Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production

Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (or SCCP) is an international visibility for scientific research, public awareness and transfer activities on sustainable consumption and production, located in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

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Founded in 2005 to establish an SCP, the center is a family member international collaborating centers of UNEP and is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Agency and business and labor support, Wuppertal. Center

Its duration is not limited in time, but on his joint work plan covers only the first three years.

works

The Centre contributes to the Plan of Implementation agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production (SCP). It seeks to “promote social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by addressing and, where appropriate, de-linking economic growth and environmental degradation through improving efficiency and sustainability in the use of resources and production processes and reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste”. The con-cept of SCP aims to take an integrated and coordinated approach towards consumption and production, seeking positive synergies between different methodologies and tools, and ensuring that activities are mutually supportive.

Within the Marrakech Process, have been established as voluntary initiatives led by countries – in co-operation with other partners – committed to carrying out a set of activities that support the implementation of specific projects of the Marrakech Process. Starting in 2006, the CSCP will support the MTFs through the development and application of demonstration projects on various levels.

The works of the Centre are :

Monitor and report on global and regional trends in SCP
Contribute to the adoption and implementation of policies and measures aimed at promoting SCP patterns by understanding global and regional priorities
Raise awareness within, and provide information to the private sector in understanding their role in achieving SCP patterns along the global value chain and in specific regions
Raise awareness within, and provide support to consumer groups in understanding their role in achieving SCP patterns
Achieve effective cooperation with partners and engagement with stakeholders

Priority

The agenda of the Marrakech Process has led to the three strategic priority areas that structure the work of the CSCP. They are derived from the discussions taking place under the Marrakech Process and reflect recent developments in the SCP debate. The first area deals with the socio-economic consequences of progress towards SCP, especially its contribution to human development and poverty reduction in developing countries. Addressing the consumption side is the focus of the second area, which deals with both individual and institutional patterns of consumption. The production side is dealt with in the third area, in which the CSCP seeks to encourage responsible industrial development.

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Key areas to accelerate implementation of SCP as outlined in the Marrakech Process are the development of national action plans on SCP, the integration of SCP into urban development planning and the mainstreaming of SCP in poverty eradication efforts. CSCP has thus decided to work on the socio-economic aspects of SCP and strategies for bringing about change by linking SCP to national and local development goals.
CSCP works on making societal, public sector and private sector actors aware of SCP policies and programmes and their related positive effects on human development in local and global communities. These activities aim to enable developing countries to leapfrog to sustainable consumption and production patterns by harvesting the economic and social benefits that are derived from the implementation of sustainability across the life cycle of products and services. The CSCP supports new models of economic development such as closed-loop economies, investments in long-term and cost-effective solutions, and creating public/private partnerships that can provide better access to sustainable environmental services for the poor.

Institutional

The Marrakech process recognised the need to build a vision of sustainable lifestyles among different stakeholders to achieve sustainable patterns of consumption. Actions proposed include support for sharing best practice examples in this area, awareness raising campaigns, consumer education, and the development of guidelines and manuals giving examples of possible designs for sustainability. The CSCP takes up these issues in its work on international trends and patterns of consumption and the design of intervention strategies to promote sustainable lifestyles among both public and private consumers.

This includes work to promote awareness of, and knowledge about, SCP issues at the point when procurement decisions are made. Different key stakeholders with an influence on private consumption decisions are involved or targeted by the CSCP’s work, including businesses, retailers and governments. CSCP also works on instruments and tools to implement sustainable consumption across institutional consumers and to mainstream these tools into procurement decisions.

Responsible Development

Involvement of business in SCP activities is crucial for the realisation of the implementation challenge. Accordingly, the Marrakech Process calls for policy frameworks that promote the adoption of SCP by industry and the CSCP is responding to this call by working on both public and private sector strategies to promote responsible industrial development.

For companies, CSCP aims to promote a better understanding of the value of SCP and raise awareness that it can be profitable and make business sense. These activities take into account the different potential and capa-bilities of transnational companies versus SME’s and the informal sector, addressing these constituents through targeted concepts. Although informal and micro enterprises may not have the resources to make SCP investments, CSCP recognises the importance of such enterprises in achieving environmental and social quality improvements. For governments, CSCP develops flexible policy interventions to promote sustainable production that take into account businesses capabilities, needs and motivations. CSCP promotes policy approaches that feature a flexible mix of financial and economic instruments, information tools and voluntary approaches com-plementing regulation.

works

Priority

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Institutional

Responsible Development

See also