What is sustainable consumption? How does efficient use of resources drive economic prosperity? How will this transform our lifestyles and the basic structure of our economic system? One Earth partnered with Metro Vancouver to explore these and other key questions
with some of North America's experts and leading thinkers from the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), who were in Vancouver for their annual workshop "Challenging consumerism: Toward living well sustainably".

Moderator:

• Vanessa Timmer, Executive Director, One Earth -- Download Vanessa's presentation here.

Speakers:

• Peter Victor, Professor, Environmental Studies, York University
• Jeffrey Barber, Integrative Strategies Forum; United Nations
• Halina Brown, Professor, International Development, Community & Environment, Clark University
• Maurie Cohen, Associate Professor & Director, Environmental Policy Studies & Science, Technology & Society, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Associate Fellow, Tellus Institute
• Eleni Sotos, Funders Work Group for Sustainable Production and Consumption
• John Stutz, Vice-President, Tellus Institute
• Philip Vergragt, Professor, Delft University & Clark University; Senior Associate, Tellus Institute

Watch the video of the Breakfast talk here: http://bcove.me/yzuol653 (1h24m).

On June 22, One Earth launched a report with key elements for a Canadian policy strategy on sustainable household consumption with partner, the Consumers Council of Canada. Examining what sustainable household consumption means in a Canadian context is important insofar as the average Ecological Footprint of Canadians is significantly larger than what the Earth can sustain in the long term; indeed, were everyone around the world to adopt a typical Canadian lifestyle, four Earth-like planets would be necessary to support this way of living.  The challenge is great: to maintain–and even enhance–quality of life of all Canadian citizens, while reducing by some 80% their material and energy demands. Household consumption is at the heart of these concerns, and should therefore be an integral part of any national sustainability plan in Canada.  The report makes a case for emphasis on collective solutions such as better public transportation to achieve greener consumer behaviour. This project is funded by Industry Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs.