ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of the eco-efficiency turn in English-speaking high consumption societies, paying particular attention to domestic life. It discusses the eco-efficient home in the context of earlier environmentalist engagements with the technology of home and considers how the goal of eco-efficiency may be transformed by its entry into the domestic sphere. The chapter focuses on the entry of agendas for eco-efficiency into Australian homes spaces that truly are, as the Your Home program, a partnership of government and industry, observes, much more than a place to live. It discusses a recent Australian home sustainability initiative that sheds light on the changing environmental politics of domestic technology. The United Nations 1992 Earth Summit marks the beginning of the eco-efficiency turn. Fiona Allon argues that retreat into the security of home only heightens fear of an unruly world by cultivating a private experience of isolation and helplessness in the face of collective challenges.
