Abstract
Despite efforts to decrease the environmental impact at a product level, the environmental impact at a household level is in danger of increasing due to the fact that the number of home appliances per household on the rise. Therefore, “Factor X” on home appliances at a household level in 2003 with respect to 1990, from the viewpoints of the prevention of global warming and the effective utilization of resources is simulated.The number of home appliances used in a household increased 1.2 times from 65 to 79, but since the GHG emissions over the life cycle per year was 0.64 times the former amount, dropping from 8456kg-CO2eq/year to 5383kg-CO2eq/year, and the non-circulating resources per year became 0.99 times the previous amount, dropping from 231kg/year to 228kg/year, the GHG Factor was 1.9 and the Resource Factor was 1.2. Although based on a restricted simulation model, these results could show the potential for realizing a “Sustainable Society” that involves the reduction of environmental impact at the same time as improving quality of life.
