Consumerism Questions:

1. Which social facts influence consumerism?

2. Are there any benefits in consumerism?
3. Do you believe that special occasions like Christmas or Easter have become too
consumeristic?
4. Is there a way to escape the culture of consumerism?
5. Do you think there are more consumerist women than men? Why?
6. Are teenagers and children becoming consumerist earlier?
7. Does mass media and society affect teenage consumerism?
8. In your opinion, are consumerist people less creative?
9. What is ethical consumerism?
10.Is consumerism pathology?
11.What is “green consumerism” is it a contradiction?
12.How does consumerism affect the environment and nature?
13.Do you believe that changing your spending habits can make a big difference in your
life?
14.Will consumerism always be predominant?
15.What is sustainable consumption?
16.As concerned consumers, what can we do to be more sustainable?
17.What is the Philippines government present goal for sustainable development?
18.How can consumption be made more sustainable?
19.What can be done to make it easier for consumers to make climate-smart choices?
For most people, life can now be defined by pre and post-coronavirus. Consumers have changed
their shopping habits faster than companies and brands have been able to accommodate. Now
the customer is digital by default and practices responsible consumption.

How can consumption be made more sustainable? What can be done to make it easier for
consumers to make climate-smart choices? These are some of the questions in focus in the
Government’s strategy for sustainable consumption. The aim is for the strategy to contribute to
environmentally, socially and economically sustainable consumption.

Many of today’s environmental problems are linked to our private consumption. To reduce
consumption’s negative climate and environmental impact, we must change how and what we
consume. The Government’s strategy for sustainable consumption focuses on what the State
can do, together with municipalities, the business sector and civil society, to make it easier for
consumers to act sustainably.

Focus are

Increasing knowledge and deepening cooperation

Knowledge about the impact of consumption on the environment needs to be enhanced and
cooperation deepened at different levels in society.

Forum on eco-smart consumption

The Government wants to establish a new forum to bring together actors who, in various ways,
can contribute to more eco-smart consumption and lifestyles. The forum aims to spread
examples of good practice and create solutions for more sustainable consumption.

Environmental focus in schools

Schools play an important role in increasing children’s and young people’s knowledge about
consumption and the environment.

Encouraging sustainable ways of consuming

As consumers, we can contribute to environmentally sustainable consumption by changing our

behaviours. But many of us often experience obstacles, such as a lack of information. Often
costs, habits, lack of time and influence from our surroundings also underlie our purchasing
decisions and other behaviour patterns.

Eco-smart behaviour patterns

The Government proposes that the Swedish Consumer Agency be tasked with a special
assignment to actively promote more eco-smart consumption and lifestyles.

Positive developments in the sharing economy

The sharing economy, which involves goods and services being shared in various ways, can
provide increased freedom of choice and lower prices, contributing to greater opportunities to
consume sustainably.

More effective ecolabelling

For ecolabelling to have a strong impact, in addition to gaining consumer confidence, it is

essential that it keeps up to date with developments on the market.

Streamlining resource use

Reusing goods instead of buying new ones contributes to a more sustainable lifestyle and leads
to major benefits for the environment.

Goods that last longer

To encourage the recycling of goods

Circular economy

The Government is working in various ways to facilitate the development of a circular

economy.

Sustainable waste management

Waste prevention efforts focus on food, textiles, electronic products and construction materials.

Improving information on companies’ sustainability efforts

Through demand and engagement, consumers can influence companies in a more sustainable
direction. But this necessitates clear information about companies’ sustainability efforts,
including the consideration they take of the environment.

Phasing out harmful chemicals

The Government’s environmental efforts include measures to ensure a toxin-free environment

and reduce the risks associated with chemicals in our everyday lives. Children are particularly
vulnerable to hazardous chemicals and are therefore given special priority.

Improving security for all consumers

Strengthening social sustainability involves paying attention to consumers’ different
circumstances, for example based on financial situation, age, gender, disability or other personal
circumstances.

Sustainable growth and development requires minimizing the natural resources and toxic
materials used, and the waste and pollutants generated, throughout the entire production and
consumption process. Sustainable Development Goal 12 encourages more sustainable
consumption and production patterns through various measures, including specific policies and
international agreements on the management of materials that are toxic to the environment.

For most people, life can now be defined by pre and post-coronavirus. Consumers have changed
their shopping habits faster than companies and brands have been able to accommodate. Now
the customer is digital by default and practices responsible consumption.

Why We Need a “New Normal” for Production and Consumption

Story highlights

Our population is growing but our natural resources are not.

As we meet our needs for food, fibers, fodder, and other benefits, we are contributing to land
degradation.

There are ways to improve production and consumption to make them more sustainable.

People are consuming more than ever. Our choices are having an unprecedented impact on the
environment. The jeans, skirts or suits we wear, the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics we use, the
food and drink we consume – all of these products have an impact, to varying degrees, on the
environment. We need to think carefully about how we can meet our daily needs more
efficiently and we need to provide the answers quickly.

We all depend to some extent on trees, forests, and other land resources for goods and services
that help to make our lives easier. But these benefits can come at a high price if they are not
sustainably sourced.
By 2030, the fashion industry alone is expected to use 35 percent more land than it does now –
more than 115 million hectares, equivalent to the size of Colombia. By the same year, food
production will require an additional 300 million hectares of land.

The 17 June Global Observance of Desertification and Drought Day, as designated by the UN,
is a reminder that the leading driver of desertification and land degradation is human production
and consumption. The current system is not sustainable, not with a global population that is
expected to reach nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050.

More than 70 percent of the world’s natural ecosystems – from rainforests to prairies to coastal
zones – have been converted in some way to human use. Today, more than two billion hectares
of previously productive land is degraded, with consequences like soil erosion, build-up of salts
or acidification, and the loss of biodiversity. At the same time, climate change is increasing the
odds of worsening drought and water scarcity in many parts of the world.

These trends show how urgently we need to strike a better balance between the ways in which
we use land and the measures we take to protect and restore it. New challenges brought on by
the COVID-19 pandemic have added to the economic pressures facing vulnerable populations,
many of whom rely directly on livelihoods linked to agriculture and other land use. It is vitally
important to help the 1.3 billion vulnerable people, many of whom are trapped in difficult
circumstances by degraded land, to conserve and restore resources on which we all vitally
depend.

Restoring the productivity of vast expanses of degraded land would speed achievement of
multiple SDGs, including those on poverty reduction (SDG 1); food, nutrition, and water
security (SDGs 2 and 6); climate adaptation and mitigation (SDG 13); biodiversity conservation
(SDGs 14 and 15); and the enhanced resilience of communities and ecosystems (SDGs 11, 14,
and 15).

Fortunately, there are people in numerous countries who already know what to do and who are
trying to do what is needed. One approach that is working is Action Against Desertification
(AAD), a programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), carried out in
line with the aims of the internationally agreed UN Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD).

Action Against Desertification monitors land changes and carries out restoration on a large
scale, tying into the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa, which is bringing health and moisture
back to degraded landscapes in more than 20 countries. In just five years, AAD, also active in
the Caribbean and the Pacific, planted over 60,000 hectares of degraded agro-sylvo-pastoral
lands and supported sustainable production, agricultural education, and income generation in
other ways.

UN

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns:

One of the greatest global challenges is to integrate environmental sustainability with economic
growth and welfare by decoupling environmental degradation from economic growth and doing
more with less. Resource decoupling and impact decoupling are needed to promote sustainable
consumption and production patterns and to make the transition towards a greener and more
socially inclusive global economy.

To ensure sustainable consumption and production practices necessarily entails to respect the
biophysical boundaries of the planet and to reduce current global consumption rates in order to
fit with the biophysical capacity to produce ecosystem services and benefits.

Sustainable growth and development requires minimizing the natural resources and toxic
materials used, and the waste and pollutants generated, throughout the entire production and
consumption process. Sustainable Development Goal 12 encourages more sustainable
consumption and production patterns through various measures, including specific policies and
international agreements on the management of materials that are toxic to the environment.

We live in a fast-paced world where things change rapidly, goods are designed to become
obsolete so that they will be replaced sooner, thus putting more pressure on resources like
energy, water, land and the natural environment. This is at the heart of global warming. Climate
change is a symptom of a deeper modern-day problem of overconsumption which demands
more mining of natural resources, manufacturing of goods and greater offerings of services to
the modern society we live in. The sectors that contribute mostly to greenhouse gas emissions
include transport, energy, industrial production, services, construction and agriculture. At the
heart of these highly polluting and climate unfriendly sectors lie human beings who demand
cars, airplanes, electricity, large offices and homes, telecommunication services, technologies,
entertainment, fast food and so on. These consumption-related carbon emissions are fueled by a
growing consumerism culture. However, carbon emissions are seen as produced by industries
without recognizing the role that people make in driving production through consumer patterns.
This also results in a missed opportunity to challenge consumers to demand sustainably
produced goods and services that will require industries to relook at their production processes
and make them less carbon-intensive.

Why is Sustainable Consumption key to fighting climate change?

The United Nations Environment defines sustainable consumption as the use of material
products, energy and immaterial services in such a way that it minimizes the impact on the
environment, so that human needs can be met not only in the present but also for future
generations. This is crucial in order for sustainable development to be achieved and as a result,
the United Nations hasGoal Number 12 that deals with sustainable consumption and
production. This goal requires consumers to rethink their individual consumption patterns and
assess the environmental impact of everything that they are consuming. Consumers should be
making consumption choices based on how much water, energy, land and raw materials the
products and services they are acquiring have used. This will mean, for instance, deciding to eat
less processed food and red meat, driving and flying less, buying less clothes, toys, gadgets and
other unnecessary good and services

What fuels Over-Consumption?

Throw-away mentality

This modern society is characterized by overconsumption and excessive production resulting in

a flood of convenient, disposable, throw-away products made out of plastic that release
greenhouse gases and toxins, both during production and when disposed-off. This throw-away
society no longer sees value in durable, repairable products that could last forever but prefer to
buy mass produced, cheap products that are discarded with little regard for where they end up.

“Microwave” culture.
Overconsumption is driven by the need to “want and get everything right now”! Consumers
don’t want to wait for anything in these modern days. This has been exacerbated by a flood of
technologies like microwaves, machine machines, hair dryers, toasters, cellular phones,
computers and so on that make society believe that everything must be readily available at their
fingertips. Even though technology has increased efficiency and production practices have
improved, many of these products are made out of disposable material that is not easily
repaired, resulting in heaps of plastic and electronic-waste filling up landfills and toxins
leaching into the soil.

What is required for Sustainable Consumption to be achieved?

Behavioral Change

We cannot solve the problem with the same mindset that created it in the first place.
Overconsumption has been a key cause of the global climate change challenge but change in
consumers’ patterns are not apparent

Transformational action

Sustainable consumption requires transformational action on the part of the consumer that will
result in a fundamental change in the way that goods and services are produced and consumed.
Consumers cannot continue with the usual “not-in-my-backyard” attitude where their waste is
thrown into the bin to be disposed-off in a place far away from them and perhaps close to
informal housing areas emitting a foul smell. It is incumbent upon society itself to look for new
and transformative ways in which consumers think more carefully about the materials that are
used to make products, where these products were made, how they were made, packaged,
transported; how they are prepared, how they are consumed and dispose of them. The life-cycle
analysis of products is a very key issue.

Producer responsibility

Producers have a huge responsibility to ensure that their products are sustainably produced,
durable and long lasting. Nowadays, consumers are bombarded by a flood of cheaply produced
and available products, made out of petroleum-based materials that cannot be reused, repaired
or fixed. Many of these products cannot even be recycled or upcycled for other uses. Landfills
around the world are overflowing with products that continue to use up the limited vacant land
needed for housing and food production. Industries must consider cradle-to-grave practices
where their products do not end up in landfills but can be reclaimed back into their production
processes.

Consumer Education and Awareness

Consumer education is critical to ensure sustainable consumption. Producers should be obliged

to make information about their products public so that the consumers can make responsible
choices. Nowadays, responsible and conscious consumers want to know about production
processes, origins of the products, materials used, farming practices and so on. Having this
information enables the consumer to make responsible choices and enable them to use their
buying power to influence the way products are made. This would make producers rethink their
ethical production practices and introduce these practices into their branding.

In Conclusion

Consumers are not expected to ensure that industries are producing environmentally friendly
goods and services, but they should acknowledge that they have an important role to play. They
can only do this if suppliers of goods and services are required to provide information on all the
products that they sell into the market. This needs a collective effort where consumers can start
to make conscious and environmentally friendly choices and use their collective buying power
to demand sustainably produced goods.

Climate change demands society dig deep and go the root of the problem, dealing decisively
with the wrongs perpetuated by overconsumption. This starts with the individual changing
his/her unsustainable consumption patterns and if done collectively by the entire society will
pressurise businesses and industries to produce environmentally-friendly products. In this way
we can make progress towards preserving this planet, the only home to humans and all species
– the only one for the future generations to come!

Why We Need a “New Normal” for Production and Consumption

Story highlights

Our population is growing but our natural resources are not.

As we meet our needs for food, fibers, fodder, and other benefits, we are contributing to land
degradation.

There are ways to improve production and consumption to make them more sustainable.

People are consuming more than ever. Our choices are having an unprecedented impact on the
environment. The jeans, skirts or suits we wear, the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics we use, the
food and drink we consume – all of these products have an impact, to varying degrees, on the
environment. We need to think carefully about how we can meet our daily needs more
efficiently and we need to provide the answers quickly.

We all depend to some extent on trees, forests, and other land resources for goods and services
that help to make our lives easier. But these benefits can come at a high price if they are not
sustainably sourced.

By 2030, the fashion industry alone is expected to use 35 percent more land than it does now –
more than 115 million hectares, equivalent to the size of Colombia. By the same year, food
production will require an additional 300 million hectares of land.

The 17 June Global Observance of Desertification and Drought Day, as designated by the UN,
is a reminder that the leading driver of desertification and land degradation is human production
and consumption. The current system is not sustainable, not with a global population that is
expected to reach nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050.

More than 70 percent of the world’s natural ecosystems – from rainforests to prairies to coastal
zones – have been converted in some way to human use. Today, more than two billion hectares
of previously productive land is degraded, with consequences like soil erosion, build-up of salts
or acidification, and the loss of biodiversity. At the same time, climate change is increasing the
odds of worsening drought and water scarcity in many parts of the world.

These trends show how urgently we need to strike a better balance between the ways in which
we use land and the measures we take to protect and restore it. New challenges brought on by
the COVID-19 pandemic have added to the economic pressures facing vulnerable populations,
many of whom rely directly on livelihoods linked to agriculture and other land use. It is vitally
important to help the 1.3 billion vulnerable people, many of whom are trapped in difficult
circumstances by degraded land, to conserve and restore resources on which we all vitally
depend.

Restoring the productivity of vast expanses of degraded land would speed achievement of
multiple SDGs, including those on poverty reduction (SDG 1); food, nutrition, and water
security (SDGs 2 and 6); climate adaptation and mitigation (SDG 13); biodiversity conservation
(SDGs 14 and 15); and the enhanced resilience of communities and ecosystems (SDGs 11, 14,
and 15).

Fortunately, there are people in numerous countries who already know what to do and who are
trying to do what is needed. One approach that is working is Action Against Desertification
(AAD), a programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), carried out in
line with the aims of the internationally agreed UN Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD).

Action Against Desertification monitors land changes and carries out restoration on a large
scale, tying into the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa, which is bringing health and moisture
back to degraded landscapes in more than 20 countries. In just five years, AAD, also active in
the Caribbean and the Pacific, planted over 60,000 hectares of degraded agro-sylvo-pastoral
lands and supported sustainable production, agricultural education, and income generation in
other ways.

The programme supports approaches like sustainable production of seeds and animal fodder,
improved production of non-timber products like tree oils and gum Arabic, the digging of
water-retaining trenches in Niger, and the conservation and incorporation of forest cover in
agriculture (agroforestry) in Ethiopia. The programme also helps farmers to improve their
knowledge of plant species, cultivation, and business marketing, reaching more than 700,000
producers, pastoralists, and herders in rural communities.

Overall, the prospects for increasing land restoration actions globally are promising. There are
signs of international support in forward-looking initiatives like the UN Decade for Ecosystem
Restoration (2021-2030) and the European Green Deal (2021-2050).
Aiming for zero land degradation is an ambitious task but one which is achievable through
policy commitments, problem solving, strong community, and individual involvement and
cooperation at all levels. COVID-19 is a stark reminder of how fragile our food systems are –
and a tremendous opportunity to reset food systems by changing the way we have come to
produce, process, and consume food.

This article was written by Moctar Sacande, International Project Coordinator, Action Against
Desertification, FAO, and Tiina Vähänen, Chief, Forestry, Policy and Resources Division,
FAO.