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Indicators of Sustainable Consumption
How do we know whether we are moving closer to or farther away from sustainable consumption patterns and lifestyles? Qualitative estimates of change are the principal way we can gauge our progress, but it is becomingly increasingly important for policy making to have quantitative indicators as well.
The OECD is currently working in a new report on sustainable consumption indicators. This work consists in updating and revising the 1999 OECD publication "Towards More Sustainable Household Consumption Patterns: Indicators to Measure Progress." It also includes new indicators that have been used in the OECDÂ’ Sector Case Studies and are be good indicators to measure our sustainability. This report will be available by the end if the year.
The overall aim of OED's indicator work is to relate available economic and environmental data to conceptual and policy work. Specifically, the indicator work helps us better understand how different driving forces and policy instruments interact and affect the environmental sustainability of consumption. It also contributes to the further integration of environmental and sustainability concerns into decision making and provides a basis for monitoring related policies.
Scope and characteristics - Focus:
The OECD work focuses on household consumption patterns. Emphasis is given to final consumption (as opposed to intermediate consumption and production, which is undertaken by firms). The focus on household demand complements existing work focusing on the supply side (production).
Definitions and concepts:
For the purpose of the OECD work, the definitions used are those of the national accounts system, i.e. consumption is defined as the final consumption activity of households (including the production of recyclable inputs). It is recognised that there is no unique way to define sustainable consumption, and that in practice, it is necessary to interpret sustainable consumption in a pragmatic way. Thus, sustainable consumption can be understood to include a range of changes in behaviour, such as greater efficiency in the consumption of energy and resources in the home, the minimisation of waste, and more environmentally sound purchasing habits of households.
Indicator framework - Structure:
The framework that was adopted to structure the work on sustainable consumption indicators resembles that of other OECD work on sectoral indicators. It is based on an adjusted pressure-state-response (PSR) model and distinguishes three themes:
- Environmentally significant consumption trends and patterns (i.e. major driving forces and indirect pressures), including basic economic and socio-demographic trends and key household consumption trends (transport and communication; consumption of durable and non-durable goods including food, recreation and tourism, housing-related energy and water use).
- Interactions between consumption patterns and the environment (i.e. direct pressures on the environment and on natural resources and related impacts) including consumption-induced resource abstractions and pollutant and waste discharges, and related effects on environmental conditions.
- Economic and policy aspects covering key policy and other societal responses (regulatory instruments, economic instruments, information/social instruments), as well as trade aspects.
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