The document discusses the history and evolution of sustainable consumption from the 1970s to present day. It outlines key international agreements and goals related to sustainable consumption, including reducing resource use and pollution while improving quality of life. The document argues that while progress has been made conceptually, substantive achievements have been modest. It proposes that Asian countries can play a lead role in sustainable consumption 2.0 through various policy approaches and social changes.
1. Sustainable Consumption 2.0: Fostering Social
Innovation and Enhancing Well-being in Asia
Maurie J. Cohen, Director
Program in Science, Technology, and Society
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Presentation at the Sixth International Symposium of the Regional Centre for
Future Earth in Asia, Kyoto University, January 15, 2018
2. Asian Origins of Sustainable Consumption (1972)
“Countries with but a small fraction of the world population consume the bulk of the world's
production of minerals, fossil fuels and so on. Thus we see that when it comes to the depletion of
natural resources and environmental pollution, the increase of one inhabitant in an affluent country,
at his level of living, is equivalent to an increase of many Asian, Africans or Latin Americans at their
current material levels of living.”
Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 1972
3. Chapter 4 of Agenda 21 (Changing Consumption
Patterns) (1992)
“Poverty and environmental degradation are closely
interrelated. While poverty results in certain kinds of
environmental stress, the major cause of the continued
deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable
pattern of consumption and production, particularly in
industrialized countries, which is a matter of grave concern,
aggravating poverty and imbalances...Although consumption
patterns are very high in certain parts of the world, the basic
consumer needs of a large section of humanity are not being
met. This results in excessive demands and unsustainable
lifestyles among the richer segments, which place immense
stress on the environment. The poorer segments, meanwhile
are unable to meet food, health care, shelter and educational
needs.”
4. Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002)
“[F]undamental changes in the way societies produce and consume are indispensable
for achieving global sustainable development.”
5. United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20) (2012)
Fundamental changes in the way
societies produce and consume are
indispensable for achieving global sustainable
development. All countries should promote
sustainable consumption and production
patterns, with the developed countries taking
the lead and with all countries benefiting from
the process, taking into account the Rio
principles...Governments, relevant international
organizations, the private sector and all major
groups should play an active role in changing
unsustainable consumption
and production patterns.
6. Paris Climate Agreement (2016)
“[S]ustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and
production, with developed country Parties taking the lead, play an important
role in addressing climate change.”
7. Sustainable Development Goals
“[S]ustainable consumption and production
aims at ‘doing more and better with less,’
increasing net welfare gains from
economic activities by reducing resource
use, degradation and pollution along the
whole lifecycle, while increasing quality of
life.”
8. Typology of the Sustainable Consumption Research Field
Ecological
Economics
Environmental
Sociology Innovation
Studies
Industrial
Ecology/Life
Cycle
Analysis
Knowledge
Brokerage
Marketing
Ethics
New
Business Models
Standards/
Accreditation
Business Cluster
Sustainable
System
Innovation
Social
Practices
Consumer/
Environmental
Psychology
Behavioral
Economics
Degrowth/
Secular
Stagnation
Sustainable
Lifestyles/Social
Innovation
Decoupling/
Dematerial-
ization
Material
Flows/Circular
Economy
Socio-technical Innovations
Sustainable
Consumption
Sufficiency
Consumption-
based GHG
Accounts
Agro-food
Systems
Transport & Mobility
Built Environment
Energy
Domains/Provisioning
Systems
Finance
9. Achievements of Sustainable Consumption 1.0
Despite no shortage of grassroots social experiments, some effort by a handful
of national governments to formulate national sustainable consumption plans,
and publication of ~2,000 peer-reviewed articles and books, substantive
achievements have been extremely modest.
10. With respect to public policy, the emphasis has been almost exclusively on
consumer education, awareness raising, and product labeling—all of which
have demonstrated very modest capacity to overcome attitude-behavior gaps
that interfere with more sustainable purchasing practices.
Achievements of Sustainable Consumption 1.0
13. Organizational Infrastructure for Sustainable Consumption
European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production
United Nations Environment Program
16. Four Caveats
Caveat 1: It is first of all important to acknowledge the excellent work on
sustainable consumption in Asia that has been done to date.
17. Four Caveats
Caveat 2: It is unrealistic to conceive of a pan-Asian strategy for addressing
sustainable consumption across the approximately 50 countries.
18. Four Caveats
Caveat 3: Circumstances suggest it is most relevant to focus on rapidly growing
high- and middle-income Asian countries/regions (>US$10,000 per capita) +
India.
19. Four Caveats
Caveat 4: Need to acknowledge the current processes of demographic
contraction in East Asia (and China) provide very real opportunities for absolute
reductions in energy and material throughput.
20. Customary Sustainable Consumption Domains
Food and agriculture (including food
waste)
Household energy use (including
embodied energy of goods and
services)
Transportation
23. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
1. Sustainable consumption policies share some common ground with efforts to
encourage resource efficiencies and to deploy renewable energy technologies
but should not be constrained by an overly narrow focus on these objectives.
24. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
2. Be extremely skeptical of “folk policies” stridently predicated on economic
localization. It is important to avoid strategies predicated on facile notions of
demodernization.
25. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
3. Recycling (as well as related notions of product stewardship, smart
packaging, and circular economy) is a necessary but by no means a sufficient
strategy. When formulating solid waste-management policies the emphasis
needs to be on “source prevention” rather than “materials recovery and reuse.”
26. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
4. Progressive taxation policies on income and property are imperative to limit
expansion of income equality.
27. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
5. Utility tariffs should include provisions for graduated price step-ups based on
aggregate usage.
28. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
6. Discourage status-impelled consumption (and consumerist lifestyles) through
economic policies that exacerbate income inequality.
30. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
8. Land-use and transport planning policies should thoroughly reject the private
automobile as a privileged mobility alternative.
31. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
9. Supplement customary measures of economic growth with alternative
gauges of societal well-being that focus on social and ecological flourishing
(satisfying employment, well-being, environmental quality, equity, health).
32. Toward Sustainable Consumption 2.0
10. Exploit opportunities enabled by artificial intelligence, robotics, and the
digital revolution.
33. Concluding Comment
“[S]ustainable consumption and production
aims at ‘doing more and better with less,’
increasing net welfare gains from
economic activities by reducing resource
use, degradation and pollution along the
whole lifecycle, while increasing quality of
life.”
35. Concluding Comment
City planning to enable high quality of life through high density and urban
vitality, effective public transport, efficient public services, and accessible
recreational facilities.
37. Concluding Comment
Social Change that favors usership over ownership of goods, quality of life
over ever-increasing volumes of material output, and social solidarity over
unbridled individualism.
