ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on the issue of attitudes, opinions and intentions of individuals towards consumption and the environment and more particularly the nature of their actual consumption of core urban' resources such as energy, water, housing space and transport services. The as-designed versus as-operated gap is critical to sustainable built-environment performance and will be explored briefly as a precursor to the main topic of attitudes-action gap analysis. The chapter examines the unsustainable and unequal pattern of resource consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that characterise cities in high income developed societies, such as Australia. They are slow burn issues gradual but cumulative processes. The chapter provides clear evidence that there are significant gaps in respect of resource consumption generally when performance metrics related to dwelling design, dwelling construction and dwelling operation are compared. The lifestyle segmentation and consumption analysis presented in the chapter suggests that this transition is not going to be simple or straightforward.
