What does promoting sustainable consumption mean for the Asia Pacific region?
Promoting sustainable consumption means making a ‘green leap’ from unsustainable to sustainable behaviour. It means creating market demand for greener products and services, and it means encouraging less polluting and resource-intense patterns of industrial development.
In the Asia Pacific region, by 2030, consumer spending is likely to reach US$ 32 trillion and to represent about 43% of worldwide consumption. Increasing consumption means increasing production. So increasing consumer demand puts pressure on the fragile natural resources and creates pollution. The very quest for a better life seems to be in conflict with maintaining a healthy natural environment. Is there an alternative?
Yes, there is - the use of sustainable consumption strategies. Shifting demand to a more environment-friendly path can force a switch in supply. The nature of consumption defines the nature of production. If the markets demand products and services that are greener and more ethical, their production and distribution will follow.
Read more on Efficient consumption
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What can policy makers do to enable sustainabe consumption? - read our leaflet.
New Video features Sustainable Consumption issues
This short video tells the stories of major Asian household consumer segments. It elaborates on their motivators and barriers for ethical consumption. The video starts with few consumption facts, continues with an introduction to personas/ interviewees from various income groups and delivers barriers and motivators one by one. At the end there is a list of suggestions for actors to take action. Please do make use of the videos in your workshops and give us feedback!
New publication on Sustainable Consumption
The SWITCH-Asia Network Facility in cooperation with Consumers International published a booklet summarizing the challenges and opportunities of sustainable consumption in Asia. Part one of the booklet deals with the challenges in achieving a shift towards the consumption of ethical products, responsible product use and good end-of-life management including reuse and recycling in Asia. It sets out macro consumption trends in the Asia-Pacific region and analyses the changing profiles of Asian consumers. The booklet summarizes the collective challenges in Asia for switching to environment-friendly ways of buying, using and discarding.
The part 2 of the booklet presents solutions and opportunities to address sustainable consumption challenges in the region and provides examples of how to overcome the challenges. Thus, the booklet deals with the solutions, approaches and instruments for achieving a shift to environmentally friendly and fair products, responsible product-use and good end-of life management including reuse and recycling in Asia. Particularly, it seeks to point out what governments, businesses and NGOs can do to engage, encourage, enable, and exemplify sustainable consumption. It collects the solutions to the challenges of promoting sustainable consumption. In case stories successful projects showcase their examples and lesson learnt.