Relative ecological footprints based on resource usage efficiency per capita: macro-level segmentation of 121 countries

This paper makes a vital contribution to the fields of sustainability studies, environmental policy-making and green business planning by presenting evidence that contradicts widely accepted conventional wisdom about the relative environmental efficiency of countries as determined by resource usage per capita. Using model-based cluster analysis, this study forms and compares groups of countries that are statistically similar in terms of their global ecological impact per person. The three measures of efficiency – energy consumption per capita, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO<SUB align="right">2</SUB>) per capita, and per capita paper and paper products consumption – are all related to a country's comparative resource usage efficiency and contribution to climate change, a primary global concern. The authors offer theoretical and practical motivations for using model-based cluster analysis as well as provide interpretation and insight of the resulting clusters.