Production–Consumption Systems and the Pursuit of Sustainability

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainability has many facets. Sectoral approaches attempt to improve the productivity of agriculture or energy efficiency while reducing negative impacts of air and water pollutants on the environment. In place-based approaches a suite of environmental challenges posed by development are tackled together seeking to reduce underlying drivers, complementarities among inputs and inputs, and negotiating trade-offs when win-win situations are hard to find. In product-oriented approaches the focus is on reducing material and energy or need for hazardous or environmentally threatening compounds used in the manufacture of a particular product. Consumer-oriented approaches use information campaigns to attempt to change what people buy or how they use particular services or goods to lessen impacts on the environment.

Each of these approaches to sustainability has its limitations. Too narrow a focus on energy security and sustainability may mean for instance, ignoring the impacts of the expansion of agrofuels on other sectors like agriculture and food. Efforts to tackle environmental problems in one city, while successful, may ultimately just end up shifting problems of polluting industries or waste disposal to another place. Gains in fuel efficiency of cars may reduce pollution loads per kilometre travelled but be offset by households travelling more and farther or buying a second car and making separate trips. Too much competing information on how to buy to “save the planet” creates confusion, may neglect how people behave towards products, and ignores options that don’t involve purchasing, like sharing or not buying.