Proceedings: Sustainable Consumption: The Contribution of Research, Workshop, 10-12 February 2005, Gabels Hus, Oslo,

Abstract

The implementation of sustainable consumption requires research to assess the environmental impacts of different lifestyles, to develop proposals for changes in consumption patterns, to deliver insights into the factors that shape consumption, to develop and evaluate scenarios, and to study and evaluate efforts of implementation. It requires research to deliver tools and information to policy makers, industry and the interested public. Such ambitious goals can only be achieved through an international, collaborative research effort. This seminar takes stock of the current research in order to develop a common research agenda and a proposal for a research infrastructure, consisting of common classifications, protocols, databases, and assessment methods. The first part of the workshop focuses on the assessment of household environmental impacts, the understanding of consumption patterns and consumer behaviour, examples of sustainable consumption, acceptability of policy measures, and scenario analysis.

The second part of the workshop discusses the development of a common, interdisciplinary research approach and a common research agenda. This effort may include the development of common data bases, data formats, models, protocols, indicators and assessment methods so that research becomes more cumulative and results can be more easily compared. It also requires that researchers from different disciplines develop a common platform, which includes a set of core research questions and common publication channels. This workshop is a first step towards developing the proposal for such a research infrastructure, as well as charting out a plan of action to put it in place.