Daily Household Decisions and Lifestyles

Cluster I maps how everyday choices create demand and how they can be redirected toward less-harmful, higher-wellbeing lifestyles. It opens with root drivers—1 Consumerism, 2 Household Income vs. Carbon Footprint, and 3 Conspicuous/Positional Consumption—and the psychological dynamics they fuel, including 4 Hedonic Treadmills and 5 Choice Paralysis. It then discusses consumption in socio-demographic context through Differences in consumption related to age cohorts (in China, 6 Generational Consumption Differences) and 7 Gender follow.  8 Attitude-Behavior Gap explains why good intentions often fail in practice, motivating the need for 9 Behavior Change.

The cluster translates these insights into promising points for intervention: 10 Energy Consumption Behavior, 11 Repair, and 12 Fast Fashion target high-impact choices and behaviors and product longevity, while 13 Moments of Change identifies life transitions when habits are most malleable. It then introduces alternative approaches which lower material demand: 14 Quiet Sustainability and 15 Voluntary Simplicity. These chapters also acknowledge the potentials and limits of individual action without supportive systems and government policies.  Rounding out the household perspective, 16 Mindfulness and 17 Work–Life Balance provide a context for  sustainable routines by focusing on  attention, time use, and meanings attached to consumption. Finally,  18 1.5-Degree Lifestyles link daily decisions to a fair carbon budget and sufficiency by taking a system-based view through  the lenses of transportation, nutrition, housing, consumer goods, services, and leisure.

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