Browsing by Subject "carbon footprint"

Households globally contribute 72 %, and in Finland about 70 % of greenhouse gas emissions, so they have a remarkable potential to mitigate climate change. Alongside technical solutions, human behavior patterns have been identified as a significant component of consumption, and changing them towards more environmentally friendly direction would increase our chances to combat climate change. These behaviors can be explored with social practice theory that sees people’s daily behavior as a part of a broader independent object, practice. As in many aspects households' everyday life consists of repetition of daily habits, social practice theory provides a suitable framework for assessing the changes made by households. This Master's Thesis will look into two household consumption sub-areas, mobility and the use of electrical appliances, in four Finnish sustainable consumption projects related to households. The material for the study was collected from written material as well as interviewing two experts from each project's personnel. The projects were living lab experiments in which 5 to 16 households tried to reduce their consumption of energy and natural resources by making more sustainable consumption choices and changing their habits. How do these projects seek to influence practices? What is the significance of the changes related to mobility and electric appliances for climate change mitigation in the home context? To assess this significance, a framework for evaluation, climate change mitigation potential, was developed. To be a decisive measure, a significant reduction in the carbon footprint as well as the ability to spread widely among households are essential. Thus, the climate change mitigation potential of a given measure was determined as the product of 1) impact, and 2) feasibility, which were estimated on a five-step scale. As a basis for the evaluation, both project material and more general analyses were used. 13 measures were identified, that aimed to influence the practices of using electrical appliances and of mobility, either by recrafting the elements of the practices, substituting old practices with new ones, changing how different practices interlock, or combining these approaches. The unanimous opinion of the interviewees was that personal counseling played a particularly important role in achieving the changes. The climate change mitigation potential was low in electrical appliance use and moderate in mobility changes. The result was not surprising, since the use of electrical appliances accounts for smaller part of households' greenhouse gas emissions than mobility. However, the climate change mitigation potential turned out to be a viable assessment framework that has value in future experiments and policy interventions, helping to focus on measures that have the greatest potential to reduce climate stress. Although, especially by changing the practices of mobility, households can achieve significant carbon dioxide savings, the balancing between realistic feasibility and good impact will result in the magnitude of less than 10 % of the households’ carbon footprint, including both mobility and electric appliance use. Taking other areas of consumption into account will improve this potential, but it is undeniable that households on their own will not be able to accomplish the almost 80 % reduction required for a sustainable level of consumption. Therefore, expectations of sustainable consumption cannot be left only to households and the changing of habits, but it is equally important to create a sustainable energy and infrastructure system, which will enable households to satisfy their remaining energy and mobility needs economically and fluently. In the end, the responsibility of this system falls on the decision makers, as only they have the necessary means to steer and sponsor companies, researchers and consumers to build together a carbon-free future.