Download Consumer Action Day 2008: Education for Sustainable Consumption

Consumer Action Day 2008: Education for Sustainable Consumption
Activities and briefing for CI member organisations
Consumer Action Day 2008 will serve as the culmination of member lobbying and advocacy work for the
adoption of the recommendations on Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) developed by the
Italian Task Force to the Marrakech Process. This set of recommendations is entitled Here and Now:
Education for Sustainable Consumption (hereafter the Guidelines).
We are asking for –
 A commitment for the adoption of the recommendations by appropriate national authorities (ideally
by the Minister of Education) in 2008

A commitment to ensure the Guidelines are endorsed by appropriate national authorities (ideally by
the Minister of the Environment) to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) for adoption into the 10 Year Framework
of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
Why formal education for sustainable consumption?
Consumers today operate in an increasingly complex marketplace and are challenged by large amounts of
information and an expanding choice of products and services. The modern consumer is keen to integrate
sustainability, social and ethical concerns into his or her consumption choices. Initiatives that can stimulate
the individual’s awareness of the central role they play in forming society and empower them to choose
responsible, sustainable lifestyles from a young age are therefore urgently required.
Formal education can play a key role in providing opportunities for individuals to –

Learn about the systems and processes connected to consumption

Develop reflective thinking skills in order to decode the extensive and aggressive commercial
messages to which individuals around the world are constantly exposed

Ensure an awareness of consumer rights
Numerous aspects of ESC are already taught in schools, but there is a general lack of cohesiveness and
innovation. The understanding of sustainable consumption based on sustainable human development is
often vague or lacking, and course content can be fragmented and occasionally based on outdated
scientific data and models that have proven to function poorly in real life 1. The Guidelines provide a basis
for improving systems of formal ESC in order to address these concerns.
Major initiatives being pursued
In order to provide a tool for educators to successfully include and implement ESC in national curricula, and
to understand the importance of ESC in ensuring more sustainable consumption patterns, it is crucial that
the Guidelines are adopted as part of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption
1
Here and Now: Educations for Sustainable Consumption, Recommendations and Guidelines, Marrakech Task Force on
Education for Sustainable Consumption, Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea of Italy, 2008
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and Production. CI and the Italian Task Force2 are pursuing this process at the global level. CI, in
collaboration with its members, is lobbying national governments to demonstrate their commitment to
implementing these Guidelines as part of their national curricula and endorsing their adoption to UNEP and
UN/DESA. CI, as the NGO representative to the Marrakech Process, will also be lobbying for the adoption
of the Guidelines at the 2010-2011 session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).
Sustainable consumption is also a key theme within the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development. The Guidelines have a four-year timeframe for implementation, which concludes before the
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development ends in 2014. The Guidelines thus provide national
governments with a clear framework for progressing the ESC agenda, where targets can be reviewed by
the end of 2014.
Creating an enabling environment for consumers
Making changes in lifestyle is not easy for many consumers. However, public commitment to sustainable
consumption can be harnessed if people feel that they are supported by policies that make sustainable
choices the easier choice. Research has shown that government is often the best starting point for a
collective approach to change – through creating an enabling policy framework3. One aspect of creating
this framework relates to formal education and the inclusion of sustainable consumption issues on national
curricula. Governments should promote the development and implementation of policies for sustainable
consumption and the integration of those policies with other public policies. By creating consumer citizens
that are aware of the impact of their consumption choices, government can play its role in developing a
‘triangle of change’ between itself, consumers and the private sector.
Thus, a consumer citizen is an individual who makes choices based on ethical, social, economic and
ecological considerations. The consumer citizen actively contributes to the maintenance of just and
sustainable development by caring and acting responsibly on family, national and global levels. Educators
and researchers around the globe recognise the dilemmas of ethical consumption, rights and
responsibilities, marketing messages, health and safety, and sustainable development, but few systematic
pedagogical approaches to these interrelated problems have been put into use. The Guidelines provide the
first step in creating a relevant, interdisciplinary theme of sustainable consumption in systems of formal
education, which can be implemented by national governments.
Take action
You can make Consumer Action Day 2008 a success by doing any of the following activities:

Put pressure on your government to adopt the Guidelines nationally. Use the model letter
provided to lobby your education minister to declare their commitment to the implementation of the
Guidelines and adopt them into national curricula.

Put pressure on your government to endorse the Guidelines to UNEP and UN/DESA. Use the
model letter provided to request that your environment minister contacts UNEP and UN/DESA to
2
The Marrakech Task Force on Education for Sustainable Consumption, which is lead by the Italian government, was
launched during the 14th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD14 New York, May 2006).
Education is considered an essential tool to ease the shift towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production and the
Task Force focuses on introducing sustainable consumption and production issues into formal curricula. The thematic scope of the
Task Force is to identify formal education tools and strategies, and accompanying measures to ensure the effectiveness of
national/regional policies. The areas of action for the Task Force are: policy, regulatory and operational frameworks: support the
introduction of education for sustainable consumption into formal curricula and into thematic/sectoral policies (as, for example: energy,
waste, transport, agriculture, etc.) The Task Force focuses also on the creation of competences and skills on sustainable consumption
at all levels within the sector of decision-making, education and training processes, and capacity building by planning educational
actions on specific thematic issues. Education for sustainable consumption is considered by the Task Force to be a broad issue
involving different subjects, with the perspective of the lifelong learning process, and considering the role of corporate, social and
environmental responsibility.
3
I will if you will: Towards sustainable consumption, National Consumer Council & Sustainable Development Commission,
May 2006
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demonstrate their endorsement of the Guidelines. Don’t forget to copy UNEP and UN/DESA! (See
FAQ).

Raise consumer awareness by holding a Sustainable Consumption Essay or Drawing
Competition. Speak to a local school and organise a session with a small group of children and
ask them to draw or write about their understanding of Sustainable Consumption. This is only one
idea. You can undertake other activities that are more relevant in your national context.

Tell the media about your activities. Use the model press release (to be sent out in September)
to speak to the local newspaper, radio, TV and Internet about the Guidelines and the need for
action in your country.

Keep up to date with action from other CI members in other countries: Encourage relevant
individuals to sign up to the list serve and visit the Sustainable Consumption page on the CI
website to find latest news. This will be updated just before the Consumer Action Day and more
information will be sent out on the list serve.

Keep us informed: Tell us what your organisation is doing and we’ll cover it on the CI website.
Please email your action and include photos if you have them to [email protected]
Contact CI at [email protected]
For further information click on the links below:
CI website:
http://www.consumersinternational.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=97688&int1st
ParentNodeID=89651
For the Marrakech Process:
http://www.unep.fr/scp/marrakech/
http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/
For the Italian Task Force:
http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/tfedususconsump.shtml
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