Prospects and Challenges for Disseminating Life Cycle Thinking towards Environmental Conscious Behaviors in Daily Lives

Sustainability

Kazutoshi Tsuda¹  Keishiro Hara² 

[1] School/Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan;Center for Environmental Innovation Design for Sustainability (CEIDS), Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; E-Mails:

关键词: life cycle thinking;    environmental conscious behavior;    consumer;    visualization;    personal fabrication;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su5010123

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We examined the existing practices of various media to ascertain the usability of information based on life cycle thinking (LCT) which can be key to changing consciousness and behavior of consumers towards pursuing a sustainable society. Such information has been provided to consumers in various forms in various places at various times. Nevertheless, a number of issues, such as understandability, selectability, reliability, transparency, and costs etc., must still be addressed before consumers will be able to use such information as guidelines for pro-environmental behaviors in their everyday life. Further, it is also of critical importance that the consumers can culture LCT by encouraging themselves to be actively engaged in the design and evaluation processes of the upstream of productions and in the entire product life cycle. Another crucial challenge is finding ways to connect LCT with, not just product selection or designing and manufacturing, but lifestyle transformation. We need to encourage ourselves and others to think about what a sustainable life really means.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.