Project: Gender Relations, Sustainable Models of Consumption and Environmental Impact

Project Head: Ines Weller University of Bremen Project Team: Doris Hayn Irmgard Schultz Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research Duration: 09/00 - 06/01   Field of research Research Area: Everyday Life Ecology, Energy, Consumption   about the Institute

How can sustainable consumption on the part of both sexes be encouraged? How relevant is a gender specific treatment of sustainable consumption? How, and with what methods, can the environmental impact of models of consumption be determined? How can one evaluate these assessment procedures from the perspective of gender? And what significance does information about environmental impact have for the implementation of a sustainable consumption? As an instance of the new interest in social-ecological research, the preparatory study paved the way for an analysis of gender related issues regarding possible strategies for promoting sustainable modes of consumption. These issues were treated in an exemplary manner by the project team in charge of the analysis. In order to investigate the state of existing research results were examined from both the social sciences (“Gender Relations and Sustainable Models of Consumption”) and the natural sciences (“Balancing Consumption Caused Environmental Impacts and Gender Relations”). A workshop with researchers from various disciplines consolidated the findings reached in the study, and articulated further issues and research needs for an integrated gender-consumption-environment research program. Finally, at a second workshop involving people with practical experience of the issues involved, examples of modes of consumption and promotion strategies for a sustainable consumption were presented, evaluated by the group and further developed. The analysis revealed three important points. First, the relevance of a “gender” dimension for sustainable consumption and environmental impact was made clear with the help of many individual examples. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the connection between gender relations and sustainable consumption. Second, focusing on gender relations made clear the mutual transfer of knowledge about gender specific assumptions between the social scientific research on consumption and natural scientific research on the environment. In some cases (e.g., the auto eco-balance sheet) the study revealed an implicit transfer of knowledge and thus displayed what introducing the gender aspect to research in the social and natural sciences might look like. Third, the analysis made clear that a fundamental change of perspective is needed in the discussion of sustainable consumption. What is needed is a move from investigating effective demand – with the goal of influencing the consumer – to developing appropriate modes of supply. The interests, requirements and freedom of action of consumers have to be studied with the goal of developing (more) sustainable consumer products that can satisfy these interests. Gender Relations, Sustainable Models of Consumption and Environmental Impact: An Analytical Project for the Specification of Research Questions and Modes of Cooperation with Actors