today's facts & tomorrow's trends - SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles ...

Living: The ownership of living space per capita and the number of household
appliances in homes is growing (Worldwatch Institute 2004). The average
area of a dwelling unit increased from 86 to 92 m 2 in the EU‐15 between 1990
and 2007 (EEA 2010a), while the number of people per household decreased
from 2.8 to 2.4 people (ODYSSEE database 2011). This leads to increasing
consumption of electricity for space heating and water. For example, in
the EEA member countries, household electricity consumption per capita
increased by over 30% between 1990 and 2007 in spite of increasing prices in
many countries (EEA 2010b). The waste generated by households in the EU-15
increased by 2% over the period 1996–2004 (EEA 2010c)
Moving: The number of cars on European roads is growing and leisure trips
by road are becoming more frequent, longer in distance and shorter in time
(Ecorys 2008). Globally, the number of international air passengers increased
from 88 million in 1972 (ICAO 2007) to 760 million in 2006 and is projected to
grow further both globally and domestically (IATA 2007). Europeans are also
travelling faster and further. The number of kilometres travelled by member of
the 32 EEA countries increased by 20% between 1995 and 2007 (EEA 2010b).
Health: Lifestyle choices and patterns and levels of consumption have direct
consequences for the health of people. Over 50% of the adult population in the
EU is currently overweight or obese, and about 20% of children are overweight
(WHO and CSDH 2008). Obesity reflects unsustainable behaviour in terms of
overconsumption of calorie-rich, nutrient-poor processed food and inactive
lifestyles, but also unsustainable infrastructure with high reliance on private
car use and few opportunities for walking and cycling.
Consuming
The SPREAD Working Group on Consuming, led by the Centre for Sustainable
Consumption and Production (CSCP) and the International Institute for Industrial
Environmental Economics and Lund University (ULUND), reviews current consuming
patterns in Europe across key impact sectors (food and drink; household
goods; luxury accessories such as jewellery; clothing; and consumer electronics)
and outlines key opportunities and trends for sustainable consumption opportunities
in the future. The aim is to understand the factors that drive current
individual consumption and the factors that can change household behaviour to
deliver more sustainable lifestyles across Europe.
Emerging practices fostering more sustainable consuming
• Efficient consuming: changing habits (such as no longer wasting food or
washing clothes at high temperatures), or by upgrading, reusing or recycling
products. This contributes to the reduction of resource exploitation and
harmful emissions to air, water and soil.
• Different consuming: shifting from ownership of many low quality cheap and
short-lived products to shared access to high quality goods or services by
exercising collaborative consumption or sharing systems. This reduces the
need for new products and satisfies consumer needs for products without
the need for absolute ownership.
• Sufficient consuming: simplifying one’s lifestyle to reduce individual material
consumption and ecological/carbon footprint.
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SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES: TODAY’S FACTS & TOMORROW’S TRENDS