The unsustainability and the potentially self-destructive character of the current socioeconomic processes have become a problem to be considered by public opinion and the researchers of environmental issues. The paradigm of sustainability emphasizes importance of the ecosystem that generally apprehends in economics through the notion of natural capital (Ekins et al., 2003, Gutés, 1996). It is a scientific fact that these processes can restrict the socioeconomic options in the near future by irreversibly ruining certain unsubstitutable ecosystem services. Since the publication of the Stern Review (2006) these facts have also been recognized in economics. Regarding these tendencies, even more authors emphasize that it is necessary to reduce the environmental effects of the personal consumption of the citizens in developed countries, including Hungary. In the first part of our study, we examine whether the ecological footprint is an appropriate measure for environment-conscious consumer behaviour. We conclude that it can be an important tool since it measures the real environmental effects of consumer behaviour. There are several criticisms regarding EF because the measure has some weaknesses, but presently there is no tool for sustainability which is complete and none will satisfy everyone perfectly. The size of the ecological footprint is in connection with the following factors: population, consumption per capita and technological efficiency. From these factors the individuals can have an effect on their own consumption. Therefore, in our study we investigate what influences the environment-conscious consumer behaviour of the inhabitants of Szeged based on our former research.
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