Exploring the role of individual, context and object in sustainable urban consumption

Cities and their residents are consuming an increasing proportion of the earth's finite resources. Winding back current levels of unsustainable consumption and production - in a growing and urbanizing world - requires intervention in: how individuals and households consume; how the the manufactured objects that comprise our built environments and urban lives are produced; and how our cities, suburbs and neighbourhoods are designed. This chapter introduces a conceptual framework that represents these multiple influences on consumption. It then proceeds to outline how the ecological footprints of households, neighbourhoods, cities and nations can be reduced significantly by more innovative urban design, as well as by more sustainable production and consumption behaviours.