Anthology of Sustainable Consumption

Anthology of
Sustainable Consumption

Building a Sustainable Future

We will not realise the dream of a world in which all people enjoy a ‘better and more sustainable future’ as outlined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless we quickly improve our relationship with the Earth, including making our production and consumption patterns sustainable.

Any transition to sustainable consumption cultures must focus on consumption and production systems within planetary boundaries and on reaffirming social values of community and solidarity. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) works with more than 40 organisations around the world to bring about change at various levels from policy and regulation to sparking an individual and collective (re)connection with nature and the ecosystems that sustain our lives. The perspectives outlined in this Anthology of Sustainable Consumption illustrate some of the work done on four continents to help build ‘Sharing Communities’ – those characterised by a spirit of collaborative action that generates social benefits while reducing impacts on the planet.

Download the full Anthology of Sustainable Consumption or follow the links below for the organisation’s contributions to the Anthology.

Building a sustainable future • Overcoming obstacles to policy implementation • Evidence-based advocacy for food and climate justice • Policies for and by people • Sustainable consumption must be the easy choice • Knowledge and practice as sustainability levers • Transformative education and collective action • Let us bring back our heritage • Promoting people’s rights for sustainability • Small steps towards meaningful change

Sustaining the Wild Coast

IBON Int

Centro Ecológico

A sharing community is one in which people collaborate and share goods and services. It generates social benefits while reducing environmental impacts. A sharing community works for both people and planet.

Building a Sustainable Future

The contributions in this Anthology provide a diversity of perspectives on sustainable consumption from organisations working in the Global North and the Global South.

Building a Sustainable Future

The contributions in this Anthology provide a diversity of perspectives on sustainable consumption from organisations working in the Global North and the Global South.

Overcoming Obstacles to Policy Implementation

CUTS explores how lack of understanding and coordination at the government level of SDG 12 hinders the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns in India.

Overcoming Obstacles to Policy Implementation

CUTS explores how lack of understanding and coordination at the government level of SDG 12 hinders the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns in India.

Evidence-based Advocacy for Food & Climate Justice

SAFCEI in South Africa notes that policy to mitigate or adapt to climate change needs to consider social and ecological justice issues, both within and between countries.

Evidence-based Advocacy for Food & Climate Justice

SAFCEI in South Africa notes that policy to mitigate or adapt to climate change needs to consider social and ecological justice issues, both within and between countries.

Policies for and by People

In Brazil, IDEC calls for a profound transformation of food systems into those designed for the community, guaranteeing rights and social and climate justice.

Policies for and by People

In Brazil, IDEC calls for a profound transformation of food systems into those designed for the community, guaranteeing rights and social and climate justice.

Sustainable Consumption Must Be the Easy Choice

The global Consumers International warns that while consumers are key to a sustainability transition, they should not bear sole responsibility for it.

Sustainable Consumption Must Be the Easy Choice

The global Consumers International warns that while consumers are key to a sustainability transition, they should not bear sole responsibility for it.

Knowledge and Practice as Sustainability Levers

Centro Ecológico in Brazil highlights the need for transformative knowledge that is accessible and that provides both the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ to change.

Knowledge and Practice as Sustainability Levers

Centro Ecológico in Brazil highlights the need for transformative knowledge that is accessible and that provides both the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ to change.

Transformative Education and Collective Action

Working in the Philippines, the IBON Foundation supports value-led education as a critical enabler of the sustainability transition if supports the aspirations of the people.

Transformative Education and Collective Action

Working in the Philippines, the IBON Foundation supports value-led education as a critical enabler of the sustainability transition if supports the aspirations of the people.

Let us Bring Back our Heritage

Sustaining the Wild Coast supports South Africa’s Amadiba people to retain their traditional way of life and shares their insights into sustainability within and beyond local communities.

Let us Bring Back our Heritage

Sustaining the Wild Coast supports South Africa’s Amadiba people to retain their traditional way of life and shares their insights into sustainability within and beyond local communities.

Promoting People’s Rights for Sustainability

IBON International works to defend, assert, uphold and realise people’s rights to bring about sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Promoting People’s Rights for Sustainability

IBON International works to defend, assert, uphold and realise people’s rights to bring about sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Small Steps Towards Meaningful Change

SSNC, based in Sweden, provides an example of how small-scale change creates ripples and ripples become waves shaping popular opinion.

Small Steps Towards Meaningful Change

SSNC, based in Sweden, provides an example of how small-scale change creates ripples and ripples become waves shaping popular opinion.

Green Action Week

We, the contributors to this ‘Anthology of Sustainable Consumption’, along with many other organisations around the world, are calling for alternative systems that simultaneously tackle both global and contextual social and environmental inequalities.

We collaborate with many other groups in demonstrating that sustainable alternatives are possible. Along with more than 50 other groups in 30 countries as part of the global campaign Green Action Week, we implement grassroots activities aligned with the theme ‘Sharing Community’. Such a community, in which people collaborate and share goods and services, generates social benefits while reducing environmental impacts. A sharing community works for both people and planet.

Our contributions give insight to the need for cohesive, integrated policies that support a transition to sustainable consumption, examples of transformative educational approaches, the importance of empowering consumers – both through the upholding of consumer rights and through activities that enable them to actively participate in the transition, and the need to build on existing and generate new sustainability knowledge.

Participants in Green Action Week host seed sharing, consumer education and income-generating upcycling events, as well as support community kitchens and other community-specific innovations. The lessons learned have the potential to spark transformative system change.

To follow are just some examples of the work undertaken over the past few years.

Asociación Peruana de Consumidores y Usuarios (ASPEC), Peru

To promote their new online platform for sharing books, toys and other items, ASPEC used cartoons and music videos that they released through social media such as TikTok. “Cartoons allow us to express a story or thought in a single picture … and by including humour, we reach different age groups.”

Centro Ecológico, Brazil

Their activities focus on illustrating how sharing enables a better life. They host seed swaps and workshops to repair and even re-invent clothes, hold cooking demonstrations to share knowledge about little-known food plants, and support service-swapping systems. These all encourage an ethos of reducing, recycling and re-use.

Consumer Council of Fiji

The Council connected older and younger generations through storytelling and song, and enabled income-generating opportunities for older women to pass on traditional basket weaving, which helps to reduce plastic pollution. “Consumers have developed a renewed sense of optimism that damage done to the environment is reversable.”

CUTS, India

To combat staggering volumes of e-waste, CUTS established pilot sites to collect e-waste in the city of Jaipur, India. This project has since been replicated in various other Indian states. This has helped reduce volumes of e-waste and grow awareness of the need for responsible e-waste recycling.

Consumers Association of Penang (CAP), Malaysia

CAP launched multilingual guides and events and used newspaper articles to grow awareness of the benefits of urban organic gardening. “With more time spent at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Penangites have found an interest in urban gardening and gotten serious about making healthy choices as consumers…”

IBON Foundation, Philippines

They hold annual fairs and forums to raise awareness of the need for sustainable production to address basic needs and to trade, sell and share merchandise, crafts and products. They also collaborated on an album that featured original works by Filipino farmers, indigenous peoples and cultural works. The album was launched at an exhibition titled ‘Organic food and farming for all’.

Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC), Brazil

IDEC has hosted online roundtables, one of which focused on solidarity actions related to food during the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of workshops passed on the knowledge and skills needed to empower people to become conscious consumers in their own homes. This included making natural cleaning products, establishing home gardens and making compost.

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM), Uganda

PELUM established a seed bank and hosted a seed swapping event in Uganda’s Mpigi District to highlight the role that seed sovereignty plays in building community resilience to climate change. Smallholder Olivia notes that “Owning my own indigenous seeds is a source of pride to me”.

SAFCEI, South Africa

They host training and seed swaps to encourage community-level agroecological food gardening, and have hosted online food garden training for Southern African faith leaders. This empowers them to encourage and train their faith communities to set up and maintain community gardens to combat food insecurity. “The growing and sharing of food is a cultural and spiritual celebration.”