Implementing Agenda 21

Greening the Consumer

by Kevin Cook

As the largest-ever gathering of government leaders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) focused world attention on environmental problems as never before.

UNCED's vision of sustainable development, elaborated in Agenda 21, is centred on three fundamental challenges to be tackled on a global scale:

• current patterns of consumption and production must be changed in a sustainable direction;
• population growth must be reduced by measures that also lessen poverty;
• we must achieve a fair global distribution of available resources.

Although population growth has overshadowed human consumption as a priority of previous environmental conferences and negotiations, UNCED correctly regarded both issues as two sides of the same coin. It stressed that human consumption puts the most pressure on our environment, with population acting as its multiplier. Whereas, on a national level, the environmental impact of population tends to be more apparent than that of consumption, the reverse is true on a global scale.

As stated in Agenda 21, "The major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries." Agenda 21 also stresses that, "Measures to be undertaken at the international level for the protection and enhancement of the environment must take fully into account the current imbalances in global patterns of consumption and production."

UNCED concluded that it will not be possible to combine a high and growing world population with the universal adoption of environmentally destructive consumption patterns. Developing countries clearly have the burden of responsibility to reduce global population growth. But developed countries, where consumption rates are exceedingly high, "should take the lead in achieving sustainable consumption," says Agenda 21.

The Crisis of Consumption

Since 1950, the peoples of the world have consumed as many goods and services as all previous generations combined. Today, the richest one-fifth of the world population;living primarily in Northern industrialized countries;account for most of the world's consumption, while the other four-fifths still struggle to satisfy their basic needs.

This so-called "North-South" consumption gap is large and unsustainable. Northern countries have absorbed close to 80% of the world's resources and currently generate more than 75% of the world's municipal and industrial wastes, while contributing to about 80% of human-made global CO2 emissions since 1950.

Although in the past some wealthy Northern countries have demonstrated a reluctance to change their unsustainable consumption patterns;or even to acknowledge that they are a problem;UNCED achieved a broad global consensus that all governments, as well as NGOs, must cooperate in this critical process of change. Encouraging advancements are being made, but they are still far too few and fall well short of the magnitude of efforts needed.

Sustainable consumption requires a "critical mass" of people willing to ask themselves, "How much is enough?" It means finding ways to maintain and improve consumers' quality of life, while at the same time consuming less of the earth's resources and generating far less waste and pollution in the process. It essentially embodies the definition of sustainable development by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED): "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

How this monumental global task can eventually be accomplished, and how it will affect the living standards of the world's affluent consumers, is still unknown. For the international NGO community;and particularly the world consumer movement;it requires a wide range of participatory actions at various levels, in both industrialized and developing countries, to roll back consumption rates and to help achieve new and sustainable development paths.

Challenges and Dilemmas

Few NGOs have been more strongly affected and challenged by UNCED than consumer organizations. UNCED's forceful call for global sustainable consumption has, in a sense, brought hundreds of consumer organizations around the world to an uncertain crossroads in their work. In the North, a growing number of large consumer groups are learning to "think globally while acting locally." They know that they cannot only test and report on luxury goods like cars, washing machines and cameras, but they must also be prepared to inform, educate, motivate and organize people to adopt more sustainable consumption patterns and lifestyles;even if it earns them the contempt and lost support of many consumers.

In the South, a diversity of smaller grassroots organizations has added a number of critical environmental concerns to agendas that have traditionally focused on people's basic needs for essential goods and services, such as food, clothing, shelter, health care, education and sanitation.

Although consumer organizations are concerned about the environment, they are not environmental groups. Nevertheless, they must be prepared to confront the conflicting demands of environmentalism and consumerism when necessary. And as consumer organizations increase their involvement in environmental issues, many are forming closer alliances with environmental and development groups who, in a similar manner, are stepping up their involvement in consumer issues.

Consumer organizations understand that the transition to an environmentally sustainable global society can only succeed with the willing participation of individual consumers. This requires nothing less than a dramatic shift in the social and cultural traditions and values that drive unsustainable consumption.

A key step in working towards sustainable consumption lies in seeking innovative definitions of consumers' needs;a direct challenge to today's producer-driven "consumer culture," which stimulates wasteful consumption by promoting an imbalance between people's wants and needs.

But sustainable consumption cannot be understood or dealt with in isolation. Rather, it is part of a continuum linking a complex sequence of events: from the extraction of raw materials, pre-processing, manufacture and life cycles of products, to factors influencing their purchase, use and disposal. This continuum is in turn linked to a multitude of impacts on the environment at all stages.

For consumer organizations, it is often difficult to reach a balanced or definitive conclusion about the impact of certain products on different physical environments. One example is the detailed research on disposable versus washable diapers that was carried out recently by consumer organizations in the Netherlands and the United States. Although the Dutch group concluded are washable diapers are clearly preferable in the context of the Netherlands (with its severe constraints on landfill sites), the US organization found it impossible to recommend one type of diaper over the other.

Consumer organizations face other problems related to the most obvious measure for reducing environmental damage and wasteful consumption;making some goods more expensive (for example, conserving energy by letting fuel prices rise). To support higher prices for some products, especially basic goods that are needed by the poor, presents an obvious dilemma for consumer organizations. A great many of them have built their reputations on advising people about "best product buys" (involving, at least indirectly, the promotion of consumption). Consumer organizations could suffer an identity crisis if they suddenly started telling consumers that certain products should cost more;and that many others are not even needed and probably should not be purchased.

Actions on the Environment

Despite such predicaments, the world consumer movement still has an undeniable responsibility to promote sustainable consumption choices: "empowering" consumers to buy, use and dispose of products (or, better yet, to reduce, reuse and recycle them) in ways that cause as little environmental damage as possible. Contrary to popular thinking, these choices are not restricted to consumers in rich countries. The widening gap between rich and poor;a determining factor in consumption rates;does not adhere to North-South boundaries but is present to varying degrees in all countries.

For example, the emerging middle class in India today outnumbers the total population of the largest countries within the European Union. The consumption patterns of this growing middle class;and those of relatively affluent consumers in many other developing nations;are modeled after those of northern consumers, thanks largely to the globalization of trade and markets, increased foreign investments and pervasive advertising by multinational corporations. Yet the continuation of this trend on an ever-increasing scale could one day lead to global ecological collapse.

Widespread poverty among consumers in the South poses another severe and imminent threat to the global environment, as millions of people there are literally "consuming their ecosystem" simply to survive. Economic development is essential if Southern consumers are to attain sustainable consumption levels and higher standards of living. At the same time, it is imperative that countries of the South not repeat the environmentally devastating errors of industrialized countries in the North.

The "right to a healthy and sustainable environment";to live and work in an environment that is non-threatening to the well-being of present and future generations;is included in a charter of eight "consumer rights," which are advocated and defended by consumer organizations around the world. But all consumers also have five key responsibilities that form a counterbalance to their rights and are therefore equally emphasized by the consumer movement. They include environmental awareness;the responsibility to realize the environmental costs and consequences of our consumption patterns and lifestyles; and social concern;the responsibility to consider the impact of our consumption patterns and lifestyles on other citizens, especially the poor, disadvantaged and powerless.

These rights and responsibilities were underscored by a global conference on sustainable consumption, held in The Hague, Netherlands in May 1993. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Dutch consumer organization Consumentenbond and Consumers International, which is a federation of more than 200 consumer organizations in over 80 countries. Consumer leaders from 40 countries examined key issues and challenges of sustainable consumption, which were also elaborated in a major policy document, Beyond the Year 2000: The Transition to Sustainable Consumption, for the world consumer movement.

The crucial importance of sustainable consumption was reaffirmed by the 14th World Congress of Consumers International, held in Montpellier, France in September 1994. Representatives of some 250 consumer organizations in 75 countries identified sustainable consumption as one of the two most important challenges now facing their movement. One of the congress's 30 resolutions, addressing Consumers and the Environment, called on consumer groups worldwide to promote sustainable consumption and support each other in environmental testing programmes, surveys and assessments of products and services.

At national and local levels, consumer organizations have undertaken a wide range of environmental actions that draw on their well-honed skills in independent research, advocacy, testing and publishing. A majority of these actions involve:

• educating consumers about sustainable consumption, with a view to changing their attitudes and behaviour;
• providing consumers with timely environmental information about popular products and services (and examining the "cradle to grave" life-cycles of the most important ones);
• including environmental criteria in comparative product tests and surveys;
• monitoring and exposing misleading "green claims" by product manufacturers and advertisers, and helping governments draw up codes of practice, laws and regulations that outlaw them;
• researching "eco-labelling" schemes (now introduced in over 30 countries, including several in the South) to help consumers identify "green" products;
• urging the highest standards of environmental performance for products, whether domestically consumed or exported;
• negotiating with governments, manufacturers and other concerned parties to ensure that consumer products and services are environmentally sound;
• conducting boycotts and educational campaigns in response to specific environmental problems linked to industries, businesses, government policies and consumers;
• advocating the environmental interests of consumers at relevant national, regional and international fora;
• advocating appropriate economic measures (for example, tax incentives, implementation of the "polluter pays" principle, and deposit refund schemes for bottles) that support the environmental interests of consumers; and
• networking and cooperating with other NGOs on environmental and consumer issues of shared concern and interest.

Advocating Environmental Concerns

Consumers International, through its consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as the only global federation of consumer organizations, has advocated environmental and consumer concerns before various UN organizations. At UNCED, Consumers International drew attention to issues of biotechnology, agriculture, pesticides and sustainable consumption. Since then the organization has participated actively in major international meetings on production and consumption;particularly those of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

In July 1995, Consumers International lobbied intensely and successfully for a new ECOSOC resolution that calls for expansion of the UN's Guidelines for Consumer Protection into new areas;starting with sustainable consumption. Although not legally binding, the guidelines still form the single most important document for consumer protection around the world. In its resolution, ECOSOC noted "the impact the guidelines have had...in promoting just, equitable and sustainable economic and social development through their implementation by governments."

The new guidelines will probably cover areas such as environmental product testing and labelling, education programmes for sustainable consumption and international standards for environmental claims. Consumers International and cooperating NGOs expect to assist the UN in setting up some mechanisms for elaborating these new guidelines.

These and other developments reflect an increased willingness;even enthusiasm;expressed by growing numbers of people to become environmentally responsible consumers. And thanks in large part to UNCED, the promotion of sustainable consumption is now firmly at the top of the consumer movement's agenda for the 1990s and beyond.