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Articles related to: consumption
Consumption patterns and the rise of the middle classes
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 26 June 2025The rise of the middle classes in emerging and developing countries has implications on different levels. Their role in democratization processes is not unambiguous and, as the first plenary session of the conference made clear, depends partly on...
read moreCommunity consent and scarce commodities
Jamie Kneen | 28 January 2025Restricting the mining industry’s access to raw materials will narrow the profit base for mining companies and metal traders, but it will pay dividends on many other levels.
read moreConsumers pushing for peace
Lisa Olsthoorn | 14 January 2025What can be done from home against violent conflict worldwide? ‘Do it yourself’ activism through conflict-sensitive political consumption is on the rise.
read moreGood job or missed opportunity?
Jan Vandemoortele | 13 August 2025The High-level Panel (HLP) report has failed to transform the post-2015 debate, because it has missed the opportunity to correct the misinterpretations, misconceptions and misappropriations of the MDGs.
read moreBuying things together works better
Lucie Stephens | 26 June 2025Collective buying reduces costs, but also makes money go further. Britain’s up2us programme has experience with it.
read moreAfrica: transformation, more than just growth
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 18 June 2025African economic transformation should be inclusive, but how can this be achieved? Experts discussed this at the launch of the preview of the 2013 African Transformation Report.
read morePlanet earth is wage-led!
Özlem Onaran | 17 June 2025Economic growth should go hand in hand with an improvement in wage share and vice versa. However, current economic policy does not.
read moreForget the power, let us celebrate
Yu Chen | 11 June 2025It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning when I received my mother’s call from China while contemplating my first blog about China as an “emerged power”.
read moreThe water diet
Eva van der Zand | 18 March 2025The ‘water diet’ implies the challenge to make people aware that, in order to solve water issues, it is necessary to create a habit of sustainable food consumption.
read moreInclusive Economy blog
June 21, 2025Editor Evert-jan Quak comments and reflects on new research, publications, blog posts, conferences and current affairs in the field of inclusive and sustainable economy.
read more"Improving the environment destroying the economy? It is simply not true", Ekins says
Bas de Leeuw | 10 June 2025Paul Ekins said an environmental tax reform is necessary to achieve the goals of eco efficiency. He stressed that this would be a tax shift, not a tax increase.His research has shown that six EU countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, S...
read moreEngineers and social scientists need to work together
Bas de Leeuw | 10 June 2025Engineers and social scientists need to work together, said Roland Clift in the plenary session on Friday morning, speaking about Sustainable Consumption and Degrowth.Finding common language is difficult. He observed that in the degrowth debate th...
read moreConsumer behaviour, advertising, pricing and developing countries' perspective high on Egmond research agenda
Bas de Leeuw | 09 June 2025Participants of the Egmond Eco Efficiency Conference reviewed a draft list of research topics - see an earlier blog post on this topic - and highlighted a few priorities, such as:- consumer behaviour; is the 'no pain no change' slogan really true?...
read moreRebound! Rebound! Rebound! ... further research needed!
Bas de Leeuw | 09 June 2025Lively debates in the Egmond Eco Efficiency Conference in Thursday afternoon's plenary discussion. One of the hot potatoes was the rebound effect, seen as a depressing topic by many, or just talking common sense by others.What's the Problem? How t...
read moreHighlights from the Parallel Sessions - making the case for efficiency: Food
Bas de Leeuw | 09 June 2025Did you know that 85% of food production in developing countries comes from small farms? Scope for efficiency gains! Bigger farms like in Switzerland (dairy) and Spain (cheese, tigernuts) have much to gain as well.5% effiiciency gain in food secto...
read moreThe Good Life for 8 billion people in 2050? It's possible!
Bas de Leeuw | 08 June 2025Participants of the Third International Conference on Eco-Efficiency, held in Egmond aan de Zee, The Netherlands, June 9-11, 2010, discussed how to ensure that 8 billion people in developed and (former) developing countries can have a good life by...
read morePaul Ekins' chair summary of the morning
Bas de Leeuw | 08 June 20251. Technology can do a lot2. But people need to buy it!3. Investments needed and a shift away from consumer society.4. Mindsets need to be changed, but people do not want to be told so.5. More leisure, less income are interesting thoughts, but if...
read moreGjalt explains the Challenge
Bas de Leeuw | 08 June 2025The Challenge according to Gjalt Huppes as he explained it in the opening session of the Confernce today:1. We want the good life for 8 billion people by 20502. Environmental challenge: by 2050 growth of eco-efficiency with factor 2-5 (means: envi...
read moreResearch Questions - my Turbo version
Bas de Leeuw | 07 June 2025Further Research needed on: 1. Potential for absolute decoupling: how far and how fast to go, can substantial environmental improvements be realised in combination with economic growth?2. Overall measurement of improvement, with explicit norm...
read moreConference Statement - my Turbo version
Bas de Leeuw | 07 June 2025What will be the challenges for next 50 years?1. Improving eco-efficiency (environmental pressure per unit of value added/GDP) necessary to cope with increasing affluence and population growth;2. Reduction of total environmental impact for major e...
read moreHow can we create the good life for 8 billion people?
Gjalt Huppes | 04 June 2025Weblog linked to the Third International Conference on Eco-Efficiency Modelling and Evaluation for Sustainability: Guiding Eco-Innovation and Consumption Global industrialization is coming, with an increasing proportion of the world populatio...
read moreWill we learn more from the Earth Day oil spill than from Katrina?
Richard Register | 06 May 2025Happy Earth Day! Here comes the oil spill! BP’s Deepwater Horizon, state of the art oil drilling platform digging into the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico 5,000 feet below explodes, killed 11 workers, burned into early morning Earth Day April 2010, t...
read moreFinal reflections on degrowth
Giorgos Kallis | 30 March 2025The end of the conference finds us all exhausted but content. We have been organizing this event for the last year, each Tuesday a team of 10 to 15 dedicated people meeting for hours to think and plan the event to its smallest detail. Organizing a...
read moreVideo: Luis Rico Garcia–Amado talks about consumption and well being
Louise Stoddard | 26 March 2025Luis Rico Garcia–Amado from Ecologistas en Acción discusses the results of his joint research in the Bolivian Amazon which measured what we can learn from Indigenous people about how the consumption of market goods relates to well being....
read moreEconomising smiles
Louise Stoddard | 26 March 2025I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this morning’s poster tour, perhaps an artistic interpretation of research or some beautiful photography of eco systems. After some deliberation I settled on the ‘Degrowth beyond Europe and the West’ tour, whi...
read moreOne of many GDP debates
Tom Green | 26 March 2025I´m new at blogging and perhaps its best to learn the ropes at a conference where the discussions don´t quite go so late. On our first day, the last panel wrapped up around 10:00 pm and dinner finished just shy of midnight. Our plenary sessions a...
read moreChocolate and child labour
Erwin Bulte | February 02, 2025According to a recent International Labour Organization (ILO) report, some 74 million children below the age of 14 are engaged in the so-called ‘worst forms’ of child labour. Although this number has been declining over time, it is still too high...
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