Marketing in the age of sustainable development

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), world leaders agreed that eliminating unsustainable production and consumption is one of the three overriding objectives of sustainable development. Achieving that objective should have been a major priority for the WSSD Plan of Implementation. Increases in consumption and production over the past decade were largely responsible for the worsening environmental and social trends. Unfortunately, the negotiators of the Plan paid insufficient attention to the lessons from 10 years of discussions about the concepts, the available policies and tools and their effectiveness, the impacts of those policies on developing countries, and the political commitment of countries in an era of globalization. Despite a promising proposal for a new ten-year work programme aimed at bridging the gap implementing the Agenda 21 commitments from Rio, Summit negotiators produced barely more than a muted echo of recommendations from the past which have yet to be taken seriously enough by the world's leaders in a comprehensive intergovernmental strategy. In the ten-year review of progress to achieve sustainable production and consumption (SPAC), governments quickly skipped past the critical work of examining why things are getting worse, avoiding the task of identifying the obstacles (which in some cases were themselves) and in turn avoiding the commitment to time-bound measurable targets. If nothing else, the WSSD demonstrated that a global strategy to achieve SPAC will come not from a UN consensus of world leaders but from a strategic alliance of responsible governments, civil society and others with a vision beyond the next election cycle.

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.

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

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.

Ensuring sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns is an important task for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12 by 2030. To facilitate international and domestic collaboration toward regional SCP, we developed a collaborative workshop method to generate and structure ideas about consumption and production (CP) patterns and employed the procedures for emerging Southeast Asian countries at workshops in Japan and Thailand. The main focus was on Bangkok, and the goal was to identify the implications of SCP policies. The structuring of seventeen SCP patterns chosen from 525 CP patterns generated at the workshops helped to identify the important influential factors, policy interventions, and features of probable SCP patterns. The main conclusions were the following: (1) The viewpoints of consumers and providers are important for idea generation. The products and services, as well as the systems of CP patterns, should be targeted; (2) Transition, improvement of the quality of life, and digitalization are also key directions of SCP patterns in Bangkok; (3) Culture, infrastructure, and industry are major considerations for regional SCP policy; and (4) SCP policy instruments are broader than conventional environmental policy instruments, and expanding the scope of SCP policy should be discussed more widely, especially in Asian countries.

This chapter chronicles one recent effort to bring multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other aspects of international environmental governance (IEG) into a more coherent and stable institutional framework - the work of the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Group of Ministers (IGM) or Their Representatives on IEG and the follow up to this work at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The Toepfer task force identified a of environmental institutions that had altered the United Nations (UN)'s environmental structure as well as led to the creation of institutional structures parallel to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). UNEP's Governing Council has responded to declining resources and eroding authority by seeking to reassert the program's pre-eminence in the field of the environment. The IGM was expected to come out with concrete proposals for the Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF) as well as to revitalize IEG, in general, and UNEP, in particular.Keywords: Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF); Intergovernmental Group of Ministers (IGM); International Environmental Governance (IEG); proliferation of environmental institutions; United Nations (UN)'s environmental structure; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Realising sustainable consumption and production in companies: the SUstainable and RESponsible COMpany (SURESCOM) model

Sustainable consumption and production – Research, experience, and development – The Europe we want

Consumer demand and consumption, if shifted to a sustainable pattern, in theory, should influence producers to meet that demand with sustainable production processes, greater choice of green products, and different consumption options, for instance, services instead of products. At the same time, increased choice and expanded consumption options should drive down relative prices, make green goods and services more affordable and accessible, and create a closed cycle leading to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) system. The paper reviews different cases of resource efficient and cleaner production as well as sustainable products and services developed in Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, and Spain. These research cases were selected from the presentations at the second international conference “Sustainable consumption and production: how to make it possible,” held on September 28–30 in Kaunas, Lithuania. An overwhelming message of the review is that the best results could be achieved when all stakeholders work together for a common vision of SCP for current and future generations. Multistakeholder cooperation together with new economics approach is challenging, but essential for the planet currently imperiled by overpopulation and over-consumption and, for the first time in human history, facing the situation of breaching the planetary boundaries.

Sustainable Consumption and Production Policy Options in Asia and the Pacific

“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

Sustainable consumption and production for Asia: sustainability through green design and practice

This review paper examines the past, present, and future of sustainable consumption and production (SCP). The history of the Sustainable Development Goal No. 12 (i.e., to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) is presented and analyzed. A definition of the sustainable consumption is given and the role of education is explained. The present status and existing trends of SCP are introduced by analyzing unsustainable behavior and the existing dilemma, namely sustainable growth or degrowth. A very broad range of methods is used for measuring and evaluating SCP within sustainable development. To forecast the future of SCP, important trends are presented. The future development of SCP will follow several megatrends and it will require reduced personal and collective consumption (degrowth). Energy usage in buildings, renewable energy sources, and energy storage will be important in that respect. Transportation emissions will continue to be lowered. Waste, especially food waste, shall be reduced, and consumer products shall become more durable. All waste must be collected and separated to be reused. SPC is elaborated in view of the two approaches—Industry 4.0 (smart factory), and the “Sixth Wave” evolution. Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency, and zero waste will be at the forefront of future activities. A circular economy requires extension of product lifetimes, and the reuse and recycling of products. Reducing emissions, pollution and specific energy, water, and raw material usage (especially critical raw materials), as well as the role of digitalization, will be important.

In the framework of the European Union’s Sustainable Development Policy, the promotion of sustainable consumption and production patterns has been a key issue. The explanation is given by their capacity to address social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems and decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation. The EU has established an extensive range of proposals on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), which include an energy- and resource-efficient economy, circular economy, waste prevention and recycling, among others. This paper contributes, by using both factorial and regression analysis, to the identification of fundamental constructs that define SCP in the EU-28, their links with resource productivity and the role of governments and enterprises in its improvement by means of investment in research, development and innovation over the period 2001–2018. Some recommendations to policy-makers are proposed in the paper in order to take actions directly on SCP, such as promoting the use of recycled raw materials in public works, or imposing the need for Ecolabel certification to contract with public administration.

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.