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Households are one of the main sources of waste and of other environmental impacts. This is a study of domestic consumption. Drawing on empirical research largely from The Netherlands, it takes households as consumer units and examines the entire household metabolism. This includes the way domestic demand can influence where and how goods and services are produced, resource flows through households, and the differential impacts of different lifestyles. It shows both what would constitute sustainable domestic consumption and how far there is to go to achieve this.
List of contents
Preface * Acknowledgements * Contributors * Household Metabolism and Sustainability: Some Introductory Remarks * Household Metabolism in the Context of Sustainability and Environmental Quality * Analysis of Household Metabolic Flows * Household Energy Requirements * Developments in Household Composition in Europe * Spatial Aspects of Housing * From Household to Urban Metabolism: Ecological Renewal of Neighbourhoods * Household Consumption, Quality of Life, and Environmental Impacts: a Psychological Perspective and Empirical Study * Economics Aspects of Household Metabolism * The Effects of Public Policies on Household Metabolism * Diagnosing and Evaluating Household Metabolism * Index
About the author
Klaas Jan Noorman is coordinator of the HOMES research programme at the University of Groningen. AJM (Ton) Schoot Uiterkamp has held research positions at Yale and Harvard Universities; he is now professor of environmental sciences at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Studies at the University of Groningen.
Report
'The book is accessible to a wide variety of readers... It should be interesting particularly to policy-makers and environmentalists.' Sustainable Development
