What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions

Murray, Cameron

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2012.11.025

Cited by 91 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Note that the estimated rebound effect of 6% for savings in electricity is within the range of rebound effects of energy efficiency measures in the UK which were estimated to be in the range of 5%-15% [12]. The rebound effect resulting from electricity conservation has been estimated to be between 4.5 and 6.5% for Australia [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Economy-wide rebound effects occur if efficiency or conservation measures change production and spending patterns throughout an economy. The current thought is, that rebound effects are relatively small in the area of energy efficiency and conservation measures [14,12,21]. It has, for example, been estimated that energy efficiency improvements in the UK result in rebound effects between 5% and 15% [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Restore: An R of sustainability that can tame the “conundrum”

Bindewald

2013

Preprint

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The environmental benefits of sustainability efforts can be rendered less effective due to economic feedback mechanisms. As a remedy against such rebound effects, a reinvestment strategy towards environmental causes has been suggested. Here, a practical implementation of such a reinvestment strategy is presented. It involves a) estimating the financial savings resulting from sustainability efforts, b) informing the participants that the environmental benefit of the efforts is reduced by economic feedback mechanisms and c) asking them to donate a fraction of the expected savings towards environmental causes. An easy-to-use methodology for estimating rebound effects of sustainability efforts is presented in order to quantify the efficacy of this approach. CO 2 emission offsets are used as an example of donations towards environmental causes. It is shown, that donating even a small amount (less than 1% of financial savings obtained from conservation or engineering savings) of donated carbon offsets can more than eliminate the estimated rebound effects. This then leads to the restore principle, that states that the environmental benefit of reducing activities with average environmental impact is dramatically improved if a fraction of the resulting financial savings is applied towards environmental causes. This approach is made practical by augmenting the common reduce, reuse, recycle motto with a fourth component: reduce, reuse, recycle and restore.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restore: An R of sustainability that can tame the “conundrum”

Bindewald

2013

Preprint

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“…However, such considerations have been challenged by some authors (Murray, 2013;, who have argued that the amount of energy use in upstream and downstream processes is the result of technological aspects rather than behavioural responses.…”

Section: In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Adding to this, Greening and Greene (1998) argue that, for the vast majority of goods and services, the available data from input-output tables suggest that energy expenditure would be less than 15% of the total on average. However, other authors (Murray, 2013;Sorrell, 2007) have pointed out that the consideration of the embodied energy of products can notably increase indirect rebound effect estimates. Furthermore, Font Vivanco and van der Voet (2014) describe systematically larger rebound estimates from those studies applying a life cycle perspective.…”

Section: In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Economic structure and energy savings from energy efficiency in households

Vivanco

Ventosa

2017

Ecological Economics

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When an energy efficiency improvement occurs at the household level, several mechanisms, grouped under the name of the rebound effect, increase the available income and consumption, increasing the total energy consumption of the economic structure. The present research analyses the links between energy efficiency improvements in households, consumption, and the economic structure in an input-output framework. We examine, from an empirical perspective, the relationship between energy efficiency improvements and the economic structure, and between the direct and the indirect rebound effect. The limits of the input-output methodology in assessing the direct and indirect rebound effect have been empirically tested with respect to efficiency improvements of electricity uses in households in Catalonia.

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“…In the last few years, however, studies have been carried out to explore it focusing on various different countries. These include Lenzen and Dey ( 2002 ) and Murray ( 2013 ) for Australia; Alfredsson ( 2004 ) and Brännlund et al ( 2007 ) for Sweden; Mizobuchi ( 2008 ) for Japan; Kratena and Wuger ( 2010 ) for Austria; and Thomas and Azevedo ( 2013 ) for US and Druckman et al ( 2011a ) and Chitnis et al ( 2013Chitnis et al ( , 2014 for the UK. These studies generally consider a variety of measures such as abatement actions (for example, reducing the amount of food wasted, reducing household room temperature thermostat settings and replacing short car journeys by walking or cycling) and energy effi ciency measures (for example, installation of cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, condensing boiler, water tank insulation, energy effi cient lighting and purchase of an effi cient car).…”

Section: The Rebound Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Households as Drivers of Carbon Emissions

Druckman

Jackson

2016

Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology

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Households are accountable for nearly three quarters of global carbon emissions and thus understanding the drivers of these emissions is important if we are to make progress towards a low carbon future. This chapter starts by explaining the importance of using an appropriate consumption perspective accounting framework for assessing the carbon footprint of households. This contrasts from the more commonly used production perspective, as, for many Western countries in particular, once responsibility for emissions embedded in imported goods and services are taken into account, consumption emissions are often higher than production emissions.The chapter then reviews fi ndings concerning the determinants and composition of the carbon footprint of households, focusing on Western countries. One of the main determinants is income, with carbon footprints increasing with increasing incomes. However, other drivers, such as household size and composition, rural/ urban location, diet and type of energy supply, also play a part. Studies show that the majority of an average carbon footprint arises from three domains: transportation, housing and food. Further analyses aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the motivations behind the activities driving emissions, in particular those due to transportation and housing, show that recreation and leisure pursuits are responsible for a substantial portion of average carbon footprints. Studies indicate, for example, that activities such as spending time with friends and family in and around the home, which are generally low carbon and also enhance well-being, should be encouraged alongside the more mainstream strategies of improving systems of provision of energy, food, housing and transportation.The fi nding that income is one of the principal drivers of carbon emissions is a challenging and important issue to address, as, for instance, incomes are arguably the driver of the rebound effect -a phenomenon that confounds attempts to reduce carbon footprints, making reducing emissions more of an uphill task than often acknowledged. This challenge leads us to a wider, whole-systems approach in which we view households as an integral part of the system of production and consumption.A. Druckman (*) • T. Jackson Centre for Environmental Strategy , University of Surrey , Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH , UK e-mail: a.druckman@surrey.ac.uk 182 In summary, industrial ecology, with its wide ranging systems approach as shown in this chapter, has a great deal to contribute to the quest to devise strategies to move towards lower carbon, fulfi lling lifestyles.

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What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions

Cited by 91 publications

References 38 publications

Restore: An R of sustainability that can tame the “conundrum”

Restore: An R of sustainability that can tame the “conundrum”

Economic structure and energy savings from energy efficiency in households

Understanding Households as Drivers of Carbon Emissions

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