IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2019i1p231-d302355.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caveats in Environmental Justice, Consumption and Ecological Footprints: The Relationship and Policy Implications of Socioeconomic Rank and Sustainable Consumption Patterns

Author

Listed:
  • Meital Peleg-Mizrachi

    (Department of Public Policy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel)

  • Alon Tal

    (Department of Public Policy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel)

Abstract

The study evaluates the sustainability of consumption patterns among different socioeconomic deciles based on individual ecological footprints generated by four of the world’s most polluting industries: animal products/meat, textiles, transport, and residential energy. Online shopping is also considered due to its mounting popularity. A national survey, which ensured equal representation of socioeconomic deciles, involving 600 respondents in Israel was conducted, supplemented by follow-up semi-structured personal interviews with 25 participants. Conventional wisdom supports the notion that wealthier segments of society produce greater ecological footprints in all aspects of their consumption. In fact, our findings reveal that patterns are more nuanced and that there are areas in which poorer populations reveal less sustainable consumption patterns: poorer populations in the lower deciles report a greater per capita ecological footprint in their purchases of textiles and food consumption. By contrast, wealthier deciles have relatively larger ecological footprints in the areas of transport and residential patterns (which drive their energy consumption). Results suggest that some of the fundamental assumptions among environmental justice advocates regarding contrasting consumption patterns in affluent and poorer segments of society are not always supported by empirical evidence. Findings also indicate that there is room for greater government interventions to facilitate more sustainable consumption patterns among poorer populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Meital Peleg-Mizrachi & Alon Tal, 2019. "Caveats in Environmental Justice, Consumption and Ecological Footprints: The Relationship and Policy Implications of Socioeconomic Rank and Sustainable Consumption Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:231-:d:302355
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/231/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/231/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berners-Lee, M. & Hoolohan, C. & Cammack, H. & Hewitt, C.N., 2012. "The relative greenhouse gas impacts of realistic dietary choices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 184-190.
    2. Michelle Harding, 2014. "Personal Tax Treatment of Company Cars and Commuting Expenses: Estimating the Fiscal and Environmental Costs," OECD Taxation Working Papers 20, OECD Publishing.
    3. Graham-Rowe, Ella & Skippon, Stephen & Gardner, Benjamin & Abraham, Charles, 2011. "Can we reduce car use and, if so, how? A review of available evidence," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 401-418, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Baker, Douglas & Washington, Simon & Turrell, Gavin, 2013. "Residential dissonance and mode choice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 12-28.
    2. Jun Guan Neoh & Maxwell Chipulu & Alasdair Marshall, 2017. "What encourages people to carpool? An evaluation of factors with meta-analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 423-447, March.
    3. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Druckman, Angela & Firth, Steven K. & Jackson, Tim, 2014. "Who rebounds most? Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for different UK socioeconomic groups," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 12-32.
    4. Teixeira, João Filipe & Silva, Cecília & Moura e Sá, Frederico, 2023. "Factors influencing modal shift to bike sharing: Evidence from a travel survey conducted during COVID-19," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    5. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Keskisaari, Ville & Ottelin, Juudit & Heinonen, Jukka, 2017. "Greenhouse gas impacts of different modality style classes using latent class travel behavior model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 155-164.
    7. Skippon, Stephen & Veeraraghavan, Shoba & Ma, Hongrui & Gadd, Paul & Tait, Nigel, 2012. "Combining technology development and behaviour change to meet CO2 cumulative emission budgets for road transport: Case studies for the USA and Europe," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1405-1423.
    8. Morena Bruno & Marianne Thomsen & Federico Maria Pulselli & Nicoletta Patrizi & Michele Marini & Dario Caro, 2019. "The carbon footprint of Danish diets," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 489-507, October.
    9. Patricia Eustachio Colombo & Emma Patterson & Liselotte Schäfer Elinder & Anna Karin Lindroos & Ulf Sonesson & Nicole Darmon & Alexandr Parlesak, 2019. "Optimizing School Food Supply: Integrating Environmental, Health, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions of Diet Sustainability with Linear Programming," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-18, August.
    10. Linnea Laestadius & Roni Neff & Colleen Barry & Shannon Frattaroli, 2013. "Meat consumption and climate change: the role of non-governmental organizations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 25-38, September.
    11. Peter Scarborough & Paul Appleby & Anja Mizdrak & Adam Briggs & Ruth Travis & Kathryn Bradbury & Timothy Key, 2014. "Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 179-192, July.
    12. Aihua Fan & Xumei Chen, 2020. "Exploring the Relationship between Transport Interventions, Mode Choice, and Travel Perception: An Empirical Study in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-19, June.
    13. Vivian G. M. Quam & Joacim Rocklöv & Mikkel B. M. Quam & Rebekah A. I. Lucas, 2017. "Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Health Co-Benefits: A Structured Review of Lifestyle-Related Climate Change Mitigation Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-19, April.
    14. Jara Laso & Cristina Campos & Ana Fernández-Ríos & Daniel Hoehn & Andrea del Río & Israel Ruiz-Salmón & Jorge Cristobal & Ainoa Quiñones & Francisco José Amo-Setién & María del Carmen Ortego & Sergio , 2020. "Looking for Answers to Food Loss and Waste Management in Spain from a Holistic Nutritional and Economic Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, December.
    15. Ivana Semanjski & Sidharta Gautama, 2016. "Forecasting the State of Health of Electric Vehicle Batteries to Evaluate the Viability of Car Sharing Practices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-17, December.
    16. Perino, Grischa & Schwirplies, Claudia, 2022. "Meaty arguments and fishy effects: Field experimental evidence on the impact of reasons to reduce meat consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    17. Jennifer A. Jay & Raffaella D’Auria & J. Cully Nordby & David Andy Rice & David A. Cleveland & Anthony Friscia & Sophie Kissinger & Marc Levis & Hannah Malan & Deepak Rajagopal & Joel R. Reynolds & We, 2019. "Reduction of the carbon footprint of college freshman diets after a food-based environmental science course," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 547-564, June.
    18. Candice Howarth & Peter Bryant & Adam Corner & Sam Fankhauser & Andy Gouldson & Lorraine Whitmarsh & Rebecca Willis, 2020. "Building a Social Mandate for Climate Action: Lessons from COVID-19," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1107-1115, August.
    19. Daniel Francisco Pais & António Cardoso Marques & José Alberto Fuinhas, 2022. "The cost of healthier and more sustainable food choices: Do plant-based consumers spend more on food?," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Zinette Bergman, 2019. "Trains in the Land of the Car: A Case Study of Mobility as Agency in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-12, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:231-:d:302355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.