Household Metabolism Research Articles

Understanding everyday water experiences through flows: A feminist political ecology take on household metabolism

At a time of growing threats to global freshwater availability, urban water supply is becoming increasingly challenging, affecting water security for urban populations. Alternative water sources, technologies, and supply methods are employed to complement dwindling continental water sources and guarantee the human right to water. However, the related research reports that such solutions can exacerbate inequalities and jeopardise water security for the most vulnerable groups. There is therefore a need to delve into household dynamics and practices in order to detect the drawbacks of the water supply solutions implemented as part of sociotechnical transitions or climate change adaptation measures. The present article contributes by proposing a flexible framework for evaluating household water dynamics and everyday experiences based on the urban metabolism metaphor and enriched with feminist political ecology and critical literature on water security. The framework builds upon typical water balance accounts and is supplemented with information on (a) the source, price, continuity and pressure of all types of water consumed domestically; (b) the consumer’s relationship with water, that is, whether people trust each water source, whether they accept its organoleptic characteristics (flavor, odor, and transparency), and whether they fear that consuming water may have negative health impacts; and (c) the actions that people employ to improve tap water quality for drinking, thus allowing the calculation of indirect costs and impacts associated with inadequate water quality. Results indicate that lower-income households metabolise water of lower quality and do so more slowly than high-income households. Furthermore, the actions they take to improve water quality involve more effort, higher monetary costs, additional energy consumption, and greater health impacts compared to higher-income groups.

Household Food Metabolism: Losses, Waste and Environmental Pressures of Food Consumption at the Regional Level in Spain.

Dealing with an increasing population is challenging the global food system not only in productive terms, but also through the associated environmental pressures. A growing diagnostic effort is being made by global and national agencies. Innovative approaches are needed to support effective policy efforts. This study aims to illustrate the potentialities of the household metabolism approach in the diagnosis of the environmental pressures derived from household food consumption, using the Spanish regions and the effects of the 2008 crisis as case studies. The direct information concerning food consumption in physical terms provided by the Spanish household budget survey is used to estimate some relevant environmental pressures (food losses and waste along the food chain, as well as water and carbon footprint) for the Spanish food system at a sub-national level. These data are directly translated into differences in environmental pressures and compared with other dietary profiles. Furthermore, the physical information of environmental pressures is related to household socio-economic status, showing the potentialities of the association with household socio-economic information. Finally, our data illustrate with some examples how the economic crisis has acted as a driver of change in food consumption, promoting a better environmental performance at the cost of poorer diets.

Household metabolism: Integrating socio-economic characteristics and lifestyles on individual and national scales as a mean for advancing environmental management

Most consumption activities are related, at least to some degree, to households. A nalyzing households' metabolism - the direct and indirect materials and energy flows and its byproducts - and identifying key shaping factors of that metabolism can serve as the foundation for examining various measures for environmental management. Recent research reviews emphasized several important issues, limitations of existing metabolism studies, that need to be considered and overcome as part of the further development of households' metabolism analysis including: methods, focus, scale, analysis, and potential environmental management implementation. This article aims contributing to the growing household metabolism scientific literature by illustrating directions to advance some of the identified issues and limitations. It focuses on the Israeli household sector as a case study. Following the identified limitations, the analysis includes the flow of materials, water, land and selected byproducts including greenhouse gases and air pollutants. It integrates the analysis of specific households metabolism components (food, electricity and transportation related materials) with the national scale. It explores the contribution of specific factors (e.g., income, household size) and various lifestyles (e.g., young or old low-income couples, large wealthy mature households) with demographic factors of the overall population (e.g., the share of households consisting of a young couple or elderly people in the overall national household metabolism). Such integration can contribute to advancing measures relevant to specific socio-economic factors and lifestyles and can contribute to changing the metabolism and advancing the use of this important research approach as a mean for advancing sustainability.

Connecting energy services, carriers and flows: Rethinking household energy metabolism in Cape Town, South Africa

Household metabolism assessments are useful approaches for understanding household energy consumption and identifying intervention points towards sustainability. However, a gap persists in the evidence that associates resource flows to particular groups of people, locations and sectors. This study thus undertook a differentiated household energy metabolism assessment of Cape Town, focusing on energy inflows in the form of energy carriers and throughflows in the form of energy services. This was achieved using household energy surveys and audits across different neighbourhoods in Cape Town. Four different income group profiles were created for total energy consumption, which were further linked with respective energy services and energy carriers. The results show that each income group in Cape Town accesses all 11 services examined, suggesting income is not as strong a limiting factor to achieving services of comfort, cleanliness and convenience. This study suggests that intervention points for improving the sustainability of urban energy systems depend on the profile of the income group. For low- and low-middle-income groups, a shift in energy carrier is suggested to be the first step toward reshaping these energy flows for sustainability. This requires a shift from expensive, dangerous, and inefficient energy carriers to ones that are efficient and safe, with the additional benefit of reducing overall energy consumption. For high-middle and high-income households, sustainability interventions revolve around reducing overall energy consumption, as alternative energy carriers do not play such a prominent role. Water heating and cooking are services which show potential for reduced energy consumption across all income groups.

Metabolism and Environmental Impacts of Household Consumption: A Review on the Assessment, Methodology, and Drivers

SummaryThe focus when analyzing the environmental requirements and impacts of the economic system is usually placed on production activities. But all production is associated with final consumption, and recently many studies have also been dedicated to final consumption. This article comprehensively reviews the biophysical assessment of households from the point of view of materials and energy required and emissions and wastes resulting from household consumption patterns. Although the aggregation bias and methodological variability make comparisons difficult, some patterns can be recognized. Results show that for many Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and a few developing countries, household metabolism has been mainly assessed from the energetic perspective, stressing household responsibility for emissions of greenhouse effect gases and climate change. Few studies deal with other emissions and wastes. There is a lack of information about material requirements, too. Environmental input‐output (I‐O) analysis and life cycle assessment are the methods usually employed, together with the use of economic, environmental, and expenditure information. Information about direct inputs and outputs is complemented with data on the environmental requirements associated with the consumption of goods and services. Multiregional I‐O techniques have been used to capture upstream requirements in an attempt to avoid errors owing to truncation and domestic technology assumptions. Housing, food, and mobility are the most important consumption categories, but the shares of these categories in the requirements are different according to environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic factors. Finally, challenges for further research are discussed based on the need for new methodological developments, as well as the potential of the metabolic narrative to elaborate information relevant to sustainable consumption policies.

Urban Metabolism: A Review of Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Study.

During the 50 years since the concept of urban metabolism was proposed, this field of research has evolved slowly. On the basis of an analogy with an organism's metabolism, the concept of urban metabolism has become an effective method to evaluate the flows of energy and materials within an urban system, thereby providing insights into the system's sustainability and the severity of urban problems such as excessive social, community, and household metabolism at scales ranging from global to local. Researchers have improved this approach, evolving from models of linear to cyclic processes and then to network models. Researchers account for flows of energy and materials, ecological footprints, inputs and outputs, and the characteristics of the system's ecological network. However, the practical methods of analysis need to be improved. Future analysis should focus on establishing a multilevel, unified, and standardized system of categories to support the creation of consistent inventory databases; it should also seek to improve the methods used in the analysis to provide standards and guidance that will help governments to achieve sustainable development. Finally, researchers must improve the ability to provide spatially explicit analyses that facilitate the task of applying research results to guide practical decision-support.

Carbon Metabolism in Urban Communities

Urban communities can be defined as key unit in advancing low-carbon city. The perspective of carbon metabolism in urban communities can help in unveiling emission characteristics and complex interactions between urban environment and communities. This paper introduced the metabolic perspective to unveil the intrinsic impetus of carbon emissions and reflect environmental impact to related systems in urban communities integrating the urban and household metabolism. The interactions of carbon metabolism at urban, communal and household levels were investigated to trace carbon flows. A conceptual metabolic model was also developed to reveal the mechanism of carbon metabolism in urban communities.

Modeling both direct and indirect environmental load of purchase decisions: a web-based tool addressing household metabolism

Consumer awareness is continuously increasing towards pro-environmental behavior. Thus, we developed a web-based environmental feedback tool EcoRunner, which is designed for Swedish households aiming at increasing the awareness in a more pro-environmental direction. The conceptual model of EcoRunner has been developed based on top-down and bottom-up approaches connecting economic activities within a household to environmental pressures (both direct and indirect). In addition, the development of the tool includes a multi-level model aiming at better tailor-made advice to consumers. In this paper, we examine the EcoRunner tool with average single Swedish household expenditures as well as explore options for reductions and systems effects. Analysis shows that food and non-alcoholic beverages, fuel for personal transport (e.g. car) and air transports have significant environmental pressures. In addition, this study suggests that EcoRunner could be used in education systems as an environmental feedback tool to enlighten consumers motivation and change consumption patterns.

Social Practices of Ordinary Consumption: An Introduction to Household Metabolism

In recent years, the evaluation of environmental sustainability of consumption practices has gained a central role in European research. Several analytical tools and methodologies are proposed in order to quantify the environmental burden of production and consumption. Such models can be very precise and efficient in the evaluation of energy consumption, emissions and land use, but most of the time; they are unsuitable to catch the social dimension of the investigation. Thus, many of them are unsuitable for investigating at the level of consumption practices. In this article we focus on Household Metabolism, a model that links social and environmental performances in order to perform a systemic investigation of the impact of consumption. Yet, housing metabolism implies not only quantitative aspects of consumption and the merging of different methods of analysis. It engenders some redefinitions of the sociology of consumption such as the discovery of the environmental aspects of consumption itself, the implication of household models in order to identify specific environmental impacts, and the significance of social practices as the principal activator of societal metabolism, and as the key driver for future changes in consumption behaviour.

城市代谢研究评述：内涵与方法

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 城市代谢研究评述:内涵与方法 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201306091538 作者: 作者单位: 北京师范大学环境学院,北京师范大学环境学院 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金(91325302,41271543);国家科技支撑计划课题(2012BAK30B03);国家基金委创新研究群体科学基金(51121003);高等学校博士学科点专项科研基金(20130003110027) A review on urban metabolism: connotation and methodology Author: Affiliation: School of Environment,Beijing Normal University,State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control,School of Environment,Beijing Normal University,State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:随着城市发展面临的生态问题日益显著,部分研究者试图通过对自然生态系统进行类比来寻求解决途径,城市代谢理论应运而生。当以系统科学来研究城市生态系统时,哲学思想的引入为探索和城市及城市代谢的内涵提供了最原始的桥梁。因此,在介绍城市代谢内涵与研究进展的基础上,融合产业、家庭、社会等多尺度代谢理论,对城市代谢的边界进行扩展,将其分为狭义与广义两类,结合亚里士多德的"四因说"对其质料因(组分)、形式因(结构)、动力因(驱动力)和目的因(功能)进行识别分析,据此将城市代谢研究方法归纳为质料、形式和混合研究方法三类,并提出未来研究的主要动向和解决手段。城市代谢"四因图"可为相关研究者提供参考。 Abstract:Facing the pressing ecological problems caused by urbanization, researchers have tried to seek for an effective solution with urban metabolism theory originated from the analogy of natural ecosystem. The metabolic concept has been introduced into artificial ecosystem and thus shapes the theoretical frameworks of the urban metabolism, industrial metabolism, household metabolism and social metabolism, blazing new trials for the urban metabolic studies. In order to penetrate into the urban metabolism issues, we divided the concept with the generalized and specific senses according to different metabolic objects and boundaries. The Aristotelian causality explores the constituted causes of a thing, embracing the material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. A four-causes-map for urban metabolism on the perspective of Aristotle's wisdom was thereby proposed to set up an integrated framework of multi-scale metabolic theories. The urban metabolism studies that have been widely extended and stimulated with myriad innovative methodologies can be interpreted as three main streams in view of Four Causes: 1) Material-based methodology emphasizing the energy and material fluxes of metabolic processes, e.g., material flow analysis,embodied energy (emergy) analysis; 2) Form-based methodology shaping the external morphology and internal structure of urban metabolism, e.g., spatial analysis, ecological footprint and ecological network analysis; 3) Hybrid methodology providing a panoramic figure of urban metabolism. Finally, the future trends and potential solutions were discussed to explore the metabolic pattern and carrying capacity issues relevant to the concrete urban planning activities. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Analysis about CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions Related to Household Consumption

Though analyzing the environmental impacts of household consumption has been well studied, little attention has been paid to a few basic questions. Compared to the CO2 emissions related to the productive process, we discuss the characteristics of the emissions related to household consumption. Extending the household metabolism model to open economy, we divide the emissions related to household consumption into three categories: direct and indirect emissions; domestic and imported emissions; autonomous and induced emissions. Then we build the estimative formulas respectively.

Cross-boundary environmental effects of urban household metabolism based on an urban spatial conceptual framework: a comparative case of Xiamen

The cross-boundary environmental effects of urban household metabolism are of increasing interest in the context of global climate change and the sustainability of urban systems. To assess resource exchanges and environmental emissions, urban household metabolism was investigated using an ‘emergy synthesis framework’, with the city of Xiamen providing case study data. Two data sets, one from the highly urbanized Xiamen Island (XI) and the other from the less urbanized Xiamen Mainland (XM), were collected and analyzed using an ‘urban spatial conceptual framework’. Household consumption and its spatial environmental effects are embodied by exchanges of resources, energy, services, and wastes between the urban system's physical footprint (‘Urban Sprawl Region’, USR), and its ecological footprint (‘Urban Footprint Region’, UFR). The results show that Xiamen's USR is connected to its UFRs by approximately 98.74% emergy flows. The distinct emergy indicators identified within the results show that the driving forces, processes, influences, efficiency and sustainability of household metabolism vary dramatically between XI and XM, demonstrating that different urban and social contexts significantly affect household metabolism. The Emergy Sustainability Index reveals that USR households need to make lifestyles changes to sustain development. The employed frameworks (urban spatial conceptual framework and emergy synthesis framework) enable the computation of household consumption and cross-boundary environmental effects. The results may help foster alternative household consumption strategies which could result in more equitable resource allocation and effective mitigation of cross-boundary environmental influences.

可持续消费的内涵及研究进展——产业生态学视角

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 可持续消费的内涵及研究进展——产业生态学视角 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201203170361 作者: 作者单位: 中国科学院生态环境研究中心城市与区域国家重点实验室,中国科学院生态环境研究中心,中国科学院生态环境研究中心 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金重点项目(71033005);国家自然科学基金面上项目(70873122) Definition and research progress of sustainable consumption: from industrial ecology view Author: Affiliation: Research Center for Eco-Enviornmental Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing: 100085,, Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:生产和消费是产生诸多环境问题的根本原因,而可持续生产和消费则是实现可持续发展的根本途径。基于产业生态学视角,界定了可持续消费的定义及内涵,认为可持续消费首先须符合代内公平、代际公平和资源能源永续合理利用等可持续理念;其次辨识了可持续消费研究依次经历关注消费者行为直接环境影响、关注产品和服务生命周期环境影响到关注消费者责任3个阶段;最后结合我国城市化、工业化背景,提出我国可持续消费研究应该以城市居民为重点、加强生命周期数据库建设和内注重可持续生产等建议。 Abstract:Production and consumption are basic human activities that impact on the environment, and sustainable consumption (SC),which emphases on fairness in and between generations, on sustainable use of energy and resource, is an effective way to get the goal of sustainable development. Industrial ecology (IE) strives to discover the relationship between industrial activities and their environmental impacts, and life cycle analysis (LCA) provides a method to evaluate the environmental impact of specific products or services, from cradle to grave. Strong Sustainable Consumption, in which life quality rises while resources and energy needs decline for the improvement of environmental awareness and the changes of consumption of consumer, is a senior model of SC, and Weak Sustainable Consumption, characterized by calling on producing more environmentally friendly products, is a junior stage of SC. The research interesting of SC changed with the development of SC theories and methods. Firstly, sustainable consumption studies mainly focused on the direct environmental impacts of consumption behaviro in 1990s, and then household metabolism was used to distinguish household environmental impacts by quantitative analysis of material flows and energy requirements. The HOMES (Household Metabolism Effectively Sustainable) project implemented by Groningen University unfolded that direct environmental impacts of consumption couldn't represent all the impacts, and the embedded parts were important too. The second stage of SC concerned for the whole life cycle environmental impacts of products and services with LCA. Because LCA is a bottom-up model and intact data of residential consumption is too hard to collect, so Hybrid LCA, or economic input-output LCA (EIO-LCA), was a substitute to overcome the limitation of data requirement for traditional LCA. Hybrid LCA is base on the complex relationships between industrial sectors, and can be used to detect how economic structure, life style, and technologic innovation affect environmental impacts. The third stage involved discussion of consumer responsibility due to increasing interesting in carbon responsibility and carbon responsibility allocation caused by international trade. By the use of Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) analysis, the focus of SC shifts to consumer responsibility of global carbon emission from environmental impacts of consumption. MRIO is supposed to be significant to discriminate the carbon footprint of different consumption pattern and to calculate the carbon emission allocation globally in the future. SC is an important part of Circle Economy and Resource saving and environment friendly society in China. Based on the process of urbanization and industrialization in the next decades, the authors make the following three suggestions for sustainable consumption researches in China: 1) Highlight the urban resident's consumption. Urban residents consume much more products and services than rural residents, and the quantity of urban residents will keep arising in the future. 2) Construct fundamental national LCA database by integrating acquired LCA database of related institutions and universities and establish standard methods. 3) Focus on sustainable production in short term. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

A geographically and socio-economically disaggregated local household consumption model for the UK

A key challenge for local environmental and economic planning is to predict resource flows and material waste arisings at a high level of geographical localisation. This paper presents an approach to household consumption modelling in which the material demands of small socio-economically homogeneous neighbourhoods are estimated on the basis of consumer expenditure data in conjunction with Census data. Household waste arisings are estimated through incorporation of a household metabolism model. Selected material flows of consumer commodities, such as household appliances, carpets and clothing, are examined in case study areas representing extremes of relative deprivation, and neighbourhoods representing typical examples of the UK National Output Area Classification (OAC). The model will be of use in sustainable consumption policy-making and local waste strategy planning.

Metabolism and Driving Forces of Chinese Urban Household Consumption

This study was aimed at developing a better understanding of environmental pressure of urban household consumption in China. First, we introduced the concept model of household metabolism. Using this model, we analyzed the changes of Chinese household metabolism during the last 20 years. Rather than taking into account all aspects of household consumption, we just focused on water and energy metabolisms. After exploring the clearly increasing trends of urban household metabolism in China, we identified the underlying driving forces as biological/physical factors, economic/marketing factors and demographic factors. In conclusion, we suggest that additional work must be carried out in a wider range of household activities and at more advanced research levels in China.

Pursuing More Sustainable Consumption by Analyzing Household Metabolism in European Countries and Cities

SummaryBringing about more sustainable consumption patterns is an important challenge for society and science. In this article the concept of household metabolism is applied to analyzing consumption patterns and to identifying possibilities for the development of sustainable household consumption patterns. Household metabolism is determined in terms of total energy requirements, including both direct and indirect energy requirements, using a hybrid method. This method enables us to evaluate various determinants of the environmental load of consumption consistently at several levels—the national level, the local level, and the household level.The average annual energy requirement of households varies considerably between the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden, as well as within these countries. The average expenditure level per household explains a large part of the observed variations. Differences between these countries are also related to the efficiency of the production sectors and to the energy supply system. The consumption categories of food, transport, and recreation show the largest contributions to the environmental load. A comparison of consumer groups with different household characteristics shows remarkable differences in the division of spending over the consumption categories.Thus, analyses of different types of households are important for providing a basis for options to induce decreases of the environmental load of household consumption. At the city level, options for change are provided by an analysis of the city infrastructure, which determines a large part of the direct energy use by households (for transport and heating). At the national level, energy efficiency in production and in electricity generation is an important trigger for decreasing household energy requirements.

Towards an Integrated Regional Materials Flow Accounting Model

SummaryA key challenge in attaining regional sustainability is to reduce both the direct and the indirect environmental impacts associated with economic and household activity in the region. Knowing what these flows are and how they change over time is a prerequisite for this task.This article describes the early development of an integrated regional materials flow accounting framework. The framework is based on a hybrid (material and economic) multiregional input‐output model. Using readily available economic and materials data sets together with transport and logistics data, the framework attempts to provide estimates of household resource flows for any U.K. region at quite detailed levels of product and material disaggregation. It is also capable of disaggregating these flows according to specific socioeconomic criteria such as income level or occupation of the head of household. Allied to appropriate energy and life‐cycle assessment data sets, the model could, in addition, be used to map both direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with these flows.The benefits of such an approach are likely to be a considerable reduction of uncertainties in (1) our knowledge of the household metabolism, and hence our predictions of regional household waste generation; (2) our assessment of the impacts of contemplated changes in industrial process siting, and thereby on other aspects of local and regional planning; and (3) our understanding of the impacts of changes in the pattern of demand for different materials and products. It is concluded that the use of such an integrated assessment tool has much to contribute to the debate on regional sustainability.

Energy requirements of household consumption: a case study of The Netherlands

This article describes the results of several research programmes that together aim at the development and application of methodologies that enable the study of long-term environmental effects (mainly related to the total household energy demand) of household consumption in relation to other economic sectors; this is usually described as the household metabolism approach. In this article we use energy consumption and CO 2 emissions as proxies for long-term impacts on the environment. The major long-term environmental effects of several hundred Dutch household consumption categories have been determined by means of the hybrid energy analysis methodology. Total energy consumption and related CO 2 emission data have been calculated as a function of household income and family type. Past trends have been studied by a time series (1950–1990) analysis. Technical reduction potentials have been calculated for mid and long-term scenarios. It is concluded that the set of methodologies described form a useful tool for the analysis of unsustainable trends in household consumption patterns and associated energy requirements in the past and the present. The results indicate that present trends lead towards unsustainability. However, reversal of these trends is feasible if this starts in the immediate future and if it is maintained for decades.

Changing lifestyles in transition routes towards sustainable household consumption patterns

Recent decades have witnessed increasing consumption levels, and associated production levels, notably in the Western industrialised world. Past and future trends in household metabolic rates and the environmental impacts thereof are studied within the interdisciplinary research programme HOMES (Household Metabolism Effectively Sustainable). Drawing on empirical research largely from the Netherlands, it was concluded that Dutch trends follow the general Western patterns. Considering the driving forces underlying these developments, there appear no short-term signs of shifts towards sustainable household consumption patterns. In order to cut down the environmental impacts of household consumption, sustainable options that aim to reduce household metabolic rates have to be (re)designed, and ways to implement them need to be identified. Changes in lifestyles might significantly reduce or increase the environmental impacts of consumer activities. We present the results of a scenario-based study in which the environmental impacts of various lifestyles are compared with long-term sustainability objectives. Specific options for reducing the energy requirements of various consumer lifestyles are identified for different time frames: present day, short term (2005) and mid term (2015). The results presented can be summarised as follows: while present trends are towards unsustainability and environmental deterioration, a reversal of these trends is feasible if this reversal starts very soon and is continued for decades.