Society and its products
Quantity counts: the output side
The consumption of primary energy, total material flows and land use intensity can thus be considered a reliable proxy measure for total environmental stresses.
Most currently environmental problems are closely linked to the consumption of energy, material flows and land use intensity
Domestic output accounting is the basis for some more recent policy instruments like waste taxes and levies.
Matter matters: the input side
Domestic Material Input (DMI) accounts for those kinds of physical inputs into the economy which have been extracted domestically, plus the volume of imported goods
TMR: Total Material Requirement is the all-measure including the domestic material input plus the hidden flows, both domestically and in the country of origin
modern high-tech business structure
cannot exist without underlying traditional and material intensive production
Pilling up: the relevance of stocks
Some of the goods are only consumed for a short time before they wear out or become unfashionable, others are rather replacements in saturated markets
Their mere maintenance requires an increasing volume of monetary as well as resource expenditures without providing additional welfare
the more materials we have
fixed in the stocks, the more flows we need to maintain them.
The driving forces: capitalist production
Accumulating material artefacts is considered as increasing wealth, and wealth has become synonymous with well-being
the world’s richest societies are increasingly degrading the life-sustaining natural systems their very existence depends on
to exploit the economies of standardisation is applied, resulting in what looks like a variety of products at first glance, but is based on a rather narrow range of basic models and components
The drivers forces: consumerist consumption
Produces have to realise that they can make money from not producing but maintaining and upgrading products, consumers have to be convinced that upgraded products are at least as good as new ones
The resulting consumption patterns have significant social and environmental impacts.
Individualism and sub-culture development are at the same time driving forces for increasing mobility demands.
psychological factors like the feeling of independence and the compensation function for unsatisfactory situations in other spheres of life
Sustainable production and consumption
UNCED conference
in Agenda 21
"The major cause of the continued degradation of the global environment is the unsustainable patter of consumption and production, particularly in industrialised countries
Changing consumption patterns
will require a multi pronged strategy focusing on demand.
reducing wastage and the use of finite resources in the production process”
In 2002, UNEP made a proposal during the preparation process of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD)
It stablished a global 10 years "work programme on promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns
It remains to be seen if the European Union is really capable of setting something into motion.
The driving forces
With full information, every consumer is a "homo œconomicus", taking decisions exclusively based on selfish utility maximisation
The relative level of influence of the different actors depends on social and institutional settings determinating their power position, on arguments and on the responsiveness of their respective audience to these arguments.
Intrisic and extrinsic factors
Intrinsic: comprise cognitive capacities, psychological factors, individual interests and philosophical or ethical
norms
include socio-economic aspects like the disposable income and time availability as well as social relations
