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Downshifting
Downshifting an automobile signals a shift to a lower gear. The driver wishes to slow down. Much like the automobile, downshifting (often synonymous with “voluntary simplicity” or “simple living”) is a conscious decision to slow down one's life and adopt the values of simplicity. It is a voluntary decision to reduce income and consumption in pursuit of a less stressful, more meaningful life. Downshifting signals a return to a sense of balance lost in the frenzied pace of everyday life. Downshifting is a rejection of the “rat race” of consumerism, long work hours, and the frantic modern life. Predominantly an individual act, the decision to downshift is made for a variety of reasons:
- A lack of balance in one's life (i.e., working too much, not enough ...
- Green Consumer Challenges
- Affluenza
- Air Travel
- Carbon Emissions
- Commuting
- Conspicuous Consumption
- Disparities in Consumption
- Dumpster Diving
- Durability
- Electricity Usage
- Energy Efficiency of Products and Appliances
- E-Waste
- Food Additives
- Food Miles
- Genetically Modified Products
- Greenwashing
- Healthcare
- Insulation
- Lawns and Landscaping
- Materialism
- Needs and Wants
- Overconsumption
- Pesticides and Fertilizers
- Pets
- Pharmaceuticals
- Positional Goods
- Poverty
- Pricing
- Quality of Life
- Resource Consumption and Usage
- Solid and Human Waste
- Super-Rich
- Symbolic Consumption
- Waste Disposal
- Windows
- Beverages
- Bottled Beverages (Water)
- Coffee
- Confections
- Dairy Products
- Fish
- Meat
- Poultry and Eggs
- Slow Food
- Tea
- Vegetables and Fruits
- Water
- Green Consumer Products and Services
- Adhesives
- Apparel
- Audio Equipment
- Automobiles
- Baby Products
- Books
- Car Washing
- Certified Products (Fair Trade or Organic)
- Cleaning Products
- Computers and Printers
- Cosmetics
- Disposable Plates and Plastic Implements
- Floor and Wall Coverings
- Fuel
- Funerals
- Furniture
- Garden Tools and Appliances
- Grains
- Home Appliances
- Home Shopping and Catalogs
- Homewares
- Internet Purchasing
- Lighting
- Linen and Bedding
- Magazines
- Malls
- Mobile Phones
- Packaging and Product Containers
- Paper Products
- Personal Products
- Recyclable Products
- Seasonal Products
- Services
- Shopping
- Shopping Bags
- Sports
- Supermarkets
- Swimming Pools and Spas
- Television and DVD Equipment
- Tools
- Toys
- Green Consumer Solutions
- Biodegradable
- Carbon Credits
- Carbon Offsets
- Certification Process
- Composting
- Consumer Activism
- Downshifting
- Ecolabeling
- Ecological Footprint
- Ecotourism
- Environmentally Friendly
- Ethically Produced Products
- Fair Trade
- Gardening/Growing
- Gifting (Green Gifts)
- Green Communities
- Green Consumer
- Green Consumerism Organizations
- Green Design
- Green Discourse
- Green Food
- Green Gross Domestic Product
- Green Homes
- Green Marketing
- Green Politics
- Local Exchange Trading Schemes
- Locally Made
- Markets (Organic/Farmers)
- Morality (Consumer Ethics)
- Organic
- Plants
- Product Sharing
- Public Transportation
- Recycling
- Regulation
- Secondhand Consumption
- Simple Living
- Sustainable Consumption
- Vege-Box Schemes
- Green Consumerism Organizations, Movements, and Planning
- Advertising
- Commodity Fetishism
- Consumer Behavior
- Consumer Boycotts
- Consumer Culture
- Consumer Ethics
- Consumer Society
- Consumerism
- Demographics
- Diderot Effect
- Environmentalism
- Fashion
- Final Consumption
- Finance and Economics
- Frugality
- Government Policy and Practice (Local and National)
- Heating and Cooling
- International Regulatory Frameworks
- Kyoto Protocol
- Leisure and Recreation
- Lifestyle, Rural
- Lifestyle, Suburban
- Lifestyle, Sustainable
- Lifestyle, Urban
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- Production and Commodity Chains
- Psychographics
- Social Identity
- Taxation
- United Nations Human Development Report 1998
- Websites and Blogs
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