Platforms for action on sustainable consumption

Over the past decades, the global energy and resource consumption has steadily increased. The limits of the earth’s environmental viability are exceeded already. Private consumption is responsible for the majority of environmental strains.

Developing sustainable consumption structures is a long-term task and will engage several future generations. A successful approach requires that the impetus is given by the society and that stakeholders from all sectors of society are actively involved.
To this end, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) want to use the new project to promote the necessary structural change through the establishment of new institutional arrangements. adelphi supports the BMU and UBA in implementing the project.
The aim of the two-year project is to develop strategic cornerstones, concrete proposals and first pilot implementations for an institutional structure that shall allow for the transfer of knowledge for sustainable lifestyles. Furthermore it shall mobilise individual responsibility and commitment potentials, provide disadvantaged social groups with new opportunities for participation, and further the innovation and investment promotion for a sustainable consumption structure. In that context, exploratory needs analyses are of primary importance. In addition, the possibility to establish a national centre of expertise for sustainable consumption shall be analysed. Such a centre would enable the BMU and UBA to exchange views on institutionalising measures.
In the long term, the aim is to establish a professional basis for an action platform that focuses on cooperation and communication between stakeholders. It shall constitute a push factor for sustainable consumption in Germany and constantly trigger new ideas, synergies and initiatives resulting from cooperation.