SUPPORTING SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES BY COMMUNICATING BENCHMARKS FOR RESOURCE CONSUMPTION WITH HELP OF A NOVEL ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

According to UNEP, household consumption is responsible for 60 % of the total life cycle impacts of final consumption in most countries. Therefore, the transition to a more sustainable society can only be achieved by changing current consumption and production patterns. There are two basic problems which need to be solved in order to reach this goal: The first problem is the lack of environmental information for products. The second problem is that even if information exists, it might be to abstract to incorporate and transform it into action. Based on results of environmental psychology and a model for individual change, we analyse this problem and postulate that by setting system knowledge and target knowledge in relation to each other meaningful benchmarks can be derived. Those benchmarks can help to create transformation knowledge, lead to a successful benchmarking process and therewith promote the transition to sustainable consumption. To develop such benchmarks, the following questions are addressed in this paper: (1) How is the current information base of target knowledge? (2) What information is interesting for specific target groups? (3) What are target group specific benchmarks and how should they be communicated? Even though businesses would also profit from improved information, the paper focuses on communicating information to consumers. The paper presents result of the project myEcoCost (www.myecococst.eu), funded by the European Commission. Within the project, a software system has been developed that automatically calculates resource consumption and emissions along a product value chain using company data from the companies' accounting systems. The results are shown as "ecoCosts" and can be provided via smartphone app to the consumer. Therewith the system can help solving the problem of missing system knowledge of economic actors and serve as basis for benchmarking.