Progress Towards Sustainable Production

1
Progress TowardsSustainable Production
Consumption in the United States

• International Forum on Sustainable Consumption
  and Production
• December 6, 2003, Changsha City, China

2
Overview

1. What is SPAC?
2. Goals and objectives
3. Progress in the US
4. Obstacles challenges

3
I. Goals and objectives

• Rio Principle 8 To achieve sustainable
  development and a higher quality of life for all
  people, States should reduce and eliminate
  unsustainable patterns of production and
  consumption
• Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Encourage
  and promote the development of a 10-year
  framework of programmes in support of regional
  and national initiatives to accelerate the shift
  towards sustainable consumption and production

4
What is SPAC?(Sustainable Production
Consumption)

• The creation and use of services and related
  products which respond to basic needs and bring a
  better quality of life while minimizing 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
  jeopardize the needs of future generations.
  - OECD (1994)
• An integrative strategy for meeting human needs
  and improving the quality of life for all without
  causing harm.
  
  - ISF (2003)
  
  

5
An overarching objectiveof sustainable
development
Eradicate poverty
National sustainability strategy
Achieve higher quality of life for everyone
Manage natural resources
Local sustainability strategies
Change unsustainable production consumption
6
A framework of policy tools
Consumption behavior trends Needs
analysis Impacts of consumption
practices Values, norms behavior
Government procurement Subsidy reform
Eco-taxes/shifting Investment guidelines Socially
Responsible Investment Financial institutions
reforms
Consumer information Right-to-Know Education for
sustainability Advertising reform Eco-labeling Pac
kaging Pricing Transportation Trade
Integrated Product Policy/ Life Cycle
Analysis Health safety standards Clean
production Industrial ecology Extended Producer
Responsibility Precautionary Principle Polluter
pays
Sustainability Assessment Analysis of impacts of
current practices Analysis of effectiveness of
policies Identification of obstacles Strategies
for overcoming obstacles
7
SPAC objectives in Agenda 21

1. Reduce stress and meet needs.
2. Develop a better understanding of consumption.
3. Promote efficiency and reduce waste.
4. Reinforce values and policies
5. Develop a domestic policy framework that will
   encourage a shift.

8
II. Progress in the US

• What is the US doing to address these objectives?
• What is the US strategy on SPAC?
• What are the targets and timetables?
• What are the obstacles?
• What is being done to overcome those obstacles?

9
The worlds biggestconsumer polluter

• America consumes over 40 of the world's gasoline
  and more paper, steel, aluminum, energy, water,
  and meat per capita than any other society on the
  planet.
• The average American produces twice as much
  garbage as the average European.
• At least four additional planets would be needed
  if each of the planet's 6 billion inhabitants
  consumed at the level of the average American.
• - Center for a New American Dream

10
The US leaves one of the largestecological
footprints on the planet
11
Is the US taking the lead?

• Developed countries should take the lead in
  achieving sustainable consumption patterns.
• Agenda 21 and Programme for the Further
  Implementation of Agenda 21

12
No national targets or strategy

• No established targets or timelines to measure
  progress towards SPAC
• No domestic policy framework on SPAC to define
  criteria or indicators
• No national sustainable development strategy to
  guide and integrate policies and interagency
  efforts

13

• No specific decision-making structure currently
  exists. Questions dealing with development of any
  federal role in addressing consumption issues in
  an overarching manner would need to be addressed
  by the Congress in consultation with the
  Administration.
• - US Country Report to CSD on Implementation of
  Agenda 21, 1997
• National policies promoting sustainable
  consumption and production in the United States
  are generally implemented by the Executive Branch
  of the Federal government In the United States,
  however, most actions and policies that determine
  consumption are undertaken by civil society, or
  by the state or local governments.
• - US Country Report for WSSD, December 2001

14
1. Reducing stress meeting needs

• Significant progress in past decade toward more
  sustainable approach to chemicals and pesticides
• Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) led to reductions
  in chemical releases, e.g., 45.5 of core
  chemicals between 1988-1999.
• 1996 Food Quality Protection Act focused
  attention on aggregate and cumulative risk from
  pesticide residues.
• Progress on pollution prevention tools
  education, but not clear where they succeeded or
  failed.
• US has played leadership role in lead poisoning
  prevention.
• However, environmental impacts of resource
  consumption in the UShave increased by 15 over
  the past decade.
• John Dernbach, Stumbling Toward Sustainability
  (2002)

15
Energy consumption and stressin the US is
increasing

• Between 1992-2000, primary energy consumption
  increased by 20.
• Since 1975, energy efficiency has declined by 2
  per year.
• Renewable energy as share of total US energy
  consumption declined from 7.2 in 1992 to 6.9 in
  2000.
• Energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 13
  since 1992.

16
Increased affluence, especially when others
suffer, is not prosperity

• Americans today are twice as affluent as in the
  1950s, yet those saying they are very happy
  declined from 35 to 32. The divorce rate has
  doubled, teen suicide rate nearly tripled,
  violent crime nearly quadrupled, and more people
  than ever (especially teens and young adults) are
  depressed.
• David Myers, The American Paradox Spiritual
  Hunger in an Age of Plenty (2000)

17
Making investment responsible
A national nonprofit membership organization
promoting the concept, practice, and growth of
socially responsible investing
SRI considers both the investor's financial needs
and an investments impact on society. With SRI,
you can put your money to work to build a better
tomorrow while earning competitive returns today.
Social investors include individuals and
institutions such as corporations, universities,
hospitals, foundations, insurance companies,
pension funds, nonprofit organizations, churches
and synagogues.
18
Challenging destructive subsidies

• Since 1994, the Green Scissors Campaign, led by
  Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense
  and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, has been
  working with Congress and the Administration to
  end environmentally harmful and wasteful
  spending.
• Working to breach party lines, the Green
  Scissors Campaign has helped cut more the 26
  billion in environmental wasteful programs from
  the federal budget

19
2. Developing a betterunderstanding of
consumption

• Early years
• 1854 Thoreau, Walden Marks American
  Transcendentalism. "I went to the woods because I
  wished to live deliberately, to front only the
  essential facts of life, and see if I could not
  learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came
  to die, discover that I had not lived."
• 1892 Chemist Ellen Swallow Richards introduces
  Ernst Haeckels concept oekology (the science
  of right living) to the United States.
• 1899 Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure
  Class concept of conspicuous consumption
  motivated not by inherent utility of goods but
  symbolic utility in communicating status
• 1936 R. B. Gregg, The Value of Voluntary
  Simplicity

20
Understanding consumption

• Mid-century
• 1949 James Duesenberry copying the neighbors in
  consumption behavior, keeping up with the
  Joneses, relative income hypothesis
• 1957 Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders What
  Makes Us Buy, Believe and Vote the Way We Do? -
  raised public awareness of use of social science
  by advertising to shape consumer wants.
• 1958 John Kenneth Galbraith The Affluent
  Society challenged the assumption of consumer
  sovereignty
• 1962 Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, raised public
  awareness of the dangers of chemicals to
  environment and human health.
• 1968 Paul Ehrlich, Population Bomb, raised alarm
  over implications of global population growth.

21
Understanding consumption

• 1972 Donella Meadows, et al, The Limits to
  Growth (Club of Rome) Drew attention to the
  impacts of unsustainable development and
  assumption of unlimited resources and sinks.
• 1973 Stuart Ewen Captains of Consciousness
  Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer
  Society Highlighted campaign by industry
  leaders in 1920s to define American life as
  consumerism emphasis on individualism vs.
  traditional focus on small community extended
  family.
• 1981 Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity Toward a
  Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly
  Rich - Highlighted the American simplicity
  movement.
• 1992 Alan Durning How Much Is Enough? The
  Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth
  Highlighted the destructive impact of American
  consumer lifestyles on the rest of the planet,
  while at the same time not providing fulfillment
  but greater material hunger.

22
Understanding consumption

• After Rio
• 1993 Vicki Robin, New Roadmap Foundation Your
  Money or Your Life? Best-seller exploring
  difference between making a living and making a
  life.
• 1994 EPA asks National Research Council to
  define a research agenda on US consumption
• 1995 Survey of American views on consumption
  (Merck Family Fund) Americans believe our
  priorities are out of whack. They believe
  materialism, greed, and selfishness increasingly
  dominate American life, crowding out a more
  meaningful set of values centered on family,
  responsibility, and community.
• 1998 Juliet Shor, The Overspent American Why We
  Want What We Dont Need Concept of competitive
  consumption, driven by need to keep up not with
  neighbors but increasingly upscale norms a
  situation rejected by social movement of
  down-shifters.

23
3. Promoting efficiency reducing waste

• Shift from material energy intensive sectors to
  services.
• Energy efficiency improvements.
• Reduction of energy intensity of more than 25 in
  last 20 years.
• - ECE Assessment Report (2002)

24
Gains offset by increases

• Although progress has been made in improving
  eco-efficiency in the countries of the ECE region
  and in de-coupling environmental and economic
  developments, these gains have been offset by
  overall increases in consumption.
• More natural resources are being consumed and
  more pollution is being generated.
• -- ECE Assessment Report

25
Promoting efficiency reducing
wasteEnvironmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)

• EPA Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (1995)
• Part of EPA's continuing effort to promote the
  use of materials recovered from solid waste.
  Buying recycled-content products ensures that the
  materials collected in recycling programs will be
  used again in the manufacture of new products.
• Greening the Government through Waste Prevention,
  Recycling and Federal Acquisition (1998)
• To improve the Federal Government's use of
  recycled products and environmentally preferable
  products and services.
• The head of each executive agency shall
  incorporate waste prevention and recycling in the
  agency's daily operations and work to increase
  and expand markets for recovered materials .
• State and local government initiatives
• Phoenix (chemical purchases), Vermont (Clean
  State Initiative), Oakland (1999 anti-dioxin
  resolution, mandating less toxic products and
  processes) Massachusetts, Minnesota,
  Pennsylvania , Vermont and Washington and local
  governments adopted environmental standards for
  cleaning product purchases.
• City of Santa Monica, 100 renewable electricity
  purchases San Francisco, among other local
  governments, switched to Integrated Pest
  Management

26
Promoting efficiency reducing wasteIncreasing
consumption despite efficiencies

• Increase in consumption occurred despite movement
  from more resource-intensive production to
  greater use of services
• Americans produce more municipal waste per capita
  than any other country, are the leading producer
  of greenhouse gas emissions, and the largest
  producer of toxic wastes.
• Per capita waste generation declined from 1990 to
  1995, then steadily increased since 1996, despite
  recycling and composting. Trend toward lighter
  packaging offset by increases in purchasing and
  waste.
• Between 1960-1996, increased waste,
  pounds/person
• Paper paperboard From 332 to 602 lb.
• Plastics 4 to 149 lb.
• Textiles 19 to 58 lb.
• Wood 34 to 82 lb.

27
Educating about SPACUniversity Leaders for a
Sustainable Future
Assists colleges and universities in making
sustainability an integral part of curriculum,
research, operations and outreach. ULSF is also
the secretariat for signatories of the Talloires
Declaration (1990), which has been signed by more
than 300 university presidents and chancellors
around the world.
28
Promoting economic alternatives

• Co-op America, a national nonprofit organization
  founded in 1982, provides the economic
  strategies, organizing power and practical tools
  for businesses and individuals to address today's
  social and environmental problems.
• While many environmental organizations choose to
  fight important political and legal battles,
  Co-op America is the leading force in educating
  and empowering our nation's people and businesses
  to make significant improvements through the
  economic system.

29

• America's premier directory of qualified green
  companies companies with demonstrated
  commitments to social and environmental
  responsibility. Search for over 25,000 products
  and services from 2,000 green companies.

Responsible Shopper can help you find out!
Discover the good, the bad and the ugly behind
the products you buy everyday from clothing to
shoes to toothpaste.  Investigate hundreds of
companies on a range of issues, including
Sweatshops, Pollution, Ethics, Discrimination and
more.
Published by Co-op America, supporting supports
the use of boycotts as a powerful economic
strategy consumers can use to enact social
change.
30
4. Reinforce values and policies

• Mass advertising a major force promoting
  consumerism
• Typical American watches 150,000 TV
  advertisements in lifetime
• In 1997, American industry invested more than
  100 billion on television advertising,
• Advertising expenditures are tax-deductible
  another subsidy
• Continued support for destructive subsidies
  agriculture, energy despite calls for reform
• Since 1992, many environmental laws not
  strengthened (e.g., CAFÉ), current regulatory
  roll-backs
• Major debate on role of regulations vs. the
  market and voluntary approaches
• Major social movements for non-commercial values,
  voluntary simplicity, cultural alternatives are
  growing as well as their impact.

31
Raising awarenessCenter for a New American Dream

• The Center for a New American Dream helps
  Americans consume responsibly to protect the
  environment, enhance quality of life and promote
  social justice
• We are attempting nothing less than a shift of
  American culture away from its current emphasis
  on consumption towards a more fulfilling, just
  and sustainable way of life.

32
A program of nine simple actions each of us can
take to have a measurable, positive impact on the
environment - and it shows us this impact right
away.
To help state and local governments and other
large purchasers incorporate environmental
considerations into their purchasing decisions
Not only helping you discover the secret life of
consumer products, but to make the right thing
easier to do. Well connect you to better choices
and help you find what you are looking for.
33
Informing citizens

• The Right-to-Know Network provides free access to
  numerous databases, text files, and conferences
  on the environment, housing, and sustainable
  development.
• With the information available on RTK NET, you
  can identify specific factories and their
  environmental effects analyze reinvestment by
  banks in their communities and assess people and
  communities affected.

34
Protecting right to informationWorking Group on
Community Right to Know
The Working Group on Community Right-to-Know
helps people defend and improve our right-to-know
about environmental and public health concerns.
The Working Group serves a nationwide network of
organizations and individuals whose right-to-know
advocacy makes government responsive, holds
corporations accountable, empowers communities,
and protects public health and the environment.
35
5. Developing a domestic policy framework that
will encourage a shift

• We need a national strategy and government
  leadership
• Federal process began with PCSD Taskforce on
  Population Consumption (ended in 1999)
• Current Federal government has not taken the
  lead, putting more emphasis on the market
• State local authorities have moved forward on
  sustainability strategies
• New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota,
  Pennsylvania
• Seattle, Santa Monica, San Francisco,
• North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance

36
Developing appropriate measures
Sustainability Indicators Program RP's Genuine
Progress Indicator (GPI) and Ecological
Footprint index offer compelling challenges to
traditional ways in which economic, social, and
ecological impacts are conceptualized and
measured.
Community Indicators Project A community
indicators movement has arisen around the nation
Currently, over 200 communities around the
country--from Missoula, Montana, to Jacksonville,
Florida--have developed sets of indicators that
illuminate long-term trends of economic,
environmental, and social well-being and chart
the path to a changed future.
37

• A strategic partnership of people and
  organizations working to promote more
  sustainable consumption patterns in Mexico,
  Canada, and the United States.
• Our mission is to facilitate information
  exchange, communication and outreach and
  collaborative action around sustainable
  consumption.
• We strive to influence social and economic
  forces to make the case for sustainable choices
  more compelling.
• http//nasca.icspac.net/about/whatis.aspx

38
NASCA partners

• Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention
• Canadian Institute for Environmental Law Policy
  
• Center for A New American Dream
• Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources
• Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco
• Consumers Union
• Cooperative Coffees
• Environment Canada - National Office of Pollution
  Prevention
• Global Action Plan for the Earth
• Green Seal
• INFORM Inc.
• Integrative Strategies Forum
• International Council for Local Environmental
  Initiatives (ICLEI)
• North American Commission for Environmental
  Cooperation
• Red Ambiental Juvenil de Yucatan A.C. (RAJY)
• Secretaria de Medio Ambiente Y Recursos Naturales
  (SEMARNAT)
• Statistics Canada
• Terrachoice Environmental Services Inc.
• United Nations Environment Programme

39
IV. Obstacles to progress

• Consumer culture (individualistic values,
  consumer habits)
• Lack of understanding of SPAC
• Policies undermining progress destructive
  subsidies
• Opposition from interest groups
• No national framework or strategy on SPAC or
  sustainable development
• Institutional inertia

40
The challenge

• The US must take full responsibility for our
  role as worlds biggest consumer polluter.
• We need to take leadership in developing a
  national SPAC strategy, with targets and
  timelines.
• Many in the US are taking responsibility and
  significant action this needs recognition and
  support.
• Many improvements and initiatives to change our
  unsustainable patterns are taking place, but
  there needs to be much more.
• The challenge is immense Transforming our
  economy, our personal habits and our
  understanding of success.
• We do not have the luxury of time. We do have a
  precious opportunity to change in time.

41

• Strengthen capacity of NGOs promoting sustainable
  production consumption, especially through
  exchange of information and knowledge.
• Raise public awareness and engagement on SPAC
  issues, trends and policies.
• Encourage governments with SPAC implementation.

42
SPAC Watch

• A civil society initiative to monitor progress
  towards sustainable production and consumption.
• A collaborative assessment process hosted by
  International Coalition for Sustainable
  Production Consumption (ICSPAC).
• http//icspac.net/spacwatch/

43
SPAC Watch report to World Summit on Sustainable
Development

• Tools practices
• UN Guidelines
• Procurement policy
• Eco-labeling
• Extended producer responsibility
• Subsidy reform
• Right to know
• Changing sectors
• Advertising, water, lead, military
• Regional global perspectives