About Us

Sustainable Consumption and Production (also called SCP) is all about doing better with less in the way of used and/or disposed of resources. It’s also about encouraging green living, decoupling economic development from environmental deterioration, and improving resource efficiency. Sustainable Consumption and Production are a way of life and an integrated approach to environmental management. It’s not about finding or creating the perfect consumer – everyone has their own needs and wants. It’s about addressing the complex web of demand and supply that affects everything we do. For many consumers, the search for “green” often takes them right back to the local supermarket or department store. These are the places they remember since childhood: the colorful packaging, the quality of the product, the happy employees – the whole experience of going to the store made them want to go back. That’s a shame because those scenes don’t represent the idealized vision of “green” that most of us have come to think of. Based on the short-term profit motive, the reality of modern commercialism has led to a severe crisis of the earth’s ecosystems’ environment. In this context, it’s not simply a matter of choosing more efficient products or using materials that have less impact on the planet. On the other hand, sustainable consumption and production involve active involvement in choosing, buying, and using environmentally friendly products and services. This can include anything from consumption decisions (how much to buy, where to buy, what clothes to wear, what household goods to buy) to production decisions (where to make your next car, ship your next plane, etc.). While the term “sustainable consumption” covers a lot of ground, it is essentially a rejection of the free market system that dominates most modern economic practices. Under such a system, demand for basic products and services skyrockets above the supply chain’s capacity to satisfy that demand. When demand exceeds supply, a problem arises. Factories that are meant to churn out the goods that consumers need are produced products that are no longer required or cannot be produced at all, causing a rise in the cost of living that directly and indirectly taxes and damages the environment. Sustainable consumption and production mean going into balance with the natural rhythms of production and consumption. It also means being aware of the limits of our Earth and working towards self-sufficiency (or, in some cases, replacing existing sources of consumption with green forms of production and consumption that do not deplete the earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished). Such awareness is, however, rarely found among ordinary people. In order for sustainable consumption to work, companies have to use sustainable production and consumption methods. Some have been producing things sustainably for centuries. Others have begun using green production methods in the past forty years. Still, others are just getting started. It may take time before the extensive use of such methods becomes widespread. Our aim is to help you work with the environment so that products and activities can harm no one and leave behind a beautiful world for us to enjoy for centuries to come.

Virginia W Jacobson

Virginia W Jacobson