[MUSIC] Hello, my name is Oksana Mont, and in this video I will talk about the complexity of our consumption and what it has to do with the challenge of greening the economy. It's becoming increasingly clear that consumption patterns and levels are as responsible for the deteriorating state of the environment as the production processes. Consumption by states, businesses and households and current levels are unsustainable. When it comes to household consumption, three domains, food, mobility, and housing are responsible for 75 to 80% of environmental impacts from households. Most specifically, 30% of impacts stem from housing and in particular, heating systems. 30% of environmental impacts comes from transport, especially car use and flights. And 25% come from food and drink, where meat and dairy have the largest impact on the environment. Therefore, addressing the environmental consequences of how our daily purchasing choices is becoming an important focal point of societal efforts. To enable that, we need to understand the essential driving forces of consumption and to devise strategies for shifting the society towards more sustainable consumption patterns and levels, and ultimately sustainable lifestyles. So what does drive consumption in our society? One of the major drivers of consumption is the fundamental belief of our current economic system that continuous economic growth is possible and desirable in the finite world. Economic growth is generated through market competition and increased productivity that lead to decreasing prices on products, which stimulates consumption. Increased productivity also results in increasing incomes, leading to the growing purchasing power of individuals, which, stimulated by the advertising industry, also leads to increasing consumption levels. Current economic and political institutions and policies also make people believe that the pursuit of higher material prosperity and a high GDP is the expected behavior or even a patriotic duty. Within this economic growth framework, existing consumption policies focus on protecting consumers sovereignty, on monitoring health and safety features of products, and proving consumer information through eco-labeling and campaigns. So the main sustainable consumption policy instruments targeting individuals are mainly of voluntary nature. While economic and regulatory policy instruments are used relatively seldom. Technological advances also drive consumption at different levels. On the one hand they lead to design and provision of more efficient products, production processes and technologies. On the other hand, new technologies and products directly create needs and wants, stimulating consumption or indirectly shape conditions that require people to consume more. For example, the car, while aiding people's mobility and saving time, has also led to people traveling longer distances and has allowed them to live further away from work, shopping malls and family and friends. Consequently, while the focus has been on improving efficiency of the car itself for example by reducing it's weight or shifting to alternative fuel like electricity, bio-diesel or gas, the efficiency of the system surrounding the car use, has been overlooked. Thus, the entire infrastructure was built to enable and stimulate car use. And as a result, cars are so embedded into everyday life, that people are locked into using them, especially outside cities. However, there is a growing movement of social innovation and collaborative consumption, which devise alternative ways of using cars, and capitalizing on their idling capacity through carpools and ride-sharing. There are also other types of drivers of consumption. For example, people purchase goods and services not only to fulfill their needs through specific qualities and functions of products, but also for their symbolic or identity value. We use material goods in social conversations and in order to position ourselves in the social hierarchy. Much of consumption is also habitual as people follow daily routines without making deliberate choices all the time. These routines and everyday practices themselves are often shaped or conditioned by surrounding infrastructure and by expectations of prevailing social institutions such as norms, values and cultures. Thus it is important that infrastructures and institutions enable and promote sustainable life styles and not consumerism. In our contemporary consumer culture, material possessions are perceived as a measure of success and power, and they are often seen as the main contributing factor to well-being. However, according to many surveys, it's not only the money that matters to people, but also access to education and health services, meaningful jobs and time to spend with family and friends. Indeed at the macro level, growing GDP contributes to increases in subjective well-being, only to a certain point, after which the two indicators start to decouple. Therefore it is important to find a broader definition of well-being, which includes pro-social values such as resilient and equitable communities, health, education and personal development, peace and stability, environmental and social justice. So it becomes clear that existing policy instruments that target consumption patterns of individuals, through information provision, and ecolabeling, can help us make better choices, but we also need to understand the context within which those choices are made. Therefore, the actions of individuals and organizations need to be backed up by society-wide strategies for developing institutions and infrastructures that could enable sustainable lifestyles. [MUSIC]
