Teleconnecting Consumption to Environmental Impacts at Multiple Spatial Scales

Abstract

Environmental footprinting has made good progress over the last two decades in analyzing environmental pressures from consumption activities that arise throughout the supply chain. However, it has only rather recently started to appreciate the importance of the spatial dimension as a new research frontier for environmental footprinting. One set of research questions is related to issues arising when tracing resource and pollution flows generated from consumption activities across the supply chain in space, a requirement to move from environmental pressure to environmental impact estimates. Another set of questions is related to the fact that we still have a very limited understanding of what drives peoples’ consumption activities, the ultimate trigger of these environmental impacts. Consumption activities are embedded in broader lifestyles. Important aspects of lifestyles play out at fine spatial scales, because they cannot be seen in isolation from the social and physical environment they evolve in.