What we decide to buy is influenced by many factors, including our age and health, place of residence, income and wealth, social beliefs and even our moods.

Sustainable consumption asks us to consider issues that go beyond the individual when we shop. These include not only the ecological impacts of what we buy but also the equity, human rights and political dimensions of sustainability in the production and consumption process. These aspects of sustainable consumption provide guidelines on how to reduce the social and ecological impacts of what we consume.

For example, the Internet Just Shoppers' Guide suggests criteria to consider when buying such everyday things as chocolate, sports shoes, tuna, laundry detergent, soft drinks, paper, timber, clothing, and so on.

Guidelines such as these are not designed to make us feel guilty, but to encourage us to ask questions such as:

	Do I really need this item?
	Can I produce it myself?

And then, when we have decided to buy something, to think critically about each stage in the 'life-cycle' of a product:

	Production
	Transport and Retailing
	Use
	Disposal

Thinking critically about the impacts of consumption can lead us to realise the importance of:

	The holistic nature of sustainable consumption
	Personal and political strategies for social change
	Cultural and national priorities for appropriate development.

Towards a Definition

There are many definitions of sustainable consumption, but most share a number of common features, including an emphasis on:

	Satisfying basic human needs (not the desire for 'wants' and luxuries);
	Favouring quality of life over material standards of living;
	Minimising resource use, waste and pollution;
	Taking a life-cycle perspective in consumer decision-making; and
	Acting with concern for future generations.

These five emphases feature in a definition that has come to be seen as one of the most authoritative in recent years. This is the definition proposed by the 1994 Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption:

. . . . the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimising the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations.

Source: Norwegian Ministry of the Environment (1994) Oslo Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption.

This definition is seen as a good one because it links sustainable consumption closely with sustainable production - by dealing with both the production and disposal phases of the product life-cycle as well as the transport, retailing and consumption of goods and services. It also assumes a two-way process of social change through which producers can influence consumption through product designs and marketing with consumers, in turn, influencing production through their market choices.

However, at least three cautionary points may be made about this definition.

	It is idealistic
	It does not emphasise social justice issues sufficiently
	It over-emphasises personal lifestyle choice.

As a result, Nick Robins and Sarah Roberts of the International Institute for Environment and Development suggest that a comprehensive definition of sustainable consumption needs to be grounded in a wider range of environmental, social equity and moral concerns - such as those explored in this module. They summarised these as:

	Environmental damage The extraction, production, use and disposal of many goods and services cause serious environmental problems such as resource depletion, energy wastage, pollution of the air, water and land, and growth in the levels of solid, toxic and hazardous wastes.
	Poverty While many people around the world, especially in the North, live lives of abundance and affluence, over a billion people still lack access to supplies of safe water, adequate sanitation, energy and nutrition.
	Health The production of many consumer goods cause extensive damage to human health through air and water pollution. While pollution is a major cause of premature death in the South, many diseases in the North are now considered 'lifestyle' diseases with people dying from the over-indulgence brought on by affluence.
	Economic efficiency Conventional development models have sought to compensate for the above problems by attempting to incorporate more people into consumer economy through economic growth (the proverbial 'bigger cake'). This has often been at the expense of changes in the distribution and pattern of consumption, which can be more cost-effective and resource efficient.
	Global environmental change Industrial, commercial and domestic energy use, especially in the transport sector, is the major source of greenhouse gases while air-conditioning and refrigeration are significant causes of ozone depletion. These global environmental threats can be addressed by changes in the design and construction of buildings and transport systems.
	Quality of life Increasing material affluence does not necessarily lead to a better quality of life due to the degradation of the human environment and the erosion of social relationships that it can bring.

Source: Robins, N. and Roberts, S. (1998) Consumption in a Sustainable World, Workbook prepared for the OECD Workshop on Consumption in a Sustainable World, Kabelvaag, Norway, 2-4 June.

Taking such principles into account, sustainable consumption can be defined in the following way:

Sustainable consumption integrates a range of social, economic and political practices at the individual, household, community, business and government levels that support and encourage: reducing the direct environmental burden of producing, using and disposing goods and services; meeting basic needs for key consumption goods and services, such as food, water, health, education and shelter; maximising opportunities for sustainable livelihoods in the South; consuming goods and services that contribute positively to the health and well-being of women and children; increasing the development and adoption of energy and water efficient appliances, public transport and other demand-side measures the production and sale of new goods and services adapted to global environmental constraints; and lifestyles that place greater value on social cohesion, local traditions and non-material values.