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Lifestyles, Wellbeing and Energy
Joyashree Roy, Jadavpur University, India.
Options do exist beyond supply side interventions
from consumer perspective
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Ultimate energy use is influenced by a number of factors
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income and affluence
non-economic and non-technological drivers: such as lifestyle, culture,
religion, desire for improved well being, and behavior
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Policies and measures can modify or change lifestyles and preferences
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Notions of well-being that are not based on material consumption alone offers
new policy options
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A reduction in energy services demand does not necessarily reduce well-being
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Life style changes are an effective and powerful approach to addressing
sustainability issues, as it can provide better multiple benefits
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better health
low fossil fuel based mobility
lower emissions
nutrition without reducing socio-economic status
adds flexibility to supply side options
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Weakening of the income-energy coupling: Already happening
While real global GDP increased by 1.6 times from
1990 to 2007, total primary energy use increased by
1.4 times
Need to look beyond economic drivers: behavioral,
lifestyle choices, culture, religion etc.
The chapter explores a more fundamental question of whether defining
affluence in purely economic terms is an appropriate measure for wellbeing.
Referring to well-being also means addressing not only absolute
reductions in energy services , which might be an issue for high-income
consumers and regions, but also absolute increases in energy services,
which are still necessary for a huge percentage of the population in
developing countries.
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Diet Matters
: A Cultural, religious habit but also ‘acquired’ taste
90% Hindus and Buddhist, 75% Muslims, 16% Jews follow dietary restrictions of
religion
: Global transition is toward “more-affluent” food consumption patterns
-meat consumption (24% beef) increasing
- difference between the energy input for plant- and meat-based meals
may exceed a factor of 10
: in internationally connected world through trade:
-Preference for overseas food is changing, seasonal/fresh food is
changing
:Over the past few decades, energy needs for transport, storage, and
processing increased in the food sector, especially for meat products.
: In high income countries Food accounts for 17–18% of household indirect
energy use
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Per Capita Meat Consumption Across Regions
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Food: how and from where
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Mobility Matters
Vehicle ownership and energy use ? Beijing, Shanghai vis-à-vis Tokyo : less
ownership more fuel use. In US both are high, with as high as 65% of global
passenger km travelled.
Mobility for accessibility: Living near work place
Walking ,bicycling short distances
Telecommuting increases electricity use but reduces primary energy use
International tourism
Private jet
Socially -More value for individual freedom, private space…, marketing strategy,
human settlement design, public transport service status, infrastructure- all
matters
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Direct and Indirect Energy Use
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Possible to Influence preference
Lifestyle choice: extrinsic factor. A decision variable amenable to
change
Decision levels : Individual (Consumers undervalue energy saving
actions), landscape (culture, value, social norm, environmentalism),
macro (infrastructure design, market price, zoning)
• Knowledge-based interventions to increase individual intention to
adopt energy use strategies.
• Engaging people requires a constructive response from the
community to actual or perceived threats.
• Necessary to show individual consumers or small groups of
consumers that any one person or a small group of people can
have an enormous impact
• Consumers are important in the design, implementation of public
policy and decisions and also as peer monitoring groups.
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Role of Policies
Laws regulating individual consumption decisions could be supplementary to
strengthen informational impact.
Political will to change energy policy, peoples’ support to take on extra burden
Need to build strong environmentalism
Sufficiency led policy strategy: addressing level of consumption
Driving heavy private cars, eating meat, or traveling by airplane and private jet
should be prohibited or restricted?
Not really, sufficiency means consumption with moderation and prudence.
Developing awareness of the consequences of actions beyond monetized costbenefit analysis and of markets beyond local or regional scope.
Change in top-down decisions in infrastructure design and educating communities
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Beyond Affluence to Wellbeing
Mono-dimensional: consumer
Multi dimensional :consumer
:determinant of wellbeing
rich –poor , Income –
expenditure binary
:homogenised life style
choices
: low human labour/work
: acquired dietary choices
:+constitutents of wellbeing
: health, happiness, freedom
: more diverse lifestyle choices
:walking/ cycling/nonmotorised means of
transport
: seasonal, local, cultural,
religious dietary choices
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Income and Wellbeing Correlation Weaker Beyond a Point
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Additional entry point
Reduction in phantom load has potential of reducing 10% of energy bill
Limit of lean meat consumption per year recommended by American Heart
Association per capita per year @ 62.6 kg. Currently FAO statistics show 54
countries have percapita annual consumption higher than the standard ranging
between 63.2 (Mexico)-122.79 (US).
1.4% of current global primary energy use reduction potential
Healthy mobility has 1.3% of primary use reduction potential
Emerging corporate citizenship practices, donations and gifts for environmental
programs, incentives for employees to work with community groups on natural
resource conservation and protection, drive information campaign, product
labeling, and purchase policies .
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Research Gap
new welfare & well-being measures
link energy use to such alternative measures
efficiency-led strategies need to be tied to sufficiency to become a widely used
strategy that changes values and notions of wellbeing
assess the macroeconomic effects of large-scale switches to more-sufficient
lifestyles over various time scales in the future.
A key issue is how a large reduction in consumption could be absorbed by the
economy without generating large unemployment.
Simultaneous redistribution of labor could offer a solution, but further analysis is
clearly needed.
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GEA Chapter 21 authors
Coordinating Lead Author:
Joyashree Roy (Jadavpur University , India)
Lead Authors:
Anne-Maree Dowd (CSIRO)
Adrian Müller (University of Zurich)
Shamik Pal (Institute of Engineering and Management)
Ndola Prata (University of California, Berkeley)
Review Editor :
Sylvie Lemmet (UNEP)