Co-designing workshops on sustainable consumption and production in Southeast Asia: application of idea cards and structuring methods

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) elaborately encompass a global goal for sustainable consumption and production (Goal 12: SDGs), thus providing potential drivers and/or pathways to attaining sustainable consumption. In view of this global goal, this study examined the role of real income per capita, urbanization and especially inbound tourism in domestic material consumption for the panel of OECD countries. The study is conducted for the period of 1995 to 2016 by employing the panel quantile approach. Interestingly, an inverted U-shaped relationship between outbound tourism and domestic material consumption is established across the quantiles, thus indicating that sustainable domestic consumption is achievable after a threshold of domestic material consumption is attained. In addition, achieving sustainable consumption through economic or income growth is a herculean task for the OECD countries because the current reality indicates that income growth triggers higher consumption of domestic materials. However, the results suggest that urbanization is a recipe for sustainable domestic consumption since there is a negative and significant relationship between the two parameters across the quantiles. Nevertheless, the study presents relevant policy for efficient material and resources utilization and that is suitable to drive the SDGs for 2030 and other country-specific sustainable ambitions.

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A Study on the Trend of Domestic Waste Generation and the Recognition of Recycling Priorities in Korea

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13041732 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 1732

Author(s):

Seok-ho Jung ◽

Mee-hye Lee ◽

Seong-ho Lee ◽

Ji Whan Ahn

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Waste Recycling ◽

Household Waste ◽

Waste Generation ◽

Analytic Hierarchy ◽

Sustainable Consumption And Production ◽

Survey Results ◽

Scrap Metals ◽

Hierarchy Process

In September 2015, the United Nations included ‘sustainable consumption and production’ as part of its 12th goal of sustainable development. The EU announced its Circular Economic Package in December 2015 to move from the existing linear economic structure to the net environmental system. Recycling of household waste has become more significant as a circular economic policy has been implemented to reflow waste into the economy through recycling worldwide. In this study, Korea’s household waste generation for 20 years from 1998 to 2017 was analyzed through statistical techniques. Waste generation tended to increase in the order of plastics and cans, and papers tended to decrease. The amount of bottle wastes has been on the decline after increasing. A questionnaire survey on recycling priority was conducted on 261 people, including participants in the EARTH-2019 recycling experience hall, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. According to the survey, the recycling priorities of six types of household waste are (first) plastic, (second) cans, viny, scrap metals, (third) paper, and (fourth) bottles. Statistical analysis of mid- to long-term household waste generation and AHP-based household waste recycling priority survey results can be used as basic data, such as environmental analysis in Korea’s recycling-related policies and research.

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The consumer goods sector and the sustainability agenda in Ghana: a review of sustainability commitments

Discover Sustainability ◽

10.1007/s43621-021-00037-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mohammed Abubakari ◽

Bessy Thuranira

Keyword(s):

Consumer Goods ◽

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Academic Community ◽

Concerted Effort ◽

Sustainable Business ◽

Sustainable Development Goal ◽

Development Goal ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Sustainable Consumption And Production ◽

Qualitative Literature

AbstractCorporate entities are expected to show a great commitment to the sustainability agenda in response to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-12—‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ by 2030. This study, therefore, analyses the sustainability commitments of two major consumer goods companies in Ghana; Unilever Ghana Limited, and PZ Cussons Ghana Limited. It uses the traditional qualitative literature review approach to identify and evaluate the varying commitments of the two entities through an analytic lens of the Sustainable Business Model (SBM) archetypes. The findings indicate that of the eight archetypes, Unilever Ghana Limited is committed to four of the archetypes—1, 3, 6, and 8—whereas PZ Cussons Ghana Limited’s commitments align with five of the archetypes—1, 2, 5, 6, and 8. This indicates a defining step in their sustainability commitments moving forward, however, the translation of the commitments of the two companies into actualities calls for a concerted effort involving the State, civil society, the academic community, and the entities themselves.

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Expansion of Policy Domain of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP): Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Design

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126763 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6763

Author(s):

Yasuhiko Hotta ◽

Tomohiro Tasaki ◽

Ryu Koide

Keyword(s):

Policy Design ◽

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Pollution Prevention ◽

Ecological Modernization ◽

Policy Debate ◽

Policy Domain ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Sustainable Consumption And Production ◽

Transition Policy

Since 2015, the international policy community has started to agree on international agreements with ambitious middle-term and long-term goals, highly relevant to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) such as those seen in the Paris Agreement, SDGs, and the plastic-related agreements at the G7 and G20 processes. Along with this trend, there has been growing attention given to socio-technical system change or “transition”. Policy debate is putting more focus on the need to change consumption and production patterns and deal with various ecological consequences within planetary boundaries such as decarbonization, absolute reduction in material throughput, or creation of a plastic-free society. This paper examines the expansion of the policy domain of SCP in three phases; SCP focusing on pollution control and cleaner production (SCP 1.0), SCP from the perspective of product lifecycle (SCP 2.0), and SCP focusing on systematic changes in socio-technical systems driving consumption and production (SCP 3.0). The potential impact of a wider SCP policy domain can be comparable to the historical shift in discourse related to ecological modernization theory from pollution prevention to efficiency. This emerging trend corresponds to the need for a fresh approach to policy design which can facilitate transition to sustainability.

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