Live Better by Consuming Less?: Is There a “Double Dividend” in Sustainable Consumption?

Abstract

Summary Industrial ecology has mainly been concerned with improving the efficiency of production systems. But addressing consump- tion is also vital in reducing the impact of society on its environ- ment.Theconceptofsustainableconsumptionisaresponseto this. But the debates about sustainable consumption can only really be understood in the context of much wider and deeper debates about consumption and about consumer behavior it- self. This article explores some of these wider debates. In par- ticular, it draws attention to a fundamental disagreement that runs through the literature on consumption and haunts the debate on sustainable consumption: the question of whether, or to what extent, consumption can be taken as ''good for us.'' Some approaches assume that increasing consumption is more or less synonymous with improved well-being: the more we consume the better off we are. Others argue, just as ve- hemently, that the scale of consumption in modern society is both environmentally and psychologically damaging, and that we could reduce consumption significantly without threaten- ing the quality of our lives. This second viewpoint suggests that a kind of ''double dividend'' is inherent in sustainable consump- tion: the ability to live better by consuming less and reduce our impact on the environment in the process. In the final analysis, this article argues, such ''win-win'' solutions may exist but will require a concerted societal effort to realize.