Sustainable Energy Consumption and Society

Origin of this book In 1998 the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) initiated the 2000 Watt Society, a University-wide research program meant to help Switzerland realize a dramatic reduction in its future energy use. A project within the initiative Sustainability in the ETH domain, the 2000 Watt per capita Society sought to promote the gradual introduction of a way of living and working that requires only one-third of current energy consumption but 1 2 still delivers an improved quality of life. Two thousand watts is roughly the current world average per capita energy consumption; it was the average level in Switzerland in the 1950s; it is some three times less than current 3 Swiss usage; and reducing to that level again (in concert with other industrialized nations) would greatly facilitate stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO )levels in the long-term, given projections about world 2 population growth and exploitable energy resources [Imboden 1999]. 1 http://www. novatlantis. ch/frames_e. html. 2 A watt is a power term equivalent to 1 joule/second. Non-engineers generally prefer to think of 2000 watts per capita in terms of energy use per unit time such as joules/second or kilowatt-hours/hour. For Switzerland, 2000 watts per capita is equivalent to a primary annual energy consumption of about 65 gigajoules (65 billion joules) per capita. Although less generally communicative, the 2000 watt name is clean and trim, and since it has stuck we will use it throughout the book.

A multidisciplinary study combining social science, energy analysis, and risk communication, this work occupies a unique niche in the literature Illustrates the range and relative effectiveness of interventions that support sustainable energy consumption Based on award-winning research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Auteur

David L. Goldblatt was awarded the 2003 ETH Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work. He is currently a science and Technology Policy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Contenu
Sustainable Consumption and the Public's Room to Maneuver in Energy Use.- Targets of Intervention for Sustainable Consumption.- Energy, Environment, and Society.- Field Study with Computer-Aided Interviews.- Achievements, Open Questions, and Lessons Learned.