Green Households?

Households are one of the main sources of waste and of other environmental impacts. Yet most attention to date has focused on the effects of business and industry, rather than on domestic consumption of goods, energy and resources and their resulting outputs. Green Households? is the first book to concentrate on this vital but neglected sector. Drawing on empirical research largely from The Netherlands, it takes households as consumer units and examines the entire household metabolism. This includes the way domestic demand can influence where and how goods and services are produced, resource flows through households, and the differential environmental impacts of different lifestyles. It shows both what would constitute sustainable domestic consumption and how far there is to go to achieve this in industrialised and affluent Western society. Those involved in planning and policy as it affects households and urban development, as well as students and researchers in social science and environmental studies will find it an invaluable source of information.