Environmental Policy Department Sustainable Consumption and Production

Introduction The concept of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was coined by Agenda 21, the main policy document to emerge from the Rio Earth Summit, and it can broadly be defined as: “A holistic approach aimed at minimising negative environmental impacts from the production-consumption systems of contemporary societies. Considered a practical implementation strategy to achieve sustainable development, the approach addresses economy, society and the environment”. (Based on the definition of the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment on the “Oslo SCP Symposium” in 1994.) Since the Rio Earth Summit, the importance of SCP has been confirmed by several international meetings and related initiatives. The two most emblematic ones are the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002) calling governments to develop so-called “10-year framework of programmes” in support of regional and national initiatives to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production and an international multi-stakeholder process, the so-called “Marrakech Process”, which was co-launched by UNEP and UN-DESA in 2003 to support the development of regional and national SCP initiatives. The European Commission and EU Member States are also taking an active role in furthering SCP by several ways. For instance, SCP is recognised as one of the seven key challenges to be tackled by the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the European Commission is going to launch a dedicated EU SCP Action Plan during 2008. Furthermore, several EU Member States have already prepared dedicated national SCP action plans or address SCP comprehensively in their National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS), while others are on the way to do so (see e.g. the study “National Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Strategies in the EU”). A major study commissioned by DG Environment recently identified the following three priority areas for SCP policy-making in the EU: Housing (aspects relating to construction materials, use of chemicals, maintenance services, finance services, design of buildings, use of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency in buildings, household appliances, water use, construction, reuse of demolition and household waste, etc.); Food and drink consumption (aspects relating to agricultural production, food processing, use of chemicals, energy use, packaging, logistics, retailers, consumer choices, waste, food services such catering and restaurants, etc.); and Mobility (aspects relating to public and private transportation, freight transportation, railway service, aviation, disposal of vehicles, alternative vehicles and fuels, etc.); Our activities The REC’s activities under this Topic Area are divided into the following four main areas of work: SCP integrated assessments Conduction of multi-disciplinary studies in the subject, e.g. socio-economic studies to support SCP policy-making, ex-post and ex-ante policy analysis from the SCP perspective etc. Sustainable production and new models of satisfying societal needs Activities in the broader field of sustainability management in enterprises, focusing particularly on eco-design, cleaner production, Life Cycle Assessment and eco-innovations, furthermore the EU environmental acquis and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Sustainable consumption Activity conducted in the broader field of transition towards sustainable consumption both in the private and the public sectors, focusing particularly on behavioural change and new lifestyles and sustainable public procurement. Facilitation of stakeholder dialogue, awareness raising, capacity building and education Stakeholder meetings, courses, dissemination of information etc. Current projects under construction Temporarily please visit: http://waste.eionet.europa.eu/, and http://www.rec.org/changelab/index.html Contact Jozsef Szlezak Project Manager The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe Ady Endre ut 9-11 2000 Szentendre Hungary Tel: (36-26) 504-000 Fax: (36-26) 311-294 E-mail: scp@rec.org

Environmental Policy Department