions from different sources, whether direct or indirect, are almost equal for both. Furthermore, when controlling the level of expenditure, the differences between the two lifestyles unexpectedly disappear and in certain cases are even reversed. We believe that our consumption-based approach facilitates the understanding of sprawling lifestyles and offers important insights for sustainable policy-design and urban planning.

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Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint

Cited by 439 publications

References 30 publications

Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

The Distribution of Material Footprints in Germany

Greenhouse Gas Implications of Urban Sprawl in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

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