Methodologies and Early Results in the Application of the Energy Analysis Program to the Italian Context

This article outlines the methodological guidelines that will be applied in the framework of the GERME program in order to assess the sustainability of consumption patterns in Italy on the base of the household metabolism concept. A hybrid Input-Output and Life Cycle Assessment method from Wilting (1996) and further studies (Kok et al. 2003; Benders et al. 2006) is investigated for application in the Italian context. This method quantifies the total energy demand of households as a proxy for environmental pressure related to household consumption for a given population (which can be a city, a region or a country, according to the survey).