About two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from household consumption across the food, mobility, living, and leisure sectors, which also include consumer goods and tourism. However, lifestyle changes in the area of consumer goods have mainly focused on limited, targeted production efforts without addressing what drives consumption. Prioritizing design, production, and consumption patterns in these domains will address about three-quarters of environmental impacts.
Factors such as lack of affordable, accessible and desirable options, while proliferation of targeted marketing campaigns strongly influence decision making. Research around consumer intentions and behavioral change notes that understanding environmental awareness does not translate into long-term lifestyle changes, highlighting the need for a radical rethink of how best to meet people’s needs to make sustainable living the default option. For policy, it means finding ways to edit in and out sustainability options, and for the private sector, it implies new business models that are not based on resource consumption.
Important to note is that while many initiatives have been launched, few, if any, address the need to reduce overconsumption. It is difficult to manage overconsumption in an industry that built its business model on more consumption; therefore, this paper also looks into innovative solutions that must be introduced, including new technology to reduce GHG and environmental impacts in the supply chain, and mainstream business models that reduce resource consumption and waste and encourage circular economy solutions in the sector.
Task Force: - Year: 2024 Phase: Phase VII (2022-2027)Sustainable Consumption — Fashion, Textile, and Apparel