183
The quantification of the impact of consuming a product, i.e. including the many
secondary consequences, carries a very high uncertainty, as illustrated in the
preceding chapters. Somewhat surprisingly, a much more accurate guidance can be
given to individuals if looking at the entirety of consumption: The sum of all consumption – e.g. in form of lifestyle scenarios – has no secondary consequences
across the person’s available household resources, as they are all covered in the total
by definition. This allows to build scenarios of different lifestyles and calculate and
compare their overall environmental impacts.
Some limitations will still reduce the accuracy and precision of the results of
lifestyle-level studies:
• Accurate LCI data are not available for many specific products yet, respectively
approximations are less precise, and available data from different countries is not
widely interoperable (see e.g. the findings of a recent survey among National
LCA databases globally in Wolf (2014c))
• Secondary consequences on society level are not covered or including them adds
a relevant uncertainty, e.g. changes in road congestion if the individual uses public transport instead of a car.
• Effects on changing consumption patterns upstream of the supply-chain, i.e. at
those individuals that earn extra income by contributing to the production of the
purchased goods.
• Finally, the calculation of how well the specific lifestyle fulfils any specific person’s needs will have a high uncertainty.
However, defining alternative lifestyles and assessing their overall environmental
impact and utility, using the approach proposed in Sects. 2.7 and 2.8, will allow
individuals to reflect on his/her own lifestyle and allow to adopt or adapt a more
sustainable one. In summary, sustainable consumption decisions mean to meet the
same needs in a less impacting way without overly triggering secondary consequences by changing the available household resources.
3.3 National Level: From Territorial Inventory to Including
Burdens of Imported and Exported Products
Quantifying the environmental impact of different lifestyles on national level would
have to look at different adoption-levels, as e.g. sparsely distributed electro- charging
stations means additional travel to recharge the vehicle and additional transport
means to come to these stations and back home or to the office. On a national level
of consumption, we can hence capture such effects on infrastructure within the
country. The only secondary consequences that escape the analysis are changes in
international infrastructure, such as e.g. airports, and via changed amount of imports
from those countries.
On the national level, past studies on the nations “footprint” have often looked at
the territorial level only. However, since a number of years, more and more studies
13 From Sustainable Production to Sustainable Consumption
The quantification of the impact of consuming a product, i.e. including the many
secondary consequences, carries a very high uncertainty, as illustrated in the
preceding chapters. Somewhat surprisingly, a much more accurate guidance can be
given to individuals if looking at the entirety of consumption: The sum of all consumption – e.g. in form of lifestyle scenarios – has no secondary consequences
across the person’s available household resources, as they are all covered in the total
by definition. This allows to build scenarios of different lifestyles and calculate and
compare their overall environmental impacts.
Some limitations will still reduce the accuracy and precision of the results of
lifestyle-level studies:
• Accurate LCI data are not available for many specific products yet, respectively
approximations are less precise, and available data from different countries is not
widely interoperable (see e.g. the findings of a recent survey among National
LCA databases globally in Wolf (2014c))
• Secondary consequences on society level are not covered or including them adds
a relevant uncertainty, e.g. changes in road congestion if the individual uses public transport instead of a car.
• Effects on changing consumption patterns upstream of the supply-chain, i.e. at
those individuals that earn extra income by contributing to the production of the
purchased goods.
• Finally, the calculation of how well the specific lifestyle fulfils any specific person’s needs will have a high uncertainty.
However, defining alternative lifestyles and assessing their overall environmental
impact and utility, using the approach proposed in Sects. 2.7 and 2.8, will allow
individuals to reflect on his/her own lifestyle and allow to adopt or adapt a more
sustainable one. In summary, sustainable consumption decisions mean to meet the
same needs in a less impacting way without overly triggering secondary consequences by changing the available household resources.
3.3 National Level: From Territorial Inventory to Including
Burdens of Imported and Exported Products
Quantifying the environmental impact of different lifestyles on national level would
have to look at different adoption-levels, as e.g. sparsely distributed electro- charging
stations means additional travel to recharge the vehicle and additional transport
means to come to these stations and back home or to the office. On a national level
of consumption, we can hence capture such effects on infrastructure within the
country. The only secondary consequences that escape the analysis are changes in
international infrastructure, such as e.g. airports, and via changed amount of imports
from those countries.
On the national level, past studies on the nations “footprint” have often looked at
the territorial level only. However, since a number of years, more and more studies
13 From Sustainable Production to Sustainable Consumption