Connecting Communities of Practice on Sustainable Production & Consumption Jeffrey Barber Copenhagen Climate Exchange 5 December 2009
How to transform the fossil-fuel dependent industrial-consumer economy?
Living Planet Report, WWF (2004) Billion global ha Global footprint keeps growing
Policy interdependencies
Climate change Biodiversity loss Air & water pollution Health threats Urban sprawl Waste-pollution-depletion Sustainability strategies & initiatives Waste-pollution-depletion Production/consumption cycle
What drives the cycle? Distribution – product pricing, marketing/ advertising, packaging, transport, sales/trade Investment of resources (money, natural, labor, knowledge) Values – Root priorities which ultimately shape all other decisions
Production/consumption cycle Production Consumption Distribution Investment Values
Lifecycle assessment
Emisssions Waste Inequities Consumption Distribution Production Investment Values
Policy perspectives
Production/consumption sectors generating GHG emissions
Policies and practices
…and change the production/consumption cycle in each sector Transport Automobiles
Emission sources from automobile production & consumption Automobiles
Changing the system of production and consumption
Policies and practices
Communities of Practice A group that tends to evolve around an issue with its own unique culture. It has its own language (jargon and acronyms), conferences, friendships and journals. They work at different scales from the local level to the national to the international.
Production-based practices: Sustainable manufacturing Competitiveness & profitability Green product portfolio Low-carbon products Carbon offsetting Lifecycle approach Emissions reduction Sustainable supply chain management Remanufacturing
Policies and practices
Consumption-based practices and communities Key Terms: Simplicity Simple living Downshifting Frugality Sufficiency Quality of life
Communities of practice Concepts and principles Literature (key books, papers) Skills, training, education Terminology or jargon Gatherings (conferences, study groups) Goals or aims Saints and heroes Personal friendships Collective history
There is the footprint we leave And there are the steps we take forward.