WS6b_BlueprintForSCP_Fedrigo

Blueprint for European Sustainable Consumption and Production

Doreen Fedrigo

EU Policy Unit Coordinator

Dialogue and Action Platform for SCPCentre for Sustainable Consumption and ProductionWuppertal, 16-18 March 2009

European Environmental Bureau Bureau Européen de l’Environnement

Outline• EEB

• Sustainable Consumption and Production – EU style

• EEB’s reaction

• Activities

– Spring Alliance– Blueprint for European sustainable consumption and production

• Questions for the workshop

Dialogue and Action Platform for SCPCentre for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Wuppertal, 16-18 March 2009

The EEB• Created in 1974 to represent its members’

interests to the EU institutions, and to help them monitor and respond to EU policies

• Largest European federation of environmental citizens’ organisations

• > 145 member organisations in > 30 countries with > 15 million members and supporters

• Aim to protect and improve the environment of Europe and to enable the citizens of Europe to play their role in achieving this goal

• Topical policy work: e.g. Air, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Waste, Water, etc.

• ‘Horizontal issues’: Sustainable Development, 6th Environmental Action Programme, SCP

• Governance (democracy and public participation): Aarhus Convention

• Enforcement (= implementation and application of EU legislation)

European Environmental Bureau

Bureau Européen de l’Environnement


SCP – EU style (1)



• July 2008: European Commission publishes its Sustainable Consumption and Production and Industrial Policy Action Plan (SCP/SIP)

• ‘the strategy of the Commission to support an integrated approach in the EU, and internationally, to further sustainable consumption and production and promote its sustainable industrial policy’

• Contents:

– Proposal for the revision of the European Ecolabel Regulation

– Proposal for the revision of the European Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation

– Proposal for the recast of the Ecodesign of Energy-using Products Directive

– Communication on Green Public Procurement


SCP – EU style (2)



European Environmental Bureau

Bureau Européen de l’Environnement

EEB’s Reaction

• Welcome the long-awaited Action Plan – delayed many times

• Very good to link different mechanisms to create or strengthen synergies and to help build a ‘critical mass’

• Very good to include in sectoral activities one of the key actors in shaping consumption patterns: retailers

• Long on process short on vision, clarity and ambition – where are we going? How do we get to One Planet Living?

• Strong energy/climate focus is misguided• Small first step towards SCP, but it makes more

contribution to sustainable products• Sustainable consumption very weak• How do we incorporate transportation, food and

drink and housing (75-80% of households’ environmental impacts) into SCP? Systems approach needed

• Implementation mechanisms – don’t let SCP become IPP 2.0

• Take SCP to a higher political level within DG ENV?• http://eeb.org/publication/2008/SCPPosPaper-

%20FINAL.pdf


Activities – Spring Alliance




Activities – Blueprint (1)



• Collaboration between environmental and social NGOs and the research community

• Attempt to create a more ‘real’ SCP political debate, give SCP a more important role in sustainable development

• Address ‘sustainability’ issues, not just environmental

• Address the key activities with largest environmental impacts: food and drink, housing, and transportation

• Build upon historical civil society organisation involvement in sustainable development activities, and link with research activities: strengthening NGO positions and activities, helping to develop future activities

• Identify key actions – policies, policy implementation mechanisms (regulatory, fiscal), research, facilitation, doing, communication

• Identify priorities for driving forward EU agenda





• Developed by ‘core group’: EEB; SCORE ! network; Social Platform; Sustainable Europe Research Institute; economist

• Draft being prepared now• Wider ‘consultation’ in April• Launch at EEB conference on 27 May, in Brussels





• Structure:– (1) Start from “reality” of evidence of unsustainable behaviour – economic crisis,

social degradation, environmental damage– (2) “goals of change”: increased pressure on environment and society due to

consumption-production paradigm and increasing population– Description of a “sustainability transition approach”

• A strong focus on sustainable social justice, based on well-being for all, giving attention to growth of human and social resources, and having longer-term social and environmental aims

• Quality replaces quantity as the measure of success or growth – particularly in economic terms, but also in provision of societal services, product design and production, etc.

• An economic model that is capable of valuing what contributes to well-being – happiness, inclusion, connection, etc. – a “caring”, reproductive economy

• Recognition of the serious limitations of self-regulation and the need for clear policy frameworks • Clearer ideas on what sustainable consumption means – that this includes a healthy population, social justice, equality,

etc.• A focus on technological innovation broadened so that social innovation is also considered when seeking solutions, and

the relationship between these two is better understood. Innovation develops in such a way that it does not simply add more to an existing situation (e.g. products), but rather that quality replaces poorer equivalents – ex-novation, out-novation.

• Low carbon, low resource, low impact become mainstream objectives – as compared to ‘lower’ carbon, etc. which viewed improvements according to convention. A ‘low’ attitude sets out that behaviour, or a product or service needs to already be designed at a low level.





• (3) A vision of sustainable, equitable lives in 2030 (3 key areas)• (4): A vision on change (addressing consumption and production):

– Address the consumer as citizen in society– Shape a sustainable society, not a sustainable consumer– Address production and consumption– Create the systems that make it easier to behave sustainably – whether

producing or consuming

• Addressing consumption

• A systemic approach

• “Levels” of change – Easy to mainstream ideas? Resistance in key players? “Total” resistance by all?

• “Actions” by level of change – what is needed where on what issues?





• Short term: implementation of what is legitimized

• On the short term, many SCP solutions can already be implemented that make positive use of the systemic ‘meta’ factors listed before. Sure, they will need a leadership that makes a difference, if only to counter rearguard fights by dinosaurs setting traps like asking for ‘evidence beyond reasonable doubt’ before action can be taken. But the now widely held values that markets should be transparent and fair, consumers should be sovereign, and that sustainability needs action, gives legitimacy to measures like:

– Creating a level playing field for greening production and products– Abolishing perverse subsidies and internalizing external costs– Promoting transparency about environmental and social performance, and

countering oligo- and monopolistic markets that reduce consumer choice.





• Medium term: actions that help to find the way • Sometimes there is agreement on the desired direction of change, but

the road to it is uncertain (e.g. due the radical nature of changes). In such cases, approaches have been proposed using terms like ‘roadmapping’, ‘indicative planning’, and ‘transition management’. While such concepts have different roots, they all acknowledge that the road to sustainability requires a joint search process that entails a process of mutual enforcing actions for change via the following lines:

– Radical change usually takes a long period and ‘command and control’ approaches usually will not work. Indicative planning and developing ‘strategic intent’ with a process of learning by doing along the way is likely to be much more successful.

– A process of ‘visioning’ and experimentation, particularly when it is not totally clear into which direction the change has to go, is essential.

– ‘Flagship’ (niche) experiments with new practices and systems should ideally be stepping stones for potential future new socio-technical constellations.





Long term: actions that change mindsets•These are the more difficult issues to tackle, and that really require discussion and change of widely held beliefs and paradigms in society. It concerns informed deliberation on issues such as

–the underlying growth engine in our markets; –how and if markets contribute to fairness and equity;–how consumption supportive to sustainability can be discerned from consumption that is destructive for institutions and non-market goods providing quality of life;–how to develop novel and dematerialised ways of realising social aspirations, and how this relates to novel business models;–how to maintain a fair power balance in the triangle of business, government and consumer (e.g. by questioning the role of advertising and media).





General discussion:

Immediate reactions

Suggestions for improvement

Questions for workshop:

How does your organisation’s current work fit into the Blueprint? What areas? What activities?

How could your organisation use the Blueprint to help make it a reality / make it a living document?

Thank you for your attention

Contact details:

Doreen FedrigoEU Policy Unit Coordinator

Email: [email protected]: +32 2 289 13 04

mailto:[email protected]

Technology

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