Making Sustainable Consumption and Production the Core of Sustainable Development Goals

Structural model for sustainable consumption and production adoption—A grey-DEMATEL based approach

The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Despite long-standing political recognition of this objective, and ample scientific evidence both on its importance and on the efficacy of various ways of promoting it, the SDGs do not provide clear goals or effective guidance on how to accomplish this urgently needed transformation. Drawing from the growing body of research on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), the paper identifies two dominant vantage points—one focused on promoting more efficient production methods and products (mainly through technological improvement and informed consumer choice) and the other stressing the need to consider also overall volumes of consumption, distributional issues, and related social and institutional changes. We label these two approaches efficiency and systemic. Research shows that while the efficiency approach contains essential elements of a transition to sustainability, it is by itself highly unlikely to bring about sustainable outcomes. Concomitantly, research also finds that volumes of consumption and production are closely associated with environmental impacts, indicating a need to curtail these volumes in ways that safeguard social sustainability, which is unlikely to be possible without a restructuring of existing socioeconomic arrangements. Analysing how these two perspectives are reflected in the SDGs framework, we find that in its current conception, it mainly relies on the efficiency approach. On the basis of this assessment, we conclude that the SDGs represent a partial and inadequate conceptualisation of SCP which will hamper implementation. Based on this determination, this paper provides some suggestions on how governments and other actors involved in SDGs operationalisation could more effectively pursue SCP from a systemic standpoint and use the transformation of systems of consumption and production as a lever for achieving multiple sustainability objectives.

Since 2015, the international policy community has started to agree on international agreements with ambitious middle-term and long-term goals, highly relevant to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) such as those seen in the Paris Agreement, SDGs, and the plastic-related agreements at the G7 and G20 processes. Along with this trend, there has been growing attention given to socio-technical system change or “transition”. Policy debate is putting more focus on the need to change consumption and production patterns and deal with various ecological consequences within planetary boundaries such as decarbonization, absolute reduction in material throughput, or creation of a plastic-free society. This paper examines the expansion of the policy domain of SCP in three phases; SCP focusing on pollution control and cleaner production (SCP 1.0), SCP from the perspective of product lifecycle (SCP 2.0), and SCP focusing on systematic changes in socio-technical systems driving consumption and production (SCP 3.0). The potential impact of a wider SCP policy domain can be comparable to the historical shift in discourse related to ecological modernization theory from pollution prevention to efficiency. This emerging trend corresponds to the need for a fresh approach to policy design which can facilitate transition to sustainability.

The rising problem of severe resource scarcity, environmental pollution and ecological degradation has become a great constraint on economic development in China. Sustainable consumption and production (SCP), as a primary way to decouple economic development from environmental degradation, has been undertaken via various energy-saving and environmental protection policies in China. The main practices for SCP in China, including the adjustment of the industry structure, the promotion of a circular economy and cleaner production, the Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Project, green procurement, and progress in waste management are discussed. Though China has made some achievements in SCP, it is still facing serious challenges. The extensive economic growth model, strengthened by local governments with the incentive of the expectation of promotion and financial reward, aggravates the problems of resources and the environment. The imbalanced development in China, including uneven development among regions, imbalanced expenditure structure between consumption and investment, and the rising inequality in income resulting in imbalanced consumption with insufficient consumption accompanied by overconsumption, is challenging the coordination of development and protection. The weak capacity for scientific and technological innovation and the underdevelopment of non-governmental organizations in China leave the government as the main player in SCP, and this is inefficient for the development of SCP. It is suggested that SCP should be put forward as a development strategy and be conducted more systematically using existing policies in China so as to promote SCP more efficiently. China’s further reform is expected to lift the institutional barriers to SCP and promote economic transformation, balanced development and social equity. In addition, the long-term capacity for SCP calls for the improvement of independent technical innovation in enterprises and extensive social participation.

Sustainability issues became the most common agenda of several countries around the world, due to the three nucleolus factors such as social, economic and environment. Sustainable consumption and production is among the fundamental concern of the UN SDGs. Though, Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector is at its infant stage, few industries located around urban areas, are releasing their waste into the river system. Like many other African countries, Ethiopia is suffering from climate change and environmental pollution. Cognizant of this, the Ethiopian government planned to transform the country into a middle income category with zero carbon emission by 2025 by executing the GTP and CRGE initiative. However, successful implementation of the program confronted several challenges. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify major bottlenecks related to SCP and to point out possible ways to achieve a green economy trajectory in Ethiopia. The current research paper is a qualitative study in to the SCP. Secondary data from peer-reviewed reputable journals, UN SDG 12 reports, country wide analysis on green economy, FDRE SDG reports, news release, website of Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MEFCC) and sustainability stakeholders report have been collected and analyzed. A semi-structured interview was carried out with MEFCC office personnel. Loose environmental policy enforcement at national, regional and local level, complexity in organizing SMEs structure for green, lack of knowledge and awareness regarding the impact and benefits of green economy among private industries, poor incentive package for private firms to promote environmental activities and support green economy and insufficient, unreliable and irresponsible production are among the major environmental bottlenecks that Ethiopia is facing currently. Keywords: Sustainable consumption and production (SCP), CRGE (Climate Resilience Green Economy), Sustainable Development Goals, Green Economy DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-1-05

The footwear industry needs a sustainable business environment due to its remarkable contributions to the economic growth of a country. Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices in the footwear industry can act as a pivotal driving factor for sustainable development in footwear sector of Bangladesh. The implementation of SCP practices is not an easy task for the footwear industry since there are numerous challenges in the existing supply chain. Meanwhile, the literature reveals that the lack of studies on relevant industry motivates to carry out this research. Therefore, this research focuses on the state-of-the-art literature by identifying and finding interactions among challenges to SCP practices in the footwear supply chain. Five experts from five reputed and export-oriented footwear industries were assigned to find out the challenges regarding the SCP implementation and the most important 10 challenges were identified based on experts’ feedback. To assess the cause–effect relationship among challenges, a decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique, a powerful decision-making tool which can find the interactions among factors, was employed. In this study, results showed that five challenges were identified as causal group challenges and remaining five identified as effect group challenges. The causal challenges are lack of top management commitment, absence of market information of green products, inadequate training facility on SCP, motivational gap among consumers, and lack of rules and regulations on SCP practices. Those challenges have net positive influence on effect group challenges such as poor compliance practices, lack of latest technological facility, lack of acceptance on green products, lack of reverse logistics facility, and poor linkage and coordination among lead firms. These results will assist decision-makers to make strategic policy regarding implementing SCP in the footwear supply chain. This study is the first one which deals with the importance of SCP practices in the context of footwear industry, and it is also important for the sustainable development of footwear sector of Bangladesh.

Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) was adopted as a stand-alone goal and reflected as one of the cross-cutting objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a central role to address global resource consumption and its associated environmental impacts, as well as numerous social and economic issues. With this broad characterization of SCP, policy integration is crucial in addressing it at national level. This paper analyzes characteristics of SCP policy integration based on a survey of national government policies. It reveals that SCP is not fully integrated in national policy-making; high resource consumption sectors such as urban planning, building, and tourism are not fully incorporated into national SCP policies, and there is only limited participation of relevant government ministries other than environment ministries. We find that among countries with horizontal policy integration, those with Green Economy/Green Growth frameworks tend to have better sectoral integration; and those with SCP-specific frameworks are likely to have broader coordination of ministries. By conducting cross-analysis using income level and region, the different characteristics of SCP policy-making approaches were identified. The results of this study provide a better understanding of how SCP is integrated into policy for effective national policy-making and measurement of the SDG Goal 12.

“The governance and practice of change of sustainable consumption and production.” Introduction to the ideas and recommendations presented in the articles in this special issue of the journal of cleaner production

The necessity for investments or financing of sustainable consumption and production is highlighted by the green economy. However, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are the root causes of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. SCP system aims to build recovery plans and improve production and consumption patterns toward a sustainable future. Now, SCP is accelerating opportunities in green jobs, managing resources that are scarce and valuable, expanding the market for more sustainable products and increasing the contribution of economic activities, and also contributing substantially to poverty alleviation and the transition towards low-carbon and greener economies. Hence, this chapter gives insights into promoting eco-friendly resources, efficient energy utilization, and approaches for achieving global sustainable economic growth.

This chapter considers the contribution of business to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and the way in which this contribution may be advanced through recognising both the experiences and the drivers of current approaches. It puts forth proposals for innovation and business models contributing to SCP. The chapter grows out of a research strand that I led on business and SCP as part of the EC funded Framework 6 Programme entitled 'Sustainable Consumption Research Exchange' (SCORE), of which I was a coordinating partner. SCORE surveyed the 'state of the art' in SCP through a diverse network of sustainability researchers and expertise from across Europe. A core team of researchers, myself included, brought together understanding from business, design, consumer behaviour and systems innovation policy in the key consumption areas of mobility, food and agriculture, and energy use and housing — responsible for 70% of the life-cycle environmental impacts of Western societies — with the aim of stimulating, fostering or forcing change to SCP theory and practice. The project research was disseminated through the publication of System Innovation for Sustainability, Vols. 1–4. In addition to this chapter, I co-authored the introduction, conclusion and a chapter entitled 'Energy Use in Houses and Buildings and Sustainable Consumption' in System Innovation for Sustainability 4: Case studies in Sustainable Consumption and Production (ed. S. Lahlou, Greenleaf Publishing, 2011).

Bottom-up participation in sustainability is challenging for improving socio-economic and environmental securities. This research was thus aimed to present evidence-based evaluation of implementing sustainable consumption and production (SCP) for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottle in Thailand, with emphasis on performances of the producers and the consumers in production and consumption life cycle management (LCM). Resource efficiency and impact reduction were the key indicators for evaluating producers’ performances in sustainable production (SP) and consumers’ performances in sustainable consumption (SC). The SP involved bottling system whereas use of the bottle, coupled with disposing of post-used bottle was assigned for the SC. Plant observations and in-depth interviews with survey transcript were conducted for two groups of producer: top brand and house brand, whereas a set of questionnaire was prepared for consumer samples. The top brands’ and house brands’ performances in four categories: corporate social responsibility (CSR), eco-design, 3 R and LCM, were examined to justify the SP. The analytical statistics of one-way ANOVA was used to interpret the SC variables consisting of demographic data, drinking water consumption and consumer’s agreement to the SC practice. The SP and SC results were transformed to a five-point scale for rating the SCP success. Three most prominent findings are that both producers and consumers moderately account for the SP and the SC, are likely to favor the resource efficiency over the impact reduction, and that the production and consumption LCM are highly potential for the SCP success. The research also reveals that the top brands consider CSR more important for the SP. Producers are challenging for improving water efficiency due to the lost-filled water in the open loop with adapting to the closed loop. On SC side, the consumers agree to fulfill the consumption efficiency by drinking up a whole bottle of water and reduce the impact by accompanying post-used bottle for solely disposing of them in a trash bin. The achieving outcomes are listing as (1) Matrix model bottom-up participation in SCP implementation, (2) Evidence-based case of sustainability in both environment and socio-economic development and (3) Good practice for LCM development. Finally, a bottom-up participation in SCP implementation shall be largely developed to ensure sustainability success in Thai context.

The threats like increasing pollution level and scarcity of natural resources are showing that Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is one of the key solutions and the main contributor driver of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Eventually, a mysterious disease named as COVID-19 started spreading very fast around the globe and it was declared a pandemic. To protect citizens from this pandemic, the government announced complete lockdown in the country. This lockdown due to COVID-19 has put its impact on every aspect of life. In this research study, the efforts have been made to identify various impacts of COVID-19 on SCP practices and propose various solutions to overcome these impacts of COVID-19. In the Indian perspective, a total fifteen impacts of COVID-19 under five different heads along with eighteen solutions to overcome these impacts have been identified with the help of literature, various reports and experts’ inputs. All these impacts and solutions were analyzed using a hybrid framework. Results revealed that COVID-19 majorly put its impact on nation, business and behavior followed by the impact on society and environment. All these impacts can be overcome by adopting solutions like strong and clear policies formation and its implementation, financial packages to industries to boost up the economy, firm determination of top management, safety of the workforce and tax reduction on sustainable products. The final results will be very helpful for all the actors focused on SCP.

Assessing effectiveness of governance approaches for sustainable consumption and production in China

This chapter aims to address inherent challenges in characterizing sustainable consumption and production (SCP) as a tangible reality when it comes to the food and apparel sectors. Addressing how SDG 12 is adopted and managed in different sectors is fundamentally important to measure if, and to what extent, environmental and social concerns are fulfilled, considering, in a broader view, their interdependence with other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as poverty eradication, zero hunger and food security, energy security, decent work and economic growth, climate action and partnerships for the goals. There are critical environmental agendas related to food and apparel production that deserves attention when it comes to sustainable production. Deforestation, excessive use of agrochemicals, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and climate change are key issues related to food production. From a social perspective, it is relevant to quote labor rights— and, more broadly, human rights—as a baseline scenario to be considered when addressing SDG 12. For the apparel sector, social issues are critical, especially considering big trademarks and the vast, decentralized network of suppliers and manufacturers concentrated in developing countries. Slave and child labor, poor wages and lack of basic labor rights are at the core of the challenges when it comes to sustainable production and consumption at the apparel sector. Regarding consumption, it is relevant to analyze the level of consumption in different countries, food and apparel loss and wastage, access to nutritious food and overconsumption.

The aim of this paper is to attempt to assess changes in terms of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in the European Union (EU), with particular emphasis on the countries of central and eastern Europe (CEE). So far, relatively little attention has been paid to the analysis of SCP in countries at different levels of development in the literature in this subject area. Even less attention has been paid to the study of the similarity of economies in this respect and the signs of convergence. The basis for assessment is the analysis of dispersion measures, cluster analysis, variance analysis and the construction of a synthetic index. The authors conclude that CEE countries are characterized by a relatively low level of development in terms of SCP compared to the rest of the EU. The signs of σ-convergence and β-convergence can only be identified in terms of “Average CO2 emissions per km from new passenger cars”. It is also the only indicator that significantly differentiates both analyzed clusters. In CEE countries, changes in other SCP indicators were mainly negative (increased adverse environmental impact), and the distance to other EU countries increased. The pandemic was conducive to σ-convergence in terms of “Generation of waste” and β-convergence in terms of “Circular material use rate”, but in 2021, the conditions of gradual easing of pandemic restrictions favored divergence in SCP indicators. The lack of convergence (while reducing the environmental impact) may be a serious problem in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the EU level. The above results were supplemented with a discussion on the causes of the observed situation and recommendations.