Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2021
Abstract In this article, we explore the concept of consumption corridors as it might apply to en... more Abstract In this article, we explore the concept of consumption corridors as it might apply to energy use, with specific attention to both wellbeing and power relations. We employ the distinction between energy provisioning and human-need satisfaction to explore different configurations of energy use, as well as their possible dynamics. Specifically, we draw on past research documenting the benefits of decoupling our thinking about energy services and needs satisfaction and use it as a basis to identify scenarios characterized by different degrees of access to energy services and levels of resource demand. We then translate this perspective to the logic of sustainable consumption corridors. We delineate how minimum and maximum consumption standards would relate to combinations of energy-service demand and needs-satisfier access. Finally, we explore how power dynamics, specifically exercises of discursive power, might move societal trajectories toward sustainable combinations of energy provisioning and needs satisfaction or away from them.
In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three real... more In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three realisations. We then show how these can be connected through research and used to generate insights with the potential for application in broader, systemic change. The first realisation is that the core ambition of ecological economics, that of addressing the scale of human environmental resource use and associated impacts, often remains an aspirational goal, rather than being applied within research. In understanding intertwined environmental and social challenges, systemic approaches (including system dynamics) should be revitalised to address the full scope of what is possible or desirable. The second realisation is that the focus on biophysical and economic quantification and methods has been at the expense of a comprehensive social understanding of environmental impacts and barriers to change—including the role of power, social class, geographical location, historical change, and achie...
The vision of a steady-state economy elaborated by Herman Daly describes an economy that uses mat... more The vision of a steady-state economy elaborated by Herman Daly describes an economy that uses materials and energy within the regenerative and assimilative limits of the planet's ecosystems. Sustainable scale, just distribution, and efficient allocation are its constitutive theoretical goals. This paper is a critique of the theoretical foundations of steady-state economics. It argues that steady-state economics consists in an attempt to squeeze neoclassical economics into a biophysical and ethical corset. As a result, many fundamental flaws and criticisms of neoclassical economics remain. As a consequence, steady-state economics does not lead to a radical departure from, or improvement upon, neoclassical theory but rather to fundamental internal inconsistencies between the ‘old’ economics paradigm and ‘new’ progressive ecological economic thinking. Contradictions appear at various levels ranging from ontology and methodology to theory and values. As Daly has pioneered the foundations of ecological economics with his thinking, these ambiguities are not only problematic for steady-state economics but ecological economics as a field more generally. The paper concludes that ecological economics has to let go of neoclassical foundations as they contradict its core values and ambitions. A new and consistent theory of political economy of the environment along heterodox lines is needed.
This booklet was published under the framework of the “Action Town – Research and Action for Sust... more This booklet was published under the framework of the “Action Town – Research and Action for Sustainable Consumption and Production” project. By reviewing existing knowledge and the latest research on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), these guidelines aim to provide a quick hands-on overview of selected instruments, assessment tools and indicators. Each guideline uses examples to illustrate how, by means of policy instruments, assessment tools and indicators, civil society organisations can take effective action to encourage more sustainable consumption and production practices. While measuring the environmental impacts of consumption and production processes has become relatively sophisticated with several tools already available, the social dimension of consumption and production has lagged behind. However, in measuring sustainable consumption and production, both environmental and social responsibility must be addressed as part of the economic system.
In terms of environmental impacts, we must acknowledge that global consumption of natural resources is increasing at an unprecedented pace that is unsustainable from both an ecological and socio-economic standpoint. In order to make these interconnections clearer, it is of key importance that the real magnitude and distribution of worldwide resource use is quantified.
Transformation towards a more sustainable world will not be possible without reducing human demand on natural resources through enhanced resource productivity. Resource use is also closely linked to questions of distributive justice, an important issue, alongside labour standards and social development, in the social analysis of consumption and production. Using appropriate indicators to measure resource use and its environmental and economic impact is crucial for monitoring progress in relation to defined targets. Targets, in turn, can only be defined based on clear measurement systems and robust indicators.
Global consumption not only impacts environmental systems; social systems are also affected. Beginning in the 1950s, enormous wealth creation in the Western world led to high living standards for many people but had significant unsustainable side effects. The increase of wealth was not distributed equally, both within and between societies, resulting in an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. At the same time, an increase in subjective wellbeing has not kept pace with the increase of wealth. In other words, above a certain threshold of material wealth, the rich have not become significantly happier. Despite the economic crisis in 2008/2009, global consumption is still increasing at an unparalleled pace.
In order to ensure a sustainable future, societal goals need to be redefined with a stronger focus on wellbeing and a broader understanding of quality of life. Increasing the use of social indicators during decision making will be necessary to achieve this.
Indicators can create a sense of precision and attract interest making them valuable tools to help CSOs achieve their targets. The possible role of civil society organisations in promoting and enhancing the effectiveness of these indicators is described in the guidelines by using different identified strategies. These strategies are used to show how CSOs can contribute to positive environmental change by using one (or various) of the suggested indicators. The applicability of an indicator in a specific field depends on different criteria such as sensitivity to policy, reliability, comparability and communicability.
The description of the different indicators in this booklet shows that there is a great variety of environmental as well as social indicators, which are appropriate for CSOs to use to support their work on sustainable consumption and production. However, while some of these indicators are available for immediate use (for instance the Ecological Footprint), others lack applicability due to their technicality and less ‘user-friendly’ concepts. Such indicators can nevertheless assist the work of CSOs, provided that they are adapted to the users’ needs. This is one of the aims of the Action Town project – to present available tools and improve them in close cooperation with potential users. The first step is to analyse the ‘reasons for success’ learned from already utilised indicators and to apply these lessons to indicators which have so far been used in a mainly scientific context. In doing this, the quality of scientifically wellelaborated indicators can be enhanced.
Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2021
Abstract In this article, we explore the concept of consumption corridors as it might apply to en... more Abstract In this article, we explore the concept of consumption corridors as it might apply to energy use, with specific attention to both wellbeing and power relations. We employ the distinction between energy provisioning and human-need satisfaction to explore different configurations of energy use, as well as their possible dynamics. Specifically, we draw on past research documenting the benefits of decoupling our thinking about energy services and needs satisfaction and use it as a basis to identify scenarios characterized by different degrees of access to energy services and levels of resource demand. We then translate this perspective to the logic of sustainable consumption corridors. We delineate how minimum and maximum consumption standards would relate to combinations of energy-service demand and needs-satisfier access. Finally, we explore how power dynamics, specifically exercises of discursive power, might move societal trajectories toward sustainable combinations of energy provisioning and needs satisfaction or away from them.
In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three real... more In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three realisations. We then show how these can be connected through research and used to generate insights with the potential for application in broader, systemic change. The first realisation is that the core ambition of ecological economics, that of addressing the scale of human environmental resource use and associated impacts, often remains an aspirational goal, rather than being applied within research. In understanding intertwined environmental and social challenges, systemic approaches (including system dynamics) should be revitalised to address the full scope of what is possible or desirable. The second realisation is that the focus on biophysical and economic quantification and methods has been at the expense of a comprehensive social understanding of environmental impacts and barriers to change—including the role of power, social class, geographical location, historical change, and achie...
The vision of a steady-state economy elaborated by Herman Daly describes an economy that uses mat... more The vision of a steady-state economy elaborated by Herman Daly describes an economy that uses materials and energy within the regenerative and assimilative limits of the planet's ecosystems. Sustainable scale, just distribution, and efficient allocation are its constitutive theoretical goals. This paper is a critique of the theoretical foundations of steady-state economics. It argues that steady-state economics consists in an attempt to squeeze neoclassical economics into a biophysical and ethical corset. As a result, many fundamental flaws and criticisms of neoclassical economics remain. As a consequence, steady-state economics does not lead to a radical departure from, or improvement upon, neoclassical theory but rather to fundamental internal inconsistencies between the ‘old’ economics paradigm and ‘new’ progressive ecological economic thinking. Contradictions appear at various levels ranging from ontology and methodology to theory and values. As Daly has pioneered the foundations of ecological economics with his thinking, these ambiguities are not only problematic for steady-state economics but ecological economics as a field more generally. The paper concludes that ecological economics has to let go of neoclassical foundations as they contradict its core values and ambitions. A new and consistent theory of political economy of the environment along heterodox lines is needed.
This booklet was published under the framework of the “Action Town – Research and Action for Sust... more This booklet was published under the framework of the “Action Town – Research and Action for Sustainable Consumption and Production” project. By reviewing existing knowledge and the latest research on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), these guidelines aim to provide a quick hands-on overview of selected instruments, assessment tools and indicators. Each guideline uses examples to illustrate how, by means of policy instruments, assessment tools and indicators, civil society organisations can take effective action to encourage more sustainable consumption and production practices. While measuring the environmental impacts of consumption and production processes has become relatively sophisticated with several tools already available, the social dimension of consumption and production has lagged behind. However, in measuring sustainable consumption and production, both environmental and social responsibility must be addressed as part of the economic system.
In terms of environmental impacts, we must acknowledge that global consumption of natural resources is increasing at an unprecedented pace that is unsustainable from both an ecological and socio-economic standpoint. In order to make these interconnections clearer, it is of key importance that the real magnitude and distribution of worldwide resource use is quantified.
Transformation towards a more sustainable world will not be possible without reducing human demand on natural resources through enhanced resource productivity. Resource use is also closely linked to questions of distributive justice, an important issue, alongside labour standards and social development, in the social analysis of consumption and production. Using appropriate indicators to measure resource use and its environmental and economic impact is crucial for monitoring progress in relation to defined targets. Targets, in turn, can only be defined based on clear measurement systems and robust indicators.
Global consumption not only impacts environmental systems; social systems are also affected. Beginning in the 1950s, enormous wealth creation in the Western world led to high living standards for many people but had significant unsustainable side effects. The increase of wealth was not distributed equally, both within and between societies, resulting in an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. At the same time, an increase in subjective wellbeing has not kept pace with the increase of wealth. In other words, above a certain threshold of material wealth, the rich have not become significantly happier. Despite the economic crisis in 2008/2009, global consumption is still increasing at an unparalleled pace.
In order to ensure a sustainable future, societal goals need to be redefined with a stronger focus on wellbeing and a broader understanding of quality of life. Increasing the use of social indicators during decision making will be necessary to achieve this.
Indicators can create a sense of precision and attract interest making them valuable tools to help CSOs achieve their targets. The possible role of civil society organisations in promoting and enhancing the effectiveness of these indicators is described in the guidelines by using different identified strategies. These strategies are used to show how CSOs can contribute to positive environmental change by using one (or various) of the suggested indicators. The applicability of an indicator in a specific field depends on different criteria such as sensitivity to policy, reliability, comparability and communicability.
The description of the different indicators in this booklet shows that there is a great variety of environmental as well as social indicators, which are appropriate for CSOs to use to support their work on sustainable consumption and production. However, while some of these indicators are available for immediate use (for instance the Ecological Footprint), others lack applicability due to their technicality and less ‘user-friendly’ concepts. Such indicators can nevertheless assist the work of CSOs, provided that they are adapted to the users’ needs. This is one of the aims of the Action Town project – to present available tools and improve them in close cooperation with potential users. The first step is to analyse the ‘reasons for success’ learned from already utilised indicators and to apply these lessons to indicators which have so far been used in a mainly scientific context. In doing this, the quality of scientifically wellelaborated indicators can be enhanced.
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Papers by Elke Pirgmaier
means of policy instruments, assessment tools and indicators, civil society organisations can take effective action to encourage more sustainable consumption and production practices.
While measuring the environmental impacts of consumption and production processes has become relatively sophisticated with several tools already available, the social dimension of consumption and production has lagged behind. However, in measuring sustainable consumption and production, both environmental and social responsibility must be addressed as
part of the economic system.
In terms of environmental impacts, we must acknowledge that global consumption of natural resources is increasing at an unprecedented pace that is unsustainable from both an ecological and socio-economic standpoint. In order to make these interconnections clearer, it is of key importance that the real magnitude and distribution of worldwide resource use is quantified.
Transformation towards a more sustainable world will not be possible without reducing human demand on natural resources through enhanced resource productivity. Resource use is also closely linked to questions of distributive justice, an important issue, alongside labour standards and social development, in the social analysis of consumption and production. Using appropriate indicators to measure resource use and its environmental and economic impact is crucial for monitoring progress in relation to defined targets. Targets, in turn, can only be defined based on clear measurement systems and robust indicators.
Global consumption not only impacts environmental systems; social systems are also affected. Beginning in the 1950s, enormous wealth creation in the Western world led to high living standards for many people but had significant unsustainable side effects. The increase of wealth was not distributed equally, both within and between societies, resulting in an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. At the same time, an increase in subjective wellbeing has not kept pace with the increase of wealth. In other words, above a certain threshold of material wealth, the rich have not become significantly happier. Despite the economic crisis in 2008/2009, global consumption is still increasing at an unparalleled pace.
In order to ensure a sustainable future, societal goals need to be redefined with a stronger focus on wellbeing and a broader understanding of quality of life. Increasing the use of social indicators during decision making will be necessary
to achieve this.
Indicators can create a sense of precision and attract interest making them valuable tools to help CSOs achieve their targets. The possible role of civil society organisations in promoting and enhancing the effectiveness of these indicators
is described in the guidelines by using different identified strategies. These strategies are used to show how CSOs can contribute to positive environmental change by using one (or various) of the suggested indicators. The applicability of an indicator in a specific field depends on different criteria such as sensitivity to policy, reliability, comparability and communicability.
The description of the different indicators in this booklet shows that there is a great variety of environmental as well as social indicators, which are appropriate for CSOs to use to support their work on sustainable consumption and production. However, while some of these indicators are available for immediate use (for instance the Ecological Footprint), others lack applicability due to their technicality and less ‘user-friendly’ concepts. Such indicators can nevertheless assist the work of CSOs, provided that they are adapted to the users’ needs. This is one of the aims of the Action Town project – to present available tools and improve them in close cooperation with potential users. The first step is to analyse the ‘reasons for success’ learned from already utilised indicators and to apply these lessons to indicators which have so far been used in a mainly scientific context.
In doing this, the quality of scientifically wellelaborated indicators can be enhanced.
means of policy instruments, assessment tools and indicators, civil society organisations can take effective action to encourage more sustainable consumption and production practices.
While measuring the environmental impacts of consumption and production processes has become relatively sophisticated with several tools already available, the social dimension of consumption and production has lagged behind. However, in measuring sustainable consumption and production, both environmental and social responsibility must be addressed as
part of the economic system.
In terms of environmental impacts, we must acknowledge that global consumption of natural resources is increasing at an unprecedented pace that is unsustainable from both an ecological and socio-economic standpoint. In order to make these interconnections clearer, it is of key importance that the real magnitude and distribution of worldwide resource use is quantified.
Transformation towards a more sustainable world will not be possible without reducing human demand on natural resources through enhanced resource productivity. Resource use is also closely linked to questions of distributive justice, an important issue, alongside labour standards and social development, in the social analysis of consumption and production. Using appropriate indicators to measure resource use and its environmental and economic impact is crucial for monitoring progress in relation to defined targets. Targets, in turn, can only be defined based on clear measurement systems and robust indicators.
Global consumption not only impacts environmental systems; social systems are also affected. Beginning in the 1950s, enormous wealth creation in the Western world led to high living standards for many people but had significant unsustainable side effects. The increase of wealth was not distributed equally, both within and between societies, resulting in an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. At the same time, an increase in subjective wellbeing has not kept pace with the increase of wealth. In other words, above a certain threshold of material wealth, the rich have not become significantly happier. Despite the economic crisis in 2008/2009, global consumption is still increasing at an unparalleled pace.
In order to ensure a sustainable future, societal goals need to be redefined with a stronger focus on wellbeing and a broader understanding of quality of life. Increasing the use of social indicators during decision making will be necessary
to achieve this.
Indicators can create a sense of precision and attract interest making them valuable tools to help CSOs achieve their targets. The possible role of civil society organisations in promoting and enhancing the effectiveness of these indicators
is described in the guidelines by using different identified strategies. These strategies are used to show how CSOs can contribute to positive environmental change by using one (or various) of the suggested indicators. The applicability of an indicator in a specific field depends on different criteria such as sensitivity to policy, reliability, comparability and communicability.
The description of the different indicators in this booklet shows that there is a great variety of environmental as well as social indicators, which are appropriate for CSOs to use to support their work on sustainable consumption and production. However, while some of these indicators are available for immediate use (for instance the Ecological Footprint), others lack applicability due to their technicality and less ‘user-friendly’ concepts. Such indicators can nevertheless assist the work of CSOs, provided that they are adapted to the users’ needs. This is one of the aims of the Action Town project – to present available tools and improve them in close cooperation with potential users. The first step is to analyse the ‘reasons for success’ learned from already utilised indicators and to apply these lessons to indicators which have so far been used in a mainly scientific context.
In doing this, the quality of scientifically wellelaborated indicators can be enhanced.