While overconsumption by the developed world's roughly one billion inhabitants is an abiding problem, another one billion increasingly affluent "new consumers" in developing countries will place additional strains on the earth's resources, argue authors Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent in this important new book. The New Consumers examines the environmental impacts of this increased consumption, with particular focus on two commodities -- cars and meat -- that stand to have the most far-reaching effects. It analyzes consumption patterns in a number of different countries, with special emphasis on China and India (whose surging economies, as well as their large populations, are likely to account for exceptional growth in humanity's ecological footprint), and surveys big-picture issues such as the globalization of economies, consumer goods, and lifestyles. Ultimately, according to the orman Myers and Jennifer Kent, the challenge will be for all of humanity to transition to sustainable levels of consumption, for it is unrealistic to expect "new" consumers not to aspire to be like the "old" ones. Cogent in its analysis, The New Consumers issues a timely warning of a major and developing environmental trend, and suggests valuable strategies for ameliorating its effects.

This book outlines a path towards a more practical era for "corporate responsibility", where companies make real environmental gains based on hard facts, using lifecycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declarations (EPDs).By the time you have finished this book you will be able to make the case for moving from corporate to product sustainability and propose a methodology for doing this, based on EPDs.In the past decade, thousands of companies have started the journey towards sustainability, leading to a huge supporting industry of sustainability professionals, lorry-loads of corporate reports, and a plethora of green labels and marketing claims. Ramon Arratia argues that it's now time to transform this new industry by cutting out all the fluff and instead focusing on Full Product Transparency (FPT). In the world of FPT, companies carry out LCAs for all their products and services, identifying their biggest impacts and where they can make the greatest difference. They disclose the full environmental impacts of their products using easily-understood metrics, allowing customers to make meaningful comparisons in their purchasing decisions and providing governments with a platform to reward products and services with the lowest impacts.This book will help you put your company on a path towards Full Product Transparency. This is a decision that can revolutionize and align consumer behaviour, supply chains, policy-making and reporting. It is no less than the path to the future of all business.

The various sharing initiatives seen in the Nordic countries over the last years within transportation, housing/accommodation, sharing/renting of smaller capital goods and personal services could yield considerable benefits for consumers due to better quality and/or lower prices of the services. They also have a potential for emissions reductions of CO2 and local pollutants. However, savings from lower prices could lead to increased emissions from increased demand of the services (particularly transport) and increased spending on other goods and services. Depending on how consumers spend their savings, these changes could partly, wholly or more than offset the initial emission reductions. The impacts on overall CO2 emissions depend on whether the emissions are taxed, part of the emissions trading system EU ETS or not regulated at all.