Oksana Mont
Professor
Sustainable consumption progress: should we be proud or alarmed?
Author
Summary, in English
Many environmental strategies relying on a mere improvement of resource productivity and eco-efficiency of processes and products are not able to fully address the environmental impacts induced by increasing consumption. In addition to these strategies, the concept of sustainable consumption calls for changing the levels and patterns of consumption, which require complimentary approaches. However, so far, there has been a noticeable lack of strategies that conceive ways of shifting from a material-intensive consumer culture to a society with less materialistic aspirations. This paper aims to provide a critical overview of the current debate, research trends and main outcomes relating to the area of sustainable consumption. It is based on the study commissioned by the Swedish EPA and focuses on current research streams and activities of main stakeholders. It identifies and discusses the gaps in the existing range of initiatives and policy instruments towards sustainable consumption.
Department/s
- The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Pages
531-537
Publication/Series
Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume
16
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Policy instruments
- Consumption patterns and levels
- Sustainable consumption
- Stakeholders
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0959-6526