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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sustainable human development is often vague or lacking, and course content can be fragmented and occasionally based on outdated scientific data and models that have proven to function poorly in real life 1.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 Page 1 of 3 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 Page 2 of 3 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 Page 3 of 3