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sustainable consumption & production (scp)
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One Earth is working towards Canadian and US leadership in this area through systemic change and collective impact, with partners including The Story of Stuff Project and The Sustainability Funders, and, on the policy front, with the Canadian and US Government, the United Nations, private sector, media, academia, and civil society.
LOOKING AT THE WHOLE SYSTEM
Our individual successes are not getting to the scale and pace of change necessary. We are stressing the Earth’s ability to sustain life. We see evidence of this everywhere—from climate change, deforestation, overfishing, and pollution to soil degradation, bulging landfills, and expanding poverty. Toxic chemicals have permeated our environment and bodies. Inequity is increasing so that some people are burdened by too much stuff while others do not have enough for even basic survival.
This is about moving from a society that wastes resources and people to a system that redefines successful living and prosperity, redesigns our economic system, and focuses on the real ‘stuff of life’ — human well being, healthy communities and ecology.
GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT THE NUMBERS
Over the past 50 years, we’ve made progress on many fronts, but overall the reality is that we are losing. We are too many people, consuming too much of the Earth’s resources, producing too much waste, and not equitably sharing these resources. Our current patterns of consumption and production are no longer serving us well—ecologically, socially, or financially. They don’t necessarily make us happier either. There is a great urgency to create systemic change at the scale and pace necessary to sustain life.
Our individual successes are not getting to the scale and pace of change necessary. We are stressing the Earth’s ability to sustain life. We see evidence of this everywhere—from climate change, deforestation, overfishing, and pollution to soil degradation, bulging landfills, and expanding poverty. Toxic chemicals have permeated our environment and bodies. Inequity is increasing so that some people are burdened by too much stuff while others do not have enough for even basic survival.
This is about moving from a society that wastes resources and people to a system that redefines successful living and prosperity, redesigns our economic system, and focuses on the real ‘stuff of life’ — human well being, healthy communities and ecology.
GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT THE NUMBERS
Over the past 50 years, we’ve made progress on many fronts, but overall the reality is that we are losing. We are too many people, consuming too much of the Earth’s resources, producing too much waste, and not equitably sharing these resources. Our current patterns of consumption and production are no longer serving us well—ecologically, socially, or financially. They don’t necessarily make us happier either. There is a great urgency to create systemic change at the scale and pace necessary to sustain life.
October 2013 Workshop
One Earth co-hosted a North American workshop to transform how we make, use and throw away stuff (workshop website). It brought together 40 participants from across sectors from the 7-9 October, including Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff Project), Bob Massie (The New Economics Institute), Chad Park (The Natural Step), Janis Timm-Bottos (La Ruche D’Art), Eleni Sotos (The Sustainability Funders) and others. This meeting is part of the evolving process aimed at aligning our efforts in order to create tangible strategic changes in consumption and production systems. The workshop was hosted by the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread at their campus in Racine, Wisconsin. This workshop was an experiment in a new way of interrelating across our diverse areas of work through the approach of systems mapping. We explored high leverage intervention points to lead to 2-3 solutions spaces for experimentation with smaller working groups supported by systems approaches in 2014. Co-sponsors include: J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, Cities for People, The Johnson Family Foundation, The Garfield Foundation, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread and the Planning Team.
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MOVING SOLUTIONS FROM NICHE TO MAINSTREAM
There are thousands of inspiring responses to this challenge including those focused on:
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The 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption & Production
The UN's 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10 YFP) was adopted in Rio in June 2012. Learn more
The UN's 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10 YFP) was adopted in Rio in June 2012. Learn more