Table 1 Inventory of material consumption assumed to underpin the decent living standards of Rao and Min³⁵

DLS dimension	Material requirements	Minimum activity levels
Nutrition	Food Cooking appliances Cold Storage	2000–2150 kilocalorie/cap/day 1 cooker/household 1 fridge-freezer/household	∆
Shelter & living conditions	Sufficient housing space Thermal comfort Illumination	15 meters² floor-space/cap* Climate dependent 2500 lumen/house; 6 h/day	∆
Shelter & living conditions	Sufficient housing space Thermal comfort Illumination		∆
Hygiene	Water supply Water heating Waste management	50 Litres/cap/day 20 Litres/cap/day Provided to all households**	∆
Hygiene	Water supply Water heating Waste management		∆
Clothing	Clothes Washing facilities	4 kg of new clothing/year 100 kg of washing/year	∆
Healthcare	Hospitals	200 meters² floor-space/bed
Education	Schools	10 meters² floor-space/pupil
Communication & information	Phones Computers Networks + data centres	1 phone/person over 10yrs old 1 laptop/household High**	∆
Communication & information	Phones Computers Networks + data centres	1 phone/person over 10yrs old 1 laptop/household High**	∆
Mobility	Vehicle production Vehicle’s propulsion Transport infrastructure	Consistent with pkm travelled 4900-15,000 pkm/cap/year*** Consistent with pkm travelled	∆
			∆
			∆

Activity levels listed are those assumed for decent living standards (DLS) in the DLE model²², but in the three inequality scenarios developed here, levels are varied for the categories indicated by the triangles (∆) in the right-hand column (note that for food, kcal/day are fixed and GJ/kcal modified instead; see Supplementary Information).**
*Assuming 10 m² of living space/capita plus 20 m² of communal space per 4-person household.
***Activity levels here are not straightforward to define.
***Large range as this varies with regional population density.

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