A Portal on Sustainability

Production and Consumption Patterns

04.05.2005 · Research Group on the Global Future

Many of today’s consumption and production patterns lead into an unsustainable direction. Energy consumption –latest data for the USA and Germany available- is growing despite efficiency improvements and sustainable approaches to new ways of production. Transportation, another aspect of production and consumption, poses enormous problems to industrialized countries - and will do more so in the future if the projected increasing rates come true.
Sustainability through the market is the phrase, which summarizes best the role businesses can play in issues of new consumption and production patterns. So far, only the supply side of the market has been under scrutiny. However, changes are necessary on the demand side as well.

Consumption and production patterns came to prominence in the international debate on sustainable development at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Since then, change in these patterns is evaluated regularly by UN-ESA.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) provides for extensive information on business and consumption patterns, and is engaged in various activities like stakeholder and regional dialogues. The dialogues aim at bringing together actors from businesses, governments, NGOs, consumer groups, and academia to ensure an integrative approach.

Coop America is one of the leading NGOs in the environmental sector, providing economic strategies and practical tools to address current social and environmental problems. It seeks to educate people and businesses to make improvements through economic customs. Visit their website to learn more about their mission, activities, and programs, and the practical guide they provide on consumption behavior and personal finance.

The Oslo Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption defined sustainable consumption and pointed out that it has to bring together a number of key issues, such as meeting needs, enhancing the quality of life, improving resource efficiency, increasing the use of renewable energy sources, minimizing waste, taking a life cycle perspective and taking into account the equity dimension.

For those who wish to deepen a certain aspect of environmental economics, Alexander S. P. Pfaff, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University, and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government at Harvard University compiled a list of essential reading with over 900 references.