Sustainable consumption

It is the product of individual and collective decisions about aspirations and about satisfying needs and adopting practices, which are in turn conditioned, facilitated, and constrained by societal norms, political institutions, public policies, infrastructures, markets, and culture.

"[3] The United Nations includes analyses of efficiency, infrastructure, and waste, as well as access to basic services, green and decent jobs, and a better quality of life for all within the concept of sustainable consumption.

Such changes may result in more sustainable lifestyles, along with associated products, services and expenditures,[8] being structurally supported and becoming sufficiently prevalent and effective in terms of collective greenhouse gas emission reductions.

[10] The environmental impacts of meat production (and dairy) are large: raising animals for human consumption accounts for approximately 40% of the total amount of agricultural output in industrialized countries.

[26][11] In June 2023, science advisors in the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism came to the identical conclusion, finding that "our diets need to shift towards more plant-based ingredients, rich in vegetables, fruits, wholegrains and pulses.

[32] The app CodeCheck gives versed smartphone users some capability to scan ingredients in food, drinks and cosmetics for filtering out some of the products that are legal but nevertheless unhealthy or unsustainable from their consumption/purchases.

"[39] Not only selection, quantity and quality of consumed products may be of relevance to sustainable consumption, the process of consumption, including how selected products are distributed or gathered could be considered a component of it as well: for instance, ordering from a local store online could substantially reduce CO2 emissions (in terms of transportation emissions and when not considering which options are available).

[43] In the EU, the proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism could help mitigate this problem,[44] and possibly increase the capacity to account for imported pollution/harm/death-footprints.

Footprints of nondomestic production are significant: for instance, a study concluded that PM2.5 air pollution induced by the contemporary free trade and consumption by the 19 G20 nations causes two million premature deaths annually, suggesting that the average lifetime consumption of about ~28 people in these countries causes at least one premature death (average age ~67) while developing countries "cannot be expected" to implement or be able to implement countermeasures without external support or internationally coordinated efforts.

High-income individuals usually have higher energy footprints as they disproportionally use their larger financial resources – which they can usually spend freely in their entirety for any purpose as long as the end user purchase is legal – for energy-intensive goods.

[54] Degrowth refers to economic paradigms that address the need to reduce global consumption and production whereby metrics and mechanisms like GDP are replaced by more reality-attached measures such as of health, social and environmental well-being and more needs-based[55][56][57] structures.

[64] Economic concepts by which scholarly literature approaches problems such as overconsumption, using this terminology to characterize broad, typically conceptual-stage, solution-proposals include:[65][66] Some writers make a distinction between "strong" and "weak" sustainability.

[67] In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also referred to as the Earth Summit, recognized sustainable consumption as a concept.

Strong sustainable consumption approaches also pay attention to the social dimension of well-being and assess the need for changes based on a risk-averse perspective.

[74] When unemployment began to stretch resources, American working-class families increasingly became dependent on secondhand goods, such as clothing, tools, and furniture.

Following the SPI[clarification needed] conference of 1956, plastic corporations were quick to enter the mass consumption market of post-war America.

[75] Following a Vermont State Legislature ban on disposable glass products, plastic corporations banded together to form the Keep America Beautiful organization in order to encourage individual actions and discourage regulation.

Running public service announcements like "Susan Spotless," the organization encouraged consumers to dispose waste in designated areas.

[clarification needed][76] This is evident in the United Nations Paris Agreement goal of maintaining average global warming to optimistically 1.5 °C, and at least below a threshold of 2.0 °C.

Private solutions labeled as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strive to incorporate sustainability concerns into market supply and demand forces by increasing the transparency of productive processes, as well as awareness of ecological footprints of consumption.

[79] An alternative approach adopts polycentric governance strategies across governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations to achieve greater citizen engagement and self-governance systems.

Irish consumer confidence fell, sparking a cultural shift in second-hand markets and charities, stressing sustainability and drawing on a narrative surrounding economic recovery[clarification needed].

[87] Specifically, targets 12.1 and 12.A of SDG 12 aim to implement frameworks and support developing countries in order to "move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production".