Understanding environmentally significant consumption

Consumer choices can have major impacts on the environment. For example, the United States could reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by 7% through modest policies to encourage more efficient household energy consumption (1). This “behavioral wedge” would make a substantial and low-cost contribution to climate-change mitigation (2, 3). Shifts in water and food consumption would also be environmentally significant but we lack robust estimates of the impact. To realize the potential of consumer action, we need policies based on a sound understanding of environmental decision making.

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