Current Western lifestyles are based on a continuous consumption of goods, which leads to unsustainable material and energy demands. During the year 2015, the top 10 most developed countries in the world (Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Canada) had a human development index (HDI) above 0.92, an annual Total Primary Energy Supply of 66.3 MWh per capita. However, this did not take into account the Hidden Energy Flows, that energy embedded in the imported goods and services, which on average for the mentioned countries had a value of 22.4%. Hence, although accusations of unsustainability towards countries that export a large amount of goods and services, such as India and China, are often found in mass media, it is important to consider the responsibility of enriched countries for the socio-environmental impacts that occur in countries where industrial production has been outsourced. The search for sustainable patterns and guilt has become a popular topic in non-scientific media and there is an ongoing discussion that looks at the sustainability of different consumption habits across diverse nationalities, generations, and genders.
Our last research research aims to analyse the variation in direct and embedded energy consumption across different Spanish autonomous communities and socio-economic segments. The findings show that income, household size, and nationality significantly affect the energy footprint of individuals. High-income households have an energy footprint of up to 63.3 MWh·cap-1·yr-1, 75.0% higher than national average. Furthermore, individuals living alone show a 41.4% larger consumption than the national average. In contrast, households with foreign nationalities show an energy footprint of 24.7 MWh·cap-1·yr-1, a 31.8% reduction over national average.
The full work is available here.