Citation: Shahbaz, P.; ul Haq, S.;
Abbas, A.; Samie, A.; Boz, I.;
Bagadeem, S.; Yu, Z.; Li, Z. Food,
Energy, and Water Nexus at
Household Level: Do Sustainable
Household Consumption Practices
Promote Cleaner Environment? Int. J.
Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19,
12945. https://doi.org/10.3390/
ijerph191912945
Academic Editor: Guofeng Shen
Received: 9 September 2022
Accepted: 7 October 2022
Published: 10 October 2022
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International Journal of
Environmental Research
and Public Health
Article
Food, Energy, and Water Nexus at Household Level: Do
Sustainable Household Consumption Practices Promote
Cleaner Environment?
Pomi Shahbaz
1
, Shamsheer ul Haq
2
, Azhar Abbas
3,
* , Abdus Samie
3
, Ismet Boz
1
, Salim Bagadeem
4
,
Ziyue Yu
5,6
and Zhihui Li
5,
*
1
Department of Agricultural Economics, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 55139, Turkey
2
Department of Economics, Division of Management and Administrative Science, University of Education,
Lahore 54770, Pakistan
3
Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
4
Faculty of Business Administration, Arab Open University, Riyadh 11681, Saudi Arabia
5
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100101, China
6
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China,
Ningbo 315100, China
* Correspondence: azhar.abbas@uaf.edu.pk (A.A.); lizhihui@igsnrr.ac.cn (Z.L.)
Abstract: Governments around the globe are trying to find sustainable solutions for lessening
pressure on natural resources and reducing carbon emissions. Daily household consumption of food,
energy, and water has an impact on stocks of natural resources, environmental quality, and climate
change. Households have significant potential for increasing conservation actions for efficient use of
natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. Households could contribute to a clean and healthy
environment by adopting sustainable household practices through lower per capita consumption
and carbon emissions. This study explored the role of different sustainable household consumption
practices in promoting a clean environment as well as the factors affecting the adoption of these
practices in Pakistan. Factor analysis and an ordered probit model were used to analyze the data
from 1424 participants chosen through a multistage random sampling technique. The factor analysis
identified 35 sustainable household practices for sustainable consumption. These 35 practices were
grouped into the underlying factors of “Food” (14 items), “Energy” (12 items), and “Water” (9 items).
The results from the econometric model showed a significant relationship between gender, education,
residential area, family size, and income and the adoption of sustainable household consumption
practices. Statistically, higher levels of reported sustainable consumption practices were apparent
among females, households living in urban areas, more educated people, individuals of large family
sizes, and more affluent households. Therefore, public policies for taking care of the environment
need to put households at the center while at the same time promoting mass uptake of sustainable
consumption practices related to food, energy, and water. In addition, the sector-specific policies also
need to be augmented through focus on household-level consumption and production dynamics for
achieving the UN’s SDGs.
Keywords: energy sustainability; environmental conservation; ecosystem services; GHG emission;
consumer behavior
1. Introduction
The grand challenges of the 21st century are sustainability challenges, and the world
is struggling to contain current anxieties about climate change, environmental degradation,
and economic instability, mainly due to unsustainable consumption of goods and ser-
vices [1]. Household consumption of goods and services holds a significant share in global
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12945. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912945 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph