Sustainable Consumption And Production Patterns

In order for sustainable development to be achieved, humans need to reduce their effect on the environment by consuming less in terms of resources, and living more lightly on the planet. As difficult as this may sound, there are a number of ways in which this is easily achievable. One of the most effective ways to do this is to alter the way in which we function day-to-day, and to begin to change our homes to make them more efficient in terms of resources. In addition, sustainability is not only about ensuring a future in which we can sustain our society without impacting negatively on our environment, but also but ensuring that everyone can have access to this. Therefore we must look at the triple-bottom line approach and align our movement towards sustainable development with this.

Sustainable development is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (IISD, par. 1 ).

Sustainable development is filling today’s needs without challenging the needs of future generations. It’s about bettering the standards of living by preserving human health, maintaining the environment, using available resources well, and progressing long-term economic competitiveness. To do this, the integration of environmental, economic, and social priorities into protocols and programs are required. This also requires different levels of action, from citizens, to industries, to government action. In 2008 a change to how the Canadian Government would accomplish its commitment to sustainable development was made called the Federal Sustainable Development Act. This Act made it so every 3 years, a complete approach showing the whole government

Before we explore the link between consumption and sustainability, it is important that the two terms are defined. Consumption is defined as the utilization of economic goods in the satisfaction of wants or in the process of production resulting chiefly in their destruction, deterioration, or transformation (Merriam-Webster). Unlike consumption, however, sustainability is more ambiguous and has been defined by different entities to have slightly varying meanings. For example, Our Common Nation, a report by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s definition is more specific, stating that “sustainability creates and creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations” (EPA). It is important to note that these needs are not exclusive to basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter – rather, they include the dimensions of social justice and economic development. How are consumption and sustainability related? In short, the

The objective of each target is to indicate action oriented procedures and measurability. I consider target 12.1 and 12.7 to be measurable because you can determine the number of countries actively engaged in SCP. The engagement can be seen through national policy, action plans or corresponding activities linked to sustainable development (Bioregional, 2015). Target 12.2 is difficult to measure because it requires a multitude of calculations, some of which include: carbon footprint, domestic material input and domestic material consumption (Bioregional, 2015). Target 12.3 is unquestionably quantifiable due to its specificity regarding the amount of per capita global food waste being reduced. Target 12.4 can be measured using data concerning the amount of chemicals found within water, soil and food agriculture produced every year as well as the number of reports on management for those in agreed relations (Bioregional, 2015). Target 12.5 remains unclear and immeasurable based on lack of definition. The use of the term “substantially” does not give any feedback about quantity, but rather pose the question, by how much? Target 12.6 is similar to 12.1; it can be measured by the number of companies publishing reports (Bioregional, 2015). Target 12.8 presents as unrealistic, however it can be measured through surveys or key words searched online. The results will be inaccurate because not all parts of the world have access to Internet. Target 12.a can be measured through the

All the targets are measures taken to achieve the goal. Many organizations are tracking these targets to see whether there are improvements are not. In this section, we will elaborate on which targets are currently being measured and how.

Sustainable development suggests the implementation of state-imposed limitations, with the purpose of reducing the amount of resources and space we overtake and ultimately, the amount of damage we cause to our planet’s future. It requires that we view the earth as a system that both contains space and connects time. We are all interconnected, and the selfish, wasteful lifestyle that a country might live in North America can affect people all around the world, presently even. Generally, sustainable development can be separated into sections-two of them being social and environmental. Social sustainability places emphasis on the importance of public policy-making. It requires a political framework that consists of six areas-natural resource management, measurement and assessment, international trade and investment, climate change and energy, economic policy and communication technologies. Environment sustainability is concerned with the diversity and productivity of natural environments, and requires our generation to innovate activities so that they cause minimal harm to our natural environments. Our future on this earth will directly depend on our ability to introduce and implement the sustainable development techniques discussed in these fundamental sectors.

Sustainable development is at the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework of 2012, and is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development includes three key pillars- social, environmental and economic, however in reality these issues often overlap and do not fit directly into one category (Hopwood, Mellor and O’Brien, 2005).

Sustainable development is a vehicle to permute many and varied corporate and institutional interest whilst giving impression of adherence to and observation of environmentally sound principles (David and Santillo 2007)

Hanss, D & Bohm, G 2012, ‘Sustainability seen from the perspective of consumers’, International Journal of Consumer Studies, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 678 – 687.

The goals above, which are recognized as measureable, are already being recorded. Goal 12.3, dealing with cutting food waste is already being measured all over the globe, including which phase of the food supply chain most food is being wasted. In higher income countries, consumers waste more where as in lower income countries food tends to be wasted in production CITATION Gus11 l 1033 (Gustavsson, Cederberg, & Sonesson, 2011). Goal 12.4, relating to sound management of chemicals, is also being recorded. This goal is usually recorded on a more local basis, dealing with pollution within a certain area or body of water. This is documented within developed and developing countries, for example, there was a case study done on “Behavior

In addition, I used OLS regression models to approximate the relationship between the key variables mentioned and the amount of CO2 emissions released. Furthermore, I incorporated multiple control variables in the models in Table 1. These control variables included overall gross, the number of exports, and the percentage of the population that was a “working age” (15-64 years old).

Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of today without over-using the resources for future. It requires the integration of environmental, economic and social priorities into policies and programs[b]. It is different from green growth as green growth does not take social priorities into account which means that green growth is more focusing on improvement of quantity but sustainable development focusing more on quality of human’s life experience.

After the objectives and the methodologies are agreed upon, the programme design will decide on sectors, sources and gases that the programme covers. Generally, major economic sectors such as energy, industrial processes, land-use change, agriculture, and waste disposal are considered for the GHG emission. Similarly, the

For the purposes of this report, we will use the European Commission’s definition of CSR as being “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” (European Commision, 2011). Gathering several definitions, sustainable consumption can be described as a behaviour pattern of consumers towards products and services that minimizes the strain on environmental systems and take into account the