Sustainable Development: Consumption and resource use
People use or consume natural and physical resources in their economic activity and in their day-to-day lives - things like fresh food, packaging, water, the air we breathe, fuels for transport and heating, plastics, metals and fibres. Some resources are made into things we use in our jobs or for recreation and leisure like vehicles, computers and electricity, paper, sports equipment and special clothes or shoes. All these ‘consumables’ are produced from the environment’s rich resource base - a base that is considered our natural capital.
This chapter reports on New Zealand’s household consumption, the solid waste we produce, our use of transport, and the energy we consume.
The relationship between consumption and resource use and sustainable development is much broader than can be represented by the indicators reported in this section. The indicators used in this chapter provide information from data that are currently available to give a ‘snapshot’ measure of the state of our natural capital relative to sustainable development.
This chapter covers:
| Topics
| Sustainable development indicators selected
| Contextual discussion
|
| Household consumption
| Real household consumption expenditure
|  |
| Solid waste
| Waste disposal at landfills
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| Recycling
| |
| Energy
| Total consumer energy use
| |
| Transport
| Total vehicle kilometres travelled
| |
How is consumption and resource use relevant to sustainable development?
New Zealand’s consumption patterns affect sustainable development. The volume and rate at which we consume has impacts on the resources available in the future. Social and economic well-being are heavily dependent on natural resources but consumption of these resources today may affect their availability for future use.
Consumption also generates waste. The generation and disposal of waste has a variety of environmental, economic and social impacts. For example, the contamination of water or soils, the costs associated with cleaning up contaminated sites and the health effects of poor air quality, such as respiratory diseases. Any reduction in our overall health has important implications for other social and economic aspects of our lives. Poor health may affect our ability to work, which can in turn affect our income and our overall standard of living. Environment-related illness also has a wider economic impact when health care costs are considered.
Although economic activity is a major driver influencing our use of natural resources, economic growth can also provide the means to address environmental concerns. For example, with higher levels of income, provision can be made for cleaning up contamination, reducing waste and pollution, and funding research and development of technological solutions to environmental problems (eg cleaner production and energy-efficient homes).
Current situation and trends
The two main direct impacts of New Zealand’s household consumption on the environment are as a result of energy use (including transport) and waste production. In 2001, New Zealand households spent on average $125 on food and $121 on transport each week.1 Nationally over 3.4 million tonnes of solid waste are delivered to New Zealand landfills each year.2 While the indicators presented in this section are a small set of environmental indicators that measure pressures on the environment, they do show conditions or trends in aspects of consumption and resource use.
Household consumption
Solid waste
Energy
Transport
What are the differences within New Zealand?
As is the case in assessing environment and ecosystem resilience, the paucity of nationally representative data makes it difficult to talk about regional differences. There is a lack of data on the same aspects of consumption and resource use around the country. However, the indicators do show:
- Household consumption has increased steadily.
- The generation of solid waste has increased overall. More waste is being generated in regions with larger populations (eg Auckland, Wellington and Waikato) and only two regions (Manawatu-Wanganui and Gisborne) have reduced their solid waste disposed to landfill.
- Paper is recycled more than any other material, and the recycling of packaging waste overall has increased steadily.
- Energy use has steadily increased in all sectors except the industrial sector, where it has remained constant. By far the largest increase in energy use has been for domestic transport.
Factors influencing change
Every one of us has an impact on the environment. The level of impact depends on the choices we make about how we live, the things we buy and consume, and the waste we produce as a result. For most people there is a choice about what to consume, for example, what type of food to buy, how to travel, what to wear, or what leisure activities to take part in, and there are a number of factors that can influence these choices.
Major factors behind individual consumption and production patterns are income levels (what we choose to spend) and the possibilities for substitution between alternative goods and services that serve the same or similar function, eg private and public transport modes; alternative energy sources for home heating such as coal, gas or wood; and different brands of household appliances.
At a total level, factors such as demographics (population number and distribution), education and changing lifestyle patterns also alter the way and rate at which we use resources.
Technology also plays an important role in reducing the environmental impacts of consumption and resource use, eg more energy-efficient homes and vehicles. Although technology offers the potential for reducing environmental impacts, it can also increase consumption, for example through the increased availability of electronic goods at lower prices.
Social factors, such as learned behaviour and education also influence consumption and resource use patterns. How we are educated and the values instilled at an early age are likely to affect attitudes towards the environment, and this in turn will influence what we consume and our attitudes to the waste we generate.
Changing lifestyle patterns also affect consumption patterns. A decrease in the number of people per dwelling as a result of factors such as changing family size and an increasing number of one-person homes may lead to greater demand for housing and therefore energy overall. Increases in car ownership and changes in the distribution of people can also affect distances travelled and energy use, eg more trips in the car versus greater availability and use of public transport.
The shift away from reusable containers in some beverage industries such as beer and milk is linked to increased competition and deregulation so that the costs of bottle collection and redistribution are greater than those of the ‘one trip’ disposable containers. While more and more waste is being recycled, the rate at which we consume is ultimately a significant factor for sustainable development.
Data gaps or issues
Limited data are available in New Zealand to report on consumption and resource use per capita. Nor have material flows been measured and reported. Material flow is the actual resources used to produce a good or service (including raw materials, energy or other inputs) as well as those required for production through transport and sale (output). It also includes resources required to dispose of the product at the end of its life as waste (whether reused, recycled, recovered or disposed to landfill).
Environmental accounting is underway in New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand is currently developing national natural resource accounts for New Zealand, and regional environmental accounts have been partially developed through funding from the Ministryfor the Environment.
Following Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development initiatives, the Ministry for the Environment is investigating the development of headline (composite) indicators for tracking progress to sustainability in New Zealand and indicators that will measure the extent to which economic growth can be achieved at lower rates of environmental impact, consumption and resource use. Any development of such indicators will require a whole of government approach.
The Ministry for the Environment will also publish New Zealand’s ‘ecological footprint’ by December 2002 including the methodology used for this headline indicator. The ‘ecological footprint’ estimates the total amount of productive land (in hectares) required to support New Zealand’s population. It is an internationally comparable stand-alone indicator of ecological sustainability. Despite some theoretical limitations for this indicator, it can be easily and regularly calculated at a relatively low cost and it is an indicator that can be easily understood by the public.
Endnotes
Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand
Household consumption
Solid waste
Energy
Transport
References and further information
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This page last modified on: 08 March 2004