STATE OF THE DEBATE Live Better by Consuming Less? Is There a “Double Dividend ” in Sustainable Consumption?

Industrial ecology has mainly been concerned with improving the efficiency of production systems. But addressing consump-tion is also vital in reducing the impact of society on its environ-ment. The concept of sustainable consumption is a response to this. But the debates about sustainable consumption can only really be understood in the context of much wider and deeper debates about consumption and about consumer behavior it-self. This article explores some of these wider debates. In par-ticular, it draws attention to a fundamental disagreement that runs through the literature on consumption and haunts the debate on sustainable consumption: the question of whether, or to what extent, consumption can be taken as ‘‘good for us.’ ’ Some approaches assume that increasing consumption is more or less synonymous with improved well-being: the more we consume the better off we are. Others argue, just as ve-hemently, that the scale of consumption in modern society is both environmentally and psychologically damaging, and that we could reduce consumption significantly without threaten-ing the quality of our lives. This second viewpoint suggests that a kind of ‘‘double dividend’ ’ is inherent in sustainable consump-tion: the ability to live better by consuming less and reduce our impact on the environment in the process. In the final analysis, this article argues, such ‘‘win-win’ ’ solutions may exist but will require a concerted societal effort to realize. Keywords consumer behavior consumer choice consumer culture evolutionary psychology industrial ecology symbolic interactionism Address correspondence to