Household Sustainability: Nurturing a Greener, Fairer, and More Prosperous Future

Households significantly influence the sustainability of our planet. The decisions individuals and families make in their daily lives can have a substantial impact on the environment and society. Traditional economic models typically focus on maximizing benefits within one unit and one lifecycle, often overlooking the needs of other units and future generations. Household sustainability is a new research field that seeks to understand how households make choices that affect the environment, social well-being, and financial stability, as well as how households respond to interventions from these three perspectives. This field acknowledges the complex interactions between these three dimensions and aims to help households maximize their current utility without jeopardizing the utility of future generations. Within existing economic frameworks, household sustainability considers two additional fundamental issues: concerns for long-term growth (for descendants), and constraints placed on human societies.This handbook is intended for researchers or anyone interested in academic research on household sustainability. It provides an overview of recent research findings in this field, covering three major topics: household environmental sustainability, social sustainability, and financial sustainability. Specific research studies and findings that have contributed to our understanding of household sustainability are also highlighted in this book.