A Conceptual Model for The Development of Household Sustainable Consumption Indicators

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Abstract

Despite the diversity of tools to measure household consumption, indicators are one of the approaches with great potential, due to their communication and comprehensible easiness for non-scientific public, like families. The main objective of this research was the development of a framework to define the main steps and criteria to built household sustainable consumption assessment tools based on indicator sets. To put in practice the proposed model an overview of available household sustainable consumption metrics initiatives was conducted, including a comparison of their methodological approaches. This overview showed that the majority of these metrics are focus on some specific domains (e.g. energy or waste), not using an integrated approach of the sustainable consumption domains, and that very few used indicators to measure and assess household sustainable consumption. The developed framework is supported by several principal components and a checklist of key good-practice factors that a household sustainable consumption indicator system should have. Due to the demonstrated need to communicate easily, to engage stakeholders and due to the complexity involved in the measurement and assessment of household sustainable consumption, the proposed framework can be very usefulness in developing and evaluating the effectiveness of household sustainable consumption indicator sets. Nevertheless it should be used as a flexible framework that can be tailored to each particular case and continuous monitored and reviewed about its overall accuracy and feasibility.
Original languageUnknown
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 14th ERSCP conference and the 6th EMSU
Pages1-34
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2010
Event14th European Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption (ERSCP) and The 6th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) -
Duration: 1 Jan 2010 → …

Conference

Conference14th European Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption (ERSCP) and The 6th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU)
Period1/01/10 → …

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