GOAL 12 : RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
GOAL 12 : RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
Digital connectivity plays a critical role in bettering lives, and it provides unprecedented access to knowledge for billions of people worldwide. As a result, people increasingly have access to free education online. Technology companies from Silicon Valley and other regions have begun providing solutions to problems ranging from adaptive learning to global access of high-quality education. This type of education technology, also known as edtech or E-learning, is growing more important with regard to learning across the globe and in the last few years, there has been a surge in investment from schools and investors in this industry. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are also becoming more popular and have the potential to reach people around the world with quality higher education courses. Universities in the US, UK and elsewhere have made classes available to millions of people. The education market is constantly growing, and it is forecasted that edtech investment alone will reach US $252 billion by 2020. Some examples of current top edtech companies are Duolingo,Noodle and Knewton. And MOOC platforms include Coursera and FutureLearn. Digital learning is also teaching people to be sustainable producers, for example, mobile teaching is being made available to smallholder farmers, teaching them how to produce their crops more sustainably. And educational apps are also being used to educate people about sustainable consumption patterns. For example, apps have been developed to teach people in hospitality industries how to eliminate food waste.
Sustainable consumption and production is about promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all. Its implementation helps to achieve overall development plans, reduce future economic, environmental and social costs, strengthen economic competitiveness and reduce poverty. At the current time, material consumption of natural resources is increasing, particularly within Eastern Asia. Countries are also continuing to address challenges regarding air, water and soil pollution. Since sustainable consumption and production aims at “doing more and better with less,” net welfare gains from economic activities can increase by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole life cycle, while increasing quality of life. There also needs to be significant focus on operating on supply chain, involving everyone from producer to final consumer. This includes educating consumers on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, providing them with adequate information through standards and labels and engaging in sustainable public procurement, among others.’
Environmentally Sustainable Consumerism
China and India will soon be home to trillions of dollars in new consumption; making it sustainable is essential
By 2027, about 65% of Chinese households will qualify as middle class, and annual consumption in the country is expected to reach $8.2 trillion – up from $4.3 trillion just a decade earlier – according to a report published by the World Economic Forum in 2018. Meanwhile annual consumer spending in India is expected to increase to $6 trillion by 2030 from $1.5 trillion in 2019, according to a separate Forum report. This increase will have a significant environmental impact, if it follows the path established by developed markets and involves vast conspicuous consumption and intensive resource use. Consumers everywhere need to be encouraged to help mitigate resource scarcity, combat climate change, curb plastics pollution, and eliminate food waste with their choices. In order to make this a reality, consumers need to be excited by the prospect of sustainability, and genuinely motivated to engage; too often, they may not see sustainability as relevant to their daily lives, or they may avoid more sustainable products often seen as relatively expensive or ineffective.
Businesses must make sustainable choices more accessible and affordable, while redesigning product lines and increasing their portfolios of sustainable options. Sustainability-focused business models have been proven to have real value, and can be scaled up significantly. The sharing economy, for example, which generally provides access to things like cars and real estate rather than ownership, in the form of an Uber ride or an Airbnb stay, is a potential means to achieve more sustainable consumption by decreasing cars on the highway, for example, and related emissions (though serious questions have been raised about whether car-sharing services may actually aggravate issues like traffic congestion by encouraging people to avoid public transit). Another critical emerging business model is related to the “circular economy,” which involves minimizing waste by re-using materials rather than discarding them. Circular economy principles could help blunt the environmental impact of the consumer waste that will inevitably be generated by an expanding middle class, according to an article published by McKinsey in 2017. For example, old tires could be used as industrial fuel, according to the article, while applying liquid-chemical extraction to discarded electronics could multiply their value.
A Circular Economy in Cities
Urban areas now consume three-quarters of all natural resources, but that can change
By the year 2050 more than two-thirds of the global population is expected to be living in cities, compared with less than one-third as recently as 1950, according to the United Nations. Urban centres are suffering from the effects of the current, “take-make-dispose” economy – which has them consuming more than 75% of the world’s natural resources while producing more than half of all global waste, and generating between 60% and 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A circular economy could provide a way to rethink and reshape how cities make and use the things they need, and enable new ways of ensuring long-term prosperity. The implementation of a circular economy could bring economic and environmental benefits, while making cities thriving places where productivity is boosted by reducing congestion, eliminating waste, and reducing unnecessary costs – and by tapping new economic opportunities, supporting the acquisition and development of more contemporary skills, and increasing meaningful employment. In this way, cities can become more liveable thanks to improved air quality and health, reduced emissions and pollution, and healthier social interaction.
A circular economy can also bolster urban resilience by keeping more durable materials in use, reducing the exploitation of virgin materials, fostering partnerships with more local producers, and harnessing digital technology. However, this will rely on changing the ways urban systems are planned, designed, and financed – and the ways that they are built and repurposed. For example, buildings could be designed to be more adaptable, modular, easier to maintain, and built with materials that last longer. These materials can be healthier for both people and the environment by being easily and safely compostable, and reusable. Buildings can theoretically be constructed without producing waste, though this will require methods like on-demand and on-site construction using burgeoning 3D printing techniques. The sharing economy, enabled by emerging digital technologies, could thrive within circular-economy cities, and enable greater access to public spaces, products, and mobility – while helping reconnect people with their neighbours and communities. Under this model, many people may increasingly shift from owning things to sharing them via product-as-a-service contracts, which could in turn incentivize businesses to keep products in use for longer periods.
A Systems Perspective on Circular change
Eliminating wasteful practices and ensuring sustainable consumption requires systemic change
In general, most materials are under-utilized and discarded after short periods – and efforts to correct this problem often treat its symptoms rather than root causes. Our individual consumption, as well as that of organizations and entire countries, must be considered in the context of both social needs and planetary boundaries (beyond which we subject the planet to existential risk). There is an urgent need for a fundamental rethink of industrial systems, coupled with changes in behaviour and governance. However, this can only occur through unprecedented collaboration among manufacturers, retailers, and governments. When it comes to materials like textiles, food, and plastics, entire value chains need to be aligned around a shared vision. High-level commitments, smart incentives, and action are required from everyone with a stake in the way materials cycle through an economy. In the textile industry, for example, if fashion brands and retailers can commit to a standard garment collection scheme, the volume of what is recovered could justify the necessary investment in technology and infrastructure. In the case of food, farmers, food brands, retailers, and city governments can similarly collaborate on a broad scale.
Eventually, a shift could get underway to systems where all of the food we eat is designed to be part of a regenerative cycle of edible products and fertilizers. When it comes to plastics, however, there are particularly complex challenges in terms of how we use them to package and consume things. Still, people around the world are responding to these challenges by changing the way they shop, what they choose to eat, and how they live – and substantial sums are being invested in removing plastic from the ocean, rivers, and streets. All of this work will be for nothing, though, if increasing amounts of plastic continue to be landfilled, burned, or otherwise deposited into the environment. Businesses and governments need to work together more closely to design ways to produce, consume, and re-use materials, and a systems approach to developing such a circular economy means tying together the various social and ecological systems that underpin economies – and adopting a more expansive view. The products and services likely to result would be both decentralized and interconnected, and would depend on meaningful collaboration among businesses, governments, and communities.
A Circular Business Model
Opportunities abound to reimagine consumption with products designed for sharing, durability, and reuse
Much of the material used for production ends up being wasted, and a lot of the value we attempt to create in the process is forfeited. Moving towards a more circular economy entails a radical shift away from this dynamic – and large companies can play a significant role by using their scale to drive circularity into the mainstream. Successful circular economy businesses and initiatives can inspire well-known brands to follow suit, and while models supporting the shift to a circular economy will vary, the key consideration is always whether a business is creating value through extraction and consumption, or through regeneration and restoration. Extending an item’s lifespan can be achieved through designing for durability, though in order to truly unlock greater value sustainable design strategies should be deployed in combination with innovation related to maintenance, repair, the standardization of parts, disassembly, refurbishment, and re-manufacturing. Business models that emphasize access over ownership, and selling performance rather than the product itself, will likely be able to keep things in use longer – even as they are used more intensively.
Manufacturers can increase profitability through greater durability, reusability, and energy and water efficiency – and therefore have an incentive to use better-designed products. Customers can also benefit from greater circularity, as paying for a service instead of acquiring an asset means they can enjoy benefits without bearing responsibility for maintenance, repair, and disposal – while accessing products that might have otherwise been out of reach. While cars can be shared among multiple users on peer-to-peer platforms (such as Zipcar or Car2go), power tools can be made available by the hour from local libraries, and clothing can be rented as needed (the New York Public Library lent out professional attire intended use at job interviews in 2018, and the LENA fashion library in Amsterdam operates a membership-based clothing lending service). Ultimately, whereas companies used to only sell cars, they are now selling mobility, and while they once just sold clothes, they can now provide access. By actively rethinking consumption, businesses can be successfully reoriented for the circular economy, and help preserve the value in social and ecological systems.
Accelerating Sustainability
Sustainable production is becoming a competitive advantage
Making production systems responsible for significant carbon dioxide emissions more sustainable is critical for fighting climate change, and for ensuring the right kind of future economic growth. The circular economy, or an economy designed around production and consumption that produce zero waste through reuse and recycling, provides a model that can help the manufacturing sector contribute to broader global sustainability. Examples of production that have employed circular economy practices include the construction of facilities for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London that were designed for deconstruction and later use (in addition to the use of leftover gas pipelines in the Olympic stadium’s structure), according to a report published by the think tank CEPS in 2017. Related technology advancements and further organizational innovation could boost resource productivity – the amount of value that can be wrung from a single resource – and create new economic value. Leaders of governments, businesses, and non-governmental organizations all must play a role in making this shift to circular principles happen, particularly in light of the current rate of climate change.
About half of the world’s energy consumption and 20% of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the manufacturing sector; more sustainable production has to become the global standard as soon as possible. Businesses can nudge consumers towards sustainable consumption by selling more durable products, while policy-makers can implement rules that reduce the price of those products – and levy taxes on goods made at facilities with large carbon footprints. Meanwhile public procurement policies can help by requiring a minimum amount of re-purposed raw material in purchases. In addition, providing a standard way for companies to report sustainable activities could help them gauge their effectiveness, and regulations encouraging the use of sustainable products (like allowing electric cars to use bus lanes) can help increase demand. Production requires a sufficient number of manufacturers and consumers willing and able to use recycled materials, and the Accelerating Sustainable Production project run by the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing and Production Platform serves as a guide for optimizing the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in production – helping countries and businesses achieve sustainable growth and contribute to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Demographic and Demand Shifts
Population growth, an expanding global middle class and urbanization are presenting challenges for food systems
Demographic shifts are having a dramatic impact on global demand for food. The global population is expected to grow from 7.6 billion as of 2017 to 8.6 billion by 2030, and then to 9.8 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Most of this growth will occur in developing countries. In Africa, for example, the populations of 26 countries are projected to at least double in size between 2017 and 2050, according to the UN. Global food systems will need to be prepared to meet a significant increase in global food demand, while also providing for high-quality diets. Global urbanization is also affecting food demand. According to the UN’s World Urbanization Prospects report, the percentage of people living in urban areas will increase from 55% in 2018 to 68% by 2050 (in 1950, just 30% of the world’s population was urban). Of the 2.5 billion people projected to enter the urban population by 2050, nearly 90% of them will be in Asia and Africa.
As societies become more urbanized, fewer people pursue farming, and lifestyles change; the share of resource-intensive food, which has a stronger environmental impact as it is produced, becomes more prevalent in people’s diets, and their calorie intake increases significantly. The rapidly-growing middle class in developing markets is now ignoring previous staples as it consumes more processed foods, meat, fish, poultry, and dairy. In the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ 2012 working paper World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050, the authors argued that the combined impacts of a growing population and an exploding middle class could increase world food demand by 60% by 2050, compared with 2005/2007 levels. Some potential ways of addressing growing demand have been identified. Research published by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment in 2013 found that only 55% of global crop calories were being consumed by humans, as 36% were being used for animal feed and 9% were being committed to biofuels and industrial uses. Growing more food exclusively for direct human consumption could increase available food calories by as much as 70%, and feed an additional 4 billion people, according to the study.
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