Tim Grant from Life Cycle Strategies presented at the UNAA Sustainable Consumption and Production Seminar held on 27 June 2013 hosted by Russell Kennedy, Melbourne. Held in support of the United Nations 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, the seminar brought together experts and practitioners from across business, government and civil society to provide a platform for shared learning on integrating sustainable consumption and production measures throughout business operations, relationships and value chains. Guest Speakers and Panelists: - Tim Grant, Director, Life Cycle Strategies - Joshua Bishop, National Manager – Markets, Sustainability and Business Partnerships, WWF Australia - Craig Chester, Operations Manager Australia, Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand - Liam Smith, Director, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainability Institute - Clinton Squires, Australian Managing Director, Interface More information available at: http://www.unaavictoria.org.au/education-advocacy/masterclasses/sustainable-consumption-and-production-seminar/

1. Sustainable Consumption and Production:
Eco-efficiency & eco-certification
to behavioural change.
The consumption dilemma!
Tim Grant, Director, Life Cycle Strategies Pty Ltd

2. Three key points
• There is no magic cure for the impacts of consumption – the
brown paper version is no better than the pink plastic version.
• We need sustainability strategies which work for most of the
people – for too long we have focused on niche products for a
committed few
• Money is at the heart of consumption – we need to deal with
consumption and how new wealth is distributed.

3. LCA and functional unit
• LCA evaluates the environmental impacts of different ways of
providing products and services.
• This includes assessment from cradle to grave and all direct
and indirect effects of the product system.
• LCA provide a highly generalised connection between
sustainability of the supply chain to the product or service we
use.

4. Life Cycle Assessment

5. What have we learnt from 30 years of
life cycle assessment

6. Only incremental improvements from
alternative materials/products
• For many products and services “alternative materials” have
only marginal benefits if any.
• Flow on effects, direct and indirect
• limits to co-products,
• un-scalability of solutions.

7. Systemic change is more powerful than
personal action.
• Home composting versus centralised anaerobic digestion.
• Inner urban living versus tree change to the country.

8. Good environmental products come in all
shapes and sizes.
• High tech – synthetic materials can be amazingly
efficient, electronic control and save energy.
• Low tech – plasterboard, timber
• New – LED lighting, smart phone apps.
• Old – Hills hoist, polystyrene packaging in
refrigerated transport.

9. Sustainability for the masses

10. Sustainability for the masses
• Think global, Act Local – Why?
• Because we can.
• Makes us feel like that we are doing something.
• Keeps us occupied, while the rest of the machine gets on with
production and consumption.
• We make this problem globally with global systems – we need to solve
it with global systems.
 20 years of waste policy has failed us dramatically

11. Sustainability for the masses
• Urban air quality has been solved by:
– Legislation for minimum emission performance of vehicles
(largely lead by Europe).
– Better designed cars with catalytic converters and particle
traps.
• Ozone depletion solved by
– Banning specific substances which effected the ozone layer

12. Sustainability for the masses
• We set up a powerful set of factors to drive consumption.
• We then ask everyone to do the right thing – against this
drive.
• We then judge people for not doing what they should.

13. Consumption

14. Drivers of consumption
• Money drives consumption.
• Not all expenditure has the same impact per $

15. GHG emission per $US
-
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
kgCO2eperUS$

16. Drivers for consumption
• Need to shift expenditure to less impactful spending.
• Need to reclaim some of the wealth generated by efficiencies
for the environment instead of expanding consumption.
• This requires increases in taxes and charges – not popular at
an individual level, but responsible at the community level.

18. Concluding points
• There is no magic cure for the impacts of consumption – the
brown paper version is no better than the pink plastic version.
• We need sustainability strategies which work for most of the
people – for too long we have focused on niche products for a
committed few
• Money is at the heart of consumption – we need to deal with
consumption and how new wealth is distributed.