Publication
The transformation of society to sustainable consumption and production patterns is a future key challenge. Households play a major role in this transformation process. This paper describes results of a resource consumption analysis at household level, conducted in Germany as part of the Living Lab research in the EU-project SuslabNWE (Sustainable Living Lab North West Europe, www.suslabnwe.eu). The project explores social and technological innovations in the field of heating and develops strategies for sustainable household consumption. To analyse the resource consumption of households a methodology for assessing households’ material consumption and consumption patterns was derived. The analysis intended to identify the impact of social practices on resource consumption. Therefore, households’ (n=16) natural resource consumption was calculated in different fields of activity. The direct consumption of resources was taken into account as well as their life-cycle wide impact. Finally, it was possible to compile consumption roadmaps together with seven of the involved households. In the course of the road mapping process, the households developed different options in a short, medium or long term frame collaboratively with researchers to reduce resource consumption in the fields of actions. Results show the applicability of the methodology, possibilities for further development, the transformational potential for changing behaviour as well as for product-service design (PSS). For example, it is possible to derive a less detailed questionnaire for assessing households’ resource consumption that can be used and integrated in an online tool, developed for calculating individual resource consumption (www.ressourcen-rechner.de). The resulting resource profiles show that next to technical options there is a high potential for structural changes and social innovations materialized in low resource PSS. The road mapping process showed the high motivation of the households for changing social practices and the need for adapted PSS and infrastructures.