Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption

An increasing number of consumers in Western societies can be characterised by a medium or high resource consumption profile. Since these lifestyles are becoming more popular in growing cities worldwide, resource efficiency is an issue of increasing importance on different levels. In their open-access article "Eight Tons of Material Footprint - Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland" the authors Michael Lettenmeier, Christa Liedtke and Holger Rohn recommend a cap target for resource household consumption. For Finland they suggest a sustainable material footprint of eight tons, per person, in a year. This means an 80 percent (factor 5) reduction from the present Finnish average. They analyse requirements, opportunities, and challenges for future developments in technology and lifestyle, also taking into account that future lifestyles are supposed to show a high degree of diversity. The targets and approaches are discussed for the consumption components of nutrition, housing, household goods, mobility, leisure activities, and other purposes. The paper states that a sustainable level of natural resource use by households is achievable and it can be roughly allocated to different consumption components in order to illustrate the need for a change in lifestyles. The authors also note, that these are only suggestions, because user behavior and social practices of households greatly vary and can change because of technical development in the next few years.

The article is ready for download on the website of the journal "Resources".