In the EU-sponsored FESOLA project we investigated and advanced the state-of-the-art in assessing household environmental impacts.
Life-cycle methods can be used to:
:: Assess the environmental impacts caused by households, including the direct impacts and the impacts connected to the production of goods and services consumed. We illustrated the application of this method by assessing the average household in Austria , Norway and Slovakia [6,8,10]. A comparison of different studies shows that for CO2 emissions, transportation, shelter (building and heat) and food are most important [2].
:: Develop an understanding for the factors that determine household environmental impacts. Our analysis shows that for global warming, the question of whether consumers fly, and how much, is of overshadowing importance. Of any household activities investigated, flights cause by far the highest emissions per unit expenditure [6,7]. Other important factors are expenditure level and car ownership [2].
:: Develop an understanding for how society's environmental impact change over time and of the underlying changes in technology, wealth, the structure of the economy and of consumption which cause these changes.
:: Use this understanding to develop scenarios for the future.
:: Evaluate specific household activities and measures directed towards these activities [2,6]. There has been a fair amount of research directed towards food consumption. This research shows that some healthy diets are also good for the environment. Meat, certain processed foods, and anything flown in by airplanes or grown in greenhouses has proportionally large impacts. We have evaluated car-sharing in Trondheim and shown that car-sharing can lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and cost [7].
:: Evaluate and learn from examples of sustainable consumption. In a study of a car-free housing project in Vienna , we have compared the environmental impacts of tenants in this project with a nearby building complex. The results show a factor of 4 reductions in CO2 emissions connected to energy and ground transportation. The overall household environmental impacts are much closer. The overall emissions per unit of income in the car-free settlement are 20% lower than in the reference settlement [6].
Based on our insights, we developed recommendations to the European Commission for further work on sustainable consumption.
We are now planning to use the insights gained from this project and the methods developed in our work with the Climate Action Plan of the City of Trondheim . We are looking for other opportunities to apply this work especially through case studies, in cooperation with innovative companies, engaged citizens and responsible municipalities and public authorities.
