A Carbon Consumption Comparison of Rural and Urban Lifestyles

Jukka Heinonen and Seppo Junnila
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Jukka Heinonen: Aalto University School of Engineering, P.O. Box 11200, 00076 AALTO, Finland
Seppo Junnila: Aalto University School of Engineering, P.O. Box 11200, 00076 AALTO, Finland

Sustainability, 2011, vol. 3, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Sustainable consumption has been addressed from different perspectives in numerous studies. Recently, urban structure-related lifestyle issues have gained more emphasis in the research as cities search for effective strategies to reduce their 80% share of the global carbon emissions. However, the prevailing belief often seen is that cities would be more sustainable in nature compared to surrounding suburban and rural areas. This paper will illustrate, by studying four different urban structure related lifestyles in Finland, that the situation might be reversed. Actually, substantially more carbon emissions seem to be caused on a per capita level in cities than in suburban and rural areas. This is mainly due to the higher income level in larger urban centers, but even housing-related emissions seem to favor less urbanized areas. The method of the study is a consumption-based life cycle assessment of carbon emissions. In more detail, a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) model, that is comprehensive in providing a full inventory and can accommodate process data, is utilized.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; carbon; climate change; lifestyle; consumption; urban structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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