Sustainable consumption and production

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is at the core of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically addressed by SDG 12. This goal aims to "ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns," acting as a cross-cutting theme that feeds into other SDGs such as those related to climate change, poverty, health, and sustainable cities.

SCP involves using services and products in a way that minimizes environmental damage, preserves natural resources, and promotes social equity. The purpose is to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, which means pursuing economic development in a way that can be sustained by the planet over the long term. SCP requires changes at all levels of society, from individuals to businesses to governments.

At the individual level, SCP implies making lifestyle choices that reduce environmental impact. This might include reducing, reusing, and recycling waste, choosing products with less packaging, and opting for more sustainable forms of transport like cycling or public transport.

For businesses, SCP entails adopting sustainable business models and practices. This could include improving resource efficiency, investing in renewable energy, designing products that are durable and recyclable, and ensuring fair labor practices.

At the government level, SCP involves implementing policies that support sustainable business practices and incentivize sustainable consumer behavior. This might involve regulations to reduce pollution, subsidies for renewable energy, and campaigns to raise awareness about sustainable consumption.

SCP also plays a role in several other SDGs. For example, sustainable production practices can help mitigate climate change (SDG 13) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, by reducing the pressure on natural resources, SCP supports the goals related to life below water (SDG 14) and life on land (SDG 15).

While progress has been made in certain areas, challenges remain in achieving the shift towards SCP. These include existing patterns of overconsumption, limited awareness about the impacts of consumption, and the need for technological innovation to enable more sustainable production.

This article describes the effects of climate and environmental change on viticulture in heroic & steep slope settings
Elsevier, Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, Volume 11, June 2023
World Intellectual Property Day 2024 is highlighting the critical importance of intellectual property (IP) in catalyzing the human innovation and creativity needed for achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper integrates innovation research with intellectual property law to explore how such a systemic collaboration for sustainable innovation should be characterised, and how the intellectual property rights (IPR) system could be shaped to support it. The paper highlights that reaching sustainability objectives depends on system-level innovations; system-level innovation for sustainability calls for new forms of collaboration; current IPR regime limits systemic collaborations for sustainable innovations and new IPR system and tools are needed to facilitate systemic collaboration.
Elsevier,

Handbook of Food and Feed from Microalgae: Production, Application, Regulation, and Sustainability, 2023, pp 603-610

This chapter aligns with Goal 2: Zero Hunger and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption by exploring the energy and water consumption needs of microalgal production for food production to determine whether microalgae can be considered a sustainable food.
This study evaluates climate change impacts on U.S. agriculture using process-based and econometric models.
To mark the 50th Anniversary of World Environment Day on 5 June 2023, Elsevier proudly presents a curated list of publicly available journal articles and book chapters in support of this year's theme “Solutions to Plastics Pollution”. Please share and download.
Elsevier,

Precision Agriculture: Evolution, Insights and Emerging Trends, 2023, pp 85-101

This chapter aligns with Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption, and Goal 15: Life on Land by acknowledging how the conservation of water resources is imperative to the continued sustainability of life, particularly in arid regions. By utilizing resources in a highly managed, efficient and targeted way for agricultural purposes there is less lost to waste.
Elsevier,

Wind Energy Engineering (Second Edition), A Handbook for Onshore and Offshore Wind Turbines, 2023, Pages 475-487

This chapter aligns with Goals 7, 9 and 12 by assessing the interconnections between - and environmental implications of - wind energy development and use of rare earth elements.
This paper explores the potential implementation of the Consumption Footprint rationale to define a footprint indicator for the EU Bioeconomy, henceforth ‘Bioeconomy Footprint’. This indicator can be a powerful tool for a comprehensive and effective monitoring of the bioeconomy sectors: to capture environmental impacts over time, identifying environmental hotspots, highlighting geographic and sectorial trade-offs, and identifying burden shifts among impact categories and along the supply chain.
This study aims to identify the factors that constrain and enable the sustainability of reusable packaging systems, considering environmental, economic, social and technical dimensions. This research is critical to the effective implementation and scale-up of reusable packaging systems.
Results from this study contribute to define a complete set of environmental and social data and information, which can help European decision makers to define new criteria for sustainable management of the waste plastics of interest. A new methodological approach has been proposed: it appears able to be applied in future research projects involving innovative management options.

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