The concept of sustainable consumption and production was recognized in the Johannesburg Plan for Implementation and adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2012. Sustainable consumption was defined by the 1999 Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption as:
the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as emissions of waste and pollutants over the lifecycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.
It calls for increasing efficiency in consumption, a change in consumption patterns and the reduction of consumption.
At a global level, the Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD) has contributed to the UN Marrakech Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production by working with different governments and companies to encourage the adoption of sustainable consumption. There are mandatory government actions to promote sustainable consumption and standards for verifying energy efficiency as well as voluntary sustainability-related stand- ards such as those that limit energy use for manufacturers. Manufacturers of household products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washers and
dryers, heating, ovens and lighting are nowadays required to conform to energy efficiency standards and labels. Additional labels are added to guide consumers in terms of their recycling obligations and to encourage greater participation in the collection and recycling of products. Governments are also encouraged to use taxes and charges to raise the prices of less sustain- able products.
However, very often taxes and charges are not set at a level high enough to change consumer decision behaviours. Taxes and charges can be used to limit car emissions (eg congestion charges, road tax), household energy use, water use, and household waste as well as to reduce the consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Alternatively, subsidies and incentives have been used to encourage the purchase and use of more energy-efficient vehicles, solar panels, solar and thermal water heaters and even separation and recycling of waste.
Some manufacturers have put more investment in R&D to develop new products that consume less energy and water during use. This initiative can be explained by the natural resource-based view (Hart, 1995). When a company develops new and greener products it also develops new standards that can be used as a competitive weapon. For example, the Energy Star voluntary energy efficiency programme sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created by pioneering companies such as Xerox and HP. While such innovations create new revenue streams, some companies successfully transform their product portfolios such that more revenues are generated by sustainable products, allowing consumers to achieve energy, water and cost savings.
Another approach some companies apply is to produce durable products to prolong their lives and avoid wastage. For most companies, this is a rather controversial business or product strategy. Producing and selling more dura- ble products could mean the reduction of sales volume even though the products can be sold at higher prices. Price premium owing to durability does not always appeal to consumers. For example, fast fashion is a business model that relies on selling large quantities of cheap and less-durable cloth- ing in a way that opposes to the idea of sustainable consumption. Patagonia, a company that sells clothing, aims to build the best products that cause no unnecessary harm, and uses such a business model to inspire and imple- ment solutions to the environmental crisis. Some of its clothing is produced by incorporating recycled materials whenever possible and some clothing is made more durable. Their famous 2011 advert, ‘Don’t buy this jacket’, explains the possibility of ‘environmental bankruptcy’ owing to the short- age of water, topsoil, fisheries and wetlands as the natural systems that are
Product Design, Cleaner Production and Packaging 145 fundamentally the main supports of businesses. The advertisement explains that one of Patagonia’s best-selling jackets consumed 135 litres of water, enough to meet the daily needs of 45 people. Even though the jackets were made of 60 per cent recycled polyester there are still significant environment impacts, where two-third of its weight ended up in waste. The advertisement explains that the jackets were made exceptionally durable and therefore do not need replacing as often. The advertisement was part of the launch of an initiative called the Common Threads Initiative, which promotes reduce, repair, reuse and recycle. By promoting ‘buy less, buy used’, the initiative also allows consumers to sell used Patagonia products through eBay.
However, there are still products where durability or prolonged use do not appeal, as they may seem unaffordable, or consumers are unaware.
High-tech devices such as mobile phones are phased out frequently by the introduction of new technologies in order for manufacturers to compete with each other for market share. This means that while the devices can be designed for recycling, refurbishment, remanufacturing and reuse, there is a need for effective collection schemes that encourage collection by offering lease, buy-back and deposit options.
Washing machines represent another product that could be more resource efficient if they were made to last longer. Due to the different sizes of house- holds there will be those single-person households who run their washing machines for 110 cycles per year while the laundromats machines need 1,500 to 3,000 cycles per year. Consumers may choose to buy an entry- level washing machine that lasts 2,000 washing cycles instead of a high-end machine that runs 10,000 cycles. Due to a short period of warranty (one or two years), average consumers are incentivized to buy lower-quality machines, even though there are nowadays more energy- and water-efficient ones. This causes frequent replacement and therefore large numbers of used washing machines end up as waste. To address this issue, manufactur- ers have redesigned machines to enable replacement of components that frequently break down such as the pump, motor and plumbing. By using more durable components and energy-enhancing features such as a wide range of programmes, sensor technologies and automatic dosing systems, new generations of washing machines can be upgraded to prolong their use.
New ways of thinking mean washing machines can be upgraded by simply uploading new software.
However, issues facing the low-cost segment of the washing machine market cannot be resolved by technologies that make the machines more expensive. Alternatively, companies may design product service systems that encourage prolonged use and reuse of products. For example, consumers may
be attracted to leasing washing machines and returned washing machines can be repaired and refurbished for reuse over up to 20 years. Consumers contribute to part of the long-term cash flow, resulting in a win-win situation that promotes business sustainability (the leasing companies, maintenance and repair companies and manufacturers) and overall positive material and energy implications. There are even experiments that use smart meters to enable the ‘pay-by-wash’ scheme. Other companies sell refurbished indus- trial washing machines to domestic markets.
Traditionally, the proponents of sustainable or reverse logistics have been focusing on the effective management of physical flows of end-of-life prod- ucts. One may design components so that they can be easily identified and dissembled for recycling, and reduce time of disassembly. Others look into ways that minimize space and weight to reduce the need for fuel and trans- portation costs or reduce the need for materials and packaging materials. The different product service systems discussed earlier essentially create differ- ent closed-loop reverse logistics processes to manage end-of-life products.
In the circular economy dictionary these are called technical (restoration) cycles. There is still a need to consider nature’s biological metabolism as a way to develop a technical metabolism flow of industrial materials. There is therefore a need to consider cradle-to-cradle design concepts that eliminate waste altogether. Waste equals food and energy. That means industrial lead- ers should create and participate in systems to collect and recover the value of all materials following their use.