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The design of an environmental index of sustainable food consumption: A pilot study using supermarket data

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  • Panzone, Luca A.
  • Wossink, Ada
  • Southerton, Dale

Abstract

Monitoring of the environmental impacts of consumption is necessary for the evaluation of current performance and to support the understanding of how initiatives for change can be implemented. We discuss design issues and methodology for an Environmentally Sensitive Shopper (ESS) index to measure the environmental sustainability of food consumption at the household level. The ESS index is based on revealed consumer preferences and uses scanner data provided by the largest UK food retailer. As a pilot illustration of the methodology, we use the index to identify environmentally critical periods during the calendar year.

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  • Panzone, Luca A. & Wossink, Ada & Southerton, Dale, 2013. "The design of an environmental index of sustainable food consumption: A pilot study using supermarket data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 44-55.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:94:y:2013:i:c:p:44-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.07.003
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    1. Panzone, Luca & Hilton, Denis & Sale, Laura & Cohen, Doron, 2016. "Socio-demographics, implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, and sustainable consumption in supermarket shopping," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 77-95.
    2. Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri & Claudia P. Romero & María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero, 2020. "Land Use/Land Cover Assessment over Time Using a New Weighted Environmental Index (WEI) Based on an Object-Oriented Model and GIS Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Panzone, Luca A. & Ulph, Alistair & Zizzo, Daniel John & Hilton, Denis & Clear, Adrian, 2021. "The impact of environmental recall and carbon taxation on the carbon footprint of supermarket shopping," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainable consumption; Sustainability index; Revealed preferences; Food;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

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