How Green is Household Behaviour?
Sustainable Choices in a Time of Interlocking Crises
Household choices – such as what to eat, how to get to work and how to heat our homes – have significant implications for the environment. With the urgency of environmental action and the need to shift to more sustainable consumption patterns, making more sustainable choices holds great potential to reduce environmental impacts. Yet in the context of interlocking crises, governments face challenges in supporting households with policies that realise this potential.
How Green is Household Behaviour? presents an overview of results from the 2022 OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change. The survey investigates household attitudes and behaviour with respect to energy, transport, waste and food systems. It was carried out across more than 17 000 households in 9 countries, including Belgium, Canada, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The data collected also include information on self-reported motivations and barriers to change, providing a unique source of empirical evidence to inform policy efforts to shift to more sustainable consumption patterns.
Also available in: French
Household behaviour and food consumption
Food systems emit around one third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs), with livestock production accounting for 32% of all agricultural emissions. This chapter summarises responses to questions on food consumption in the third round of the OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC). The chapter analyses the data on households’ food consumption behaviour across the nine countries surveyed, including their frequency of consuming seasonal and organic food, whether households source locally, the frequency with which they consume rad meat and their willingness to consume meat alternatives, and their priorities when purchasing food. It also explores respondents’ support for various public policies to promote the sustainability of food systems.
Also available in: French
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