1. Consumption

2. The Coffee Cup Debate • The average ceramic mug requires 25.5 times more energy to make than the average paper cup—14 mega Jules (MJ) versus 0.55 MJ per cup. • The embedded energy disparity is even greater with foam cups, 14 MJ compared to 0.20 MJ per cup—that’s a difference of 700 percent. Break-even point?

3. Recycling is “green”…relative to what? 3 Rs of environmentalism: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

4. Extended Producer Responsibility Designing products that can actually be recycled

5. Sociology of Consumption • Social comparison • Conspicuous consumption • Identity • Specialization • Sociotechnical systems • Planned obsolescence

6. Carrotmob Buycott vs. Boycott http://vimeo.com/925729 Since 2008, carrotmobs have spread to 10 other US cities and Finland and France.

7. The past: nonmarket coordination of large groups of people from around the world for purposes of resource allocation too difficult. • Today: new forms of social media have greatly reduced these barriers. Collaborative Consumption

8. Peer-to-Peer Renting • Peer-to-peer sites that create a low-transaction cost environment are allowing a type of “commons” to appear. • For instance, irent2you.com, rentmineonline.com, and iletyou.com • Estimated that if the United States shifted a fifth of its household spending from purchasing to renting, the country would cut CO2 emissions by roughly 2 percent (or 13 million tons) annually.

9. Car Sharing (Rent and Peer-to-Peer)“Low-Car Diet Challenge”http://vimeo.com/33442883 • Surveyed after the challenge • Reduced vehicle miles travelled by 66 percent • Increased the miles walked and biked by 93 percent and 132 percent, respectively • Almost half of the participants reported losing weight. • Perhaps most importantly, 61 percent said they planned to continue with their new transportation habits.

10. Zip Car • Average car users save an estimated US$600 a month and reduce vehicle miles traveled by 44 percent when they switch to car sharing. • When people share cars they begin to realize they don’t actually need them as much as they once thought. • In some markets, every car-sharing vehicle takes up to eight owned vehicles off the road.

11. The rebound effect: when increases in efficiency reduce total resource consumption but not in full proportion to the efficiency improvement. • For example, when a 20 percentgain in efficiency leads to reduction in consumption or waste by only 10 percent • When the effect is more than 100 percent of the efficiency gain it is a Jevons paradox. • The tendency to reinvest efficiency gains in additional consumption Rebound Effect vs. Jevons Paradox