What’s Next >

Survey on Sustainable Consumption

In the latest poll from GlobeScan and SustainAbility, a panel of more than 500 global sustainability experts and practitioners believe that sustainable consumption is possible to achieve, but to do so we need to change the way we produce, sell and consume. A majority of experts think that businesses have a duty to offer sustainable product lines instead of, rather than in addition to , unsustainable ones. Meanwhile, while experts mainly agree on the need to change how we sell and consume products, there is less unity on whether we need to rethink our current model of economic growth in order to make sustainable consumption a reality.

Download full results

Behind Certifications and Beyond Labels

Next week SustainAbility launches its latest research report, Signed, Sealed... Delivered?, which looks at the successes and challenges in how business is applying labels and other tools to drive trust, value and behavior change across the consumer product value chain.  We framed our initial thoughts on this topic in a white paper earlier this year, and followed up with a series of further insights in June. Now, in anticipation of next week's release, we offer a preview of key themes and insights that have emerged from the full research.  

Read and discuss

Rethinking Consumption

In September we hosted a webinar on sustainable consumption for members of our Engaging Stakeholders Network.  Since then, the passing of the seven billion population mark has put the spotlight on our very unsustainable consumption levels. How we meet the nutrition, health, shelter, apparel, energy and entertainment needs of the next billion without further eroding the world's finite resources is probably the biggest challenge of our time.

SustainAbility's London Director Caren Holzman has already written on the role that business can play in changing behaviour, selling less and shifting business models. In a second blog, she poses further questions to help steer business towards more sustainable consumption models.

Read and discuss

Rethinking Growth

We've known for decades that a model of infinite economic growth on a finite planet has to end badly, but the need to address unsustainable growth has yet to become part of mainstream public and political discourse. In the most recent of a series of posts on the topic (earlier entries here and here), SustainAbility's Kyra Choucroun considers how Ghana may offer a model of the sort of intergenerational and interconnected economy that's needed now.

Read and discuss