Sustainable consumption
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Sustainable consumption (sometimes abbreviated to "SC")[1] is the use of products and services in ways that minimizes impacts on the environment. Sustainable consumption is done in a way that the needs are met for present humans but also for future generations.[2] Sustainable consumption is often paralleled with sustainable production; consumption refers to use and disposal (or recycling) not just by individuals and households, but also by governments, businesses, and other organizations. Sustainable consumption is closely related to sustainable production and sustainable lifestyles. "A sustainable lifestyle minimizes ecological impacts while enabling a flourishing life for individuals, households, communities, and beyond. It is the product of individual and collective decisions about aspirations and about satisfying needs and adopting practices, which are in turn conditioned, facilitated, and constrained by societal norms, political institutions, public policies, infrastructures, markets, and culture."[3]
The
Sustainable development as well as sustainable consumption rely on certain premises such as:
- Effective
- Use of renewable resources within their capacity for renewal
- The product life-cyclesso that consumer items are utilized to maximum potential
- Intergenerational and intragenerational equity
Consumption shifting
Studies found that
Nevertheless,
Life-cycle assessments could assess the comparative sustainability and overall environmental impacts of products – including (but not limited to): "raw materials, extraction, processing and transport; manufacturing; delivery and installation; customer use; and end of life (such as disposal or recycling)".[10]
Sustainable food consumption
The
Therefore, sustainable consumption also includes food consumption – shifting to more sustainable diets.
A considerable proportion of consumers of food produced by the food system may be non-livestock animals such as pet-dogs: the global dog population is estimated to be 900 million,[28][29][needs update] of which around 20% are regarded as owned pets.[30][needs update] Sustainable consumption may also involve their feed. Beyond reduction of meat consumption, the composition of livestock feed and fish feed may also be subject of sustainable consumption shifts.
Product labels
Labels of sustainability standards and certification such as organic food and energy efficiency class labels are often intended to confirm compliance with relevant social and environmental considerations, enabling consumers and other purchasers to make more ethical decisions in terms of the environmental impact of products.
Labels such as the European Eco-label and those issued by sustainability standards organisations may be used by businesses and public bodies to confirm compliance. Public procurement regulations in the European Union and the United Kingdom require that label requirements only include those which are "linked to the subject-matter of the contract".[31]
In June 2023, the Scientific Advice Mechanism to the European Commission concluded that the effectiveness of food labelling related to health impacts was "low to moderate" according to available evidence, and that "shaping the information environment through labelling is necessary but not sufficient to advance healthy and sustainable diets".[32]
The approach of labels can involve a trade-off between financial considerations and higher cost requirements in effort or time for the product-selection from the many available options.[33]The app CodeCheck gives versed smartphone users some capability to scan ingredients in food, drinks and cosmetics for filtering out some of the products that are legal but nevertheless unhealthy or unsustainable from their consumption/purchases.[34] A similar "personal shopping assistant" has been investigated in a study.[35] Studies indicated a low level of use of sustainability labels on food.[36] Moreover, existing labels have been intensely criticized for invalidity or unreliability, often amounting to greenwashing or being ineffective.[10][37][38]
In one study, individuals were given a set budget, "which could be spent once a week on a wide range of food and drink products", then data "on each item's carbon footprint was clearly presented, and individuals could view the [unlimited] carbon footprint of their supermarket basket on their shopping bill."[39]
The processes of consumption
Not only selection, quantity and quality of consumed products may be of relevance to sustainable consumption, the process of consumption, including how selected products are distributed or gathered could be considered a component of it as well: for instance, ordering from a local store
Product information transparency and trade control
If information is linked to products e.g. via a digital product passport, along with proper architecture and governance for data sharing and data protection, it could help achieve climate neutrality and foster
As of 2021, one approach under development is binary "labelling" of investments as "green" according to an EU governmental body-created "taxonomy" for voluntarily financial investment redirection/guidance based on this categorization.[51] The company Dayrize is one organization that attempts to accurately assess environmental and social impacts of consumer products.[52]
Reliable evaluations and categorizations of products may enable measures such as policy-combinations that include transparent criteria-based
on environment-related qualitative criteria of the products.
Fairness and income/spending freedoms
The bottom half of the population is directly responsible for less than 20% of energy footprints and consume less than the top 5% in terms of trade-corrected energy. High-income individuals usually have higher energy footprints as they disproportionally use their larger financial resources – which they can usually spend freely in their entirety for any purpose as long as the end user purchase is legal – for energy-intensive goods. In particular, the largest disproportionality was identified to be in the domain of transport, where e.g. the top 10% consume 56% of vehicle fuel and conduct 70% of vehicle purchases.[53]
Techniques and approaches
Choice editing refers to the active process of controlling or limiting the choices available to consumers.
Personal Carbon Allowances (PCAs) refers to technology-based schemes to ration GHG emissions.[54]
Degrowth
A common denominator of degrowth is a decline in the metric GDP. More concrete degrowth proposals are diverse, dispersed throughout the growing body of literature and include:
- "reducing and redistributing income alone" along with GHG-pricing[60] and wealth redistribution into a global food systems transformation[61]
- One tool that could possibly be used in large-scale policies[citation needed] is an app that "will guide users to prioritize reduction in high-footprint categories".[59]
- Another broad proposal suggests that "different roles of job evaluation)
- Consumption such as "domestic water consumption" could be [made to be] considered as a collectively ordered activity[62] especially when such data and contextual education is available the respective collective.[citation needed]
Demonetized activities [as well as currently financially unrewarded and unprofitable activities] are important for degrowth.[62]
Degrowth also emphasizes the need to 'degrow' various sectors of the economy without a negative connotation[56] usually associated with such measures such as at least temporary job-loss. If no immediate retraining occurs, leisure time may increase at least temporarily.[citation needed] There are some suggestions that in general, increases in leisure time do not per se translate to increased sustainability – in particular that some time saved did not decrease total distance of car travel.[63][clarification needed][additional citation(s) needed]
A study suggests that the concepts of sharing economy and circular economy on their own, while useful as broad components, are insufficient and ineffective.[64]
Economic concepts by which scholarly literature approaches problems such as overconsumption, using this terminology to characterize broad, typically conceptual-stage, solution-proposals include:[65][66]
- Doughnut economy (see also: planetary boundaries)
- Community economy and commons (see also: Commons#Economic theories and Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
Strong and weak sustainable consumption
This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. The reason given is: should be rephrased as encyclopedic definition, not as action plan from the proponents' PoV. Also, who coined these terms? (October 2017) |
Some writers make a distinction between "strong" and "weak" sustainability.[67]
- Strong sustainable consumption refers to participating in viable environmental activities, such as consuming renewable and efficient goods and services (such as electric locomotive, cycling, renewable energy).[68] Strong sustainable consumption also refers to an urgency to reduce individual living space and consumption rate.
- Weak sustainable consumption is the failure to adhere to strong sustainable consumption. In other words, consumption of highly pollutant activities, such as frequent car use and consumption of non-biodegradable goods (such as plastic items, metals, and mixed fabrics).[68]
In 1992, the
The 1992 Earth Summit found that sustainable consumption rather than sustainable development was the center of political discourse[clarification needed].[69] Currently, strong sustainable consumption is only present in minimal precincts[clarification needed] of discussion and research. International government organizations’ (IGOs) prerogatives have kept away from strong sustainable consumption.[clarification needed] To avoid scrutiny,[clarification needed] IGOs have deemed their influences[clarification needed] as limited, often aligning its[clarification needed] interests with consumer wants and needs.[68] In doing so, they advocate for minimal eco-efficient improvements, resulting in government skepticism[clarification needed] and minimal commitments to strong sustainable consumption efforts.[70]
In order to achieve sustainable consumption, two developments have to take place: an increase in the efficiency of consumption, and a change in consumption patterns and reductions in consumption levels in industrialized countries and rich social classes in developing countries which have a large ecological footprint and set an example for increasing middle classes in developing countries.[clarification needed][71] The first prerequisite is not sufficient on its own and qualifies as weak sustainable consumption. Technological improvements and eco-efficiency support a reduction in resource consumption. Once this aim has been met, the second prerequisite, the change in patterns and reduction of levels of consumption is indispensable. Strong sustainable consumption approaches also pay attention to the social dimension of well-being and assess the need for changes based on a risk-averse perspective.[clarification needed][72] In order to achieve strong sustainable consumption, changes in infrastructures as well as the choices customers have are required. In the political arena, weak sustainable consumption is more discussed.[68]
The so-called
In the early twentieth century, especially during the
During the rapid expansion of post-war suburbia, families turned to new levels of mass consumption. Following the SPI[
Culture shifts
Ecological awareness
There is a growing recognition that human well-being is interwoven with the natural environment, as well as an interest to change human activities that cause environmental harm.[clarification needed][76] This is evident in the United Nations Paris Agreement goal of maintaining average global warming to optimistically 1.5 °C, and at least below a threshold of 2.0 °C.[77] Western culture tends to celebrate consumer sovereignty and free market solutions to political economy problems.[78] Yet climate change, and the associated tragedy of the global atmospheric commons, represent a large market failure.[79] There are at least three options for achieving cultural shifts and greater ecological awareness. Private solutions labeled as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strive to incorporate sustainability concerns into market supply and demand forces by increasing the transparency of productive processes, as well as awareness of ecological footprints of consumption.[80] Public solutions apply regulatory frameworks such as the cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.[79] An alternative approach adopts polycentric governance strategies across governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations to achieve greater citizen engagement and self-governance systems.[81] Increasing levels of sustainable consumption to contribute to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 will likely require supportive educational resources.[82][83]
Surveys and trends
Surveys ranking consumer values such as environmental, social, and sustainability, showed sustainable consumption values to be particularly low.[84] Surveys on environmental awareness saw an increase in perceived “eco-friendly” behavior. When tasked to reduce energy consumption, empirical research found that individuals are only willing to make minimal sacrifices and fail to reach strong sustainable consumption requirements.[85] IGOs are not motivated to adopt sustainable policy decisions, since consumer demands may not meet the requirements of sustainable consumption.
Ethnographic research across Europe concluded that post-
Sustainable Development Goals
The
Notable conferences and programs
- 1992—At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) the concept of sustainable consumption was established in chapter 4 of the Agenda 21.[88]
- 1995—Sustainable consumption was requested to be incorporated by UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) into the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection.[further explanation needed]
- 1997—A major report on SC was produced by the OECD.[89]
- 1998—UN Development Program (UNDP).[90]
- 2002—A ten-year program on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was created in the Plan of Implementation at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.[91]
- 2003—The "Marrakesh Process" was developed by co-ordination of a series of meetings and other "multi-stakeholder" processes by UNEP and UNDESA following the WSSD.[92]
- 2018—Third International Conference of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) in collaboration with the Copenhagen Business School.[93]
- 2022–Bologna, Italy conducts the first or one of the first trials of rewards for sustainable behavior that is not implemented via product prices or subsidy-like financial mechanisms in the EU: with a "Smart Citizen Wallet", described as a supermarket points-like system, citizens will have benefits if they for example use public transport and manage energy well.[94][95]
See also
- Choice editing
- Collaborative consumption
- Sustainable consumer behavior
- Durable goods
- Group decision-making
- Product design
- Overconsumption
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