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Consumption and consumer footprint

Methodology and results : indicators and assessment of the environmental impact of European consumption

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This report presents the results of the Life Cycle Indicators (LC-IND2) project3, aimed at developing two sets of Life Cycle Assessment-based indicators for assessing the environmental impact of EU consumption: the Consumer Footprint and the Consumption Footprint. The indicators have been designed aiming at: building a Life cycle assessment-based framework for monitoring of sustainable production and consumption (e.g. in relation to the Sustainable Development Goal 12). The methodology allows assessing 16 environmental impacts from three different perspectives: end-consumer product groups level;areas of consumption (food, housing, mobility, consumer goods, and appliances); the average EU consumer; developing a single headline indicator to monitor the evolution of the overall environmental impacts of EU consumption and production at Member State level, as well as the progress towards decoupling economic growth from environmental impacts. The single headline indicator is the results of weighting the 16 indicators mentioned above; testing ecoinnovation scenarios along the supply chains, from extraction of raw materials, to consumer behaviour, up to end of life options. Main results indicate that the EU can be considered a “net importer of environmental impacts”. This implies that the Consumption Footprint (overall impacts related to consumption of good and services, including trade) is higher than the Domestic Footprint (impacts generated in the EU area). Five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods, and appliances) have been assessed through the Life Cycle Assessment of more than 130 representative products. Consumption of food emerged as one of the main driver of impacts generated by household consumption, followed by housing (especially for space heating) and mobility (especially the use of private cars). Consumer Footprint was increasing between 2010 and 2015, at a rate of 6% over the 5 years. The environmental impact of the consumption of an average EU citizen is outside the safe operating space for humanity for several impact categories, namely climate change, resource use (fossils fuels, minerals and metals), freshwater eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, land use, and particulate matter. Despite the differences in the robustness of the impact categories, results conclude that for most categories the impacts are close (if not over) to the planetary boundary.
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ISSN 1831-9424
ISBN 978-92-79-97256-0
DOI 10.2760/98570
Katalognummer KJ-NA-29441-EN-N
ISSN 1018-5593
ISBN 978-92-79-97255-3
DOI 10.2760/15899
Katalognummer KJ-NA-29441-EN-C
PDF
ISSN 1831-9424 ISBN 978-92-79-97256-0 DOI 10.2760/98570 Katalognummer KJ-NA-29441-EN-N
Papir
ISSN 1018-5593 ISBN 978-92-79-97255-3 DOI 10.2760/15899 Katalognummer KJ-NA-29441-EN-C
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