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Suggestions for Sustainable Consumption

Suggestions for Ethical Consumption:
o Buy less, buy only what you really need
o Choose ethical companies first. Learn about the processing of goods you want to buy
o Avoid goods with excessive packaging
o Shop locally
o Ignore ads and brand marketing
o Repair products
o Support Fair Trade products
o Make lists of what you need. Don't just shop out of habit or lesiure.
o Use reusable products rather than disposable ones
o Carry your own reusable mug, bag, towel, etc.
o Recycle
o Write to you local government and ask what they are doing to support eithical consumption.

 

 

Some Quotes:

" To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people,
states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption..."

- Principle 8, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992

"There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed."
- Gandhi

"live simply so that others may simply live"
-Elizabeth Seton

 

 

Some Facts

'People in the richest countries in the North eat on average 30-40% more calories than they need "
(G Lean, Atlas of the Environment, Arrow 1991 )

Humans consume 40% of the earth's yearly plant production. If the global population doubles to over 10 million in the next 35 years as projected, we will consume over 80%, this is providing no increase in living standards for the world's poor majority.
( Investing in Natural Capital, Rees and Wackernagel, Island Press, 1994 )

20% of the world's population consume 86% of the world's resources
(UNDP 1998 Report.)

The UN estimates that it would cost NZ$50 billion to provide safe water, education, housing and basic medical requirements to the whole world. The world spends more than this yearly on golf.
(Pacific World, Pacific Institute of Resource Management, 1995, Wellington)

 

 

Learn more

Websites:
o Co-op America http://www.coopamerica.org
o Enough - Anti-consumerism campaign http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/enough
o The Center for a New American Dream: Commercial Culture http://www.newdream.org/commerc
o Ad Busters http://adbusters.org
o Sustainable Links http://www.ddh.nl/duurzaam/links/internationaal.html
o Greenstucco http://www.greenstucco.org
o Overcoming Consumption http://www.hooked.net/users/verdant/index.htm
o @World Buy Nothing Day http://www.ecoplan.org/ibnd
o International Buy Nothing Day http://www.ddh.nl/bnd
o UN - Sustainable Development Site http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev
o Why Shop? Week http://spot.colorado.edu/~shortk/whyshop.html

Books:
o Consumerism : As a Way of Life by Steven Miles
o No Logo by Naomi Klein
o Culture Jam : How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge-And Why We Must by Kalle Lasn.
o Do Americans Shop Too Much? by Juliet Shor, Joshua Cohen (Editor), Joel Rogers (Editor), Ralph Nader