SDG 12: Sustainable Consumption and Production
SDG 12 is made up of 8 targets and 3 means of implementation that focus on how we produce, consume and dispose of products, this includes everything from how products and services are designed to resource efficiency to recycling to waste reduction and management and more. This goal also looks at sustainability education, reporting and the elimination of harmful fossil fuel subsidies.
The definition of sustainable consumption and production is “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimising the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generation.” I am sure it is no surprise that we consume more than what the earth can sustain. According to Earth Overshoot Day, we currently consume resources equivalent to what 1.7 Earths can replenish. Many have called for “decoupling” which is the idea that we can separate economic growth from environmental pressures and while there have been some signs that t is may be possible for emissions in some countries, the reality is our global material consumption is only going up.
Target 12.1
Implement the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries.
What it means
This is one of those SDG targets that was informed by a previous multi-lateral agreement and was therefore built into the SDGs for coherence. This target stems back to 2012 when the world convened the Rio +20 Earth Summit, a 20-year anniversary event that marked one of the world’s most important sustainable development milestones. You can check out my Definition of Sustainable Development video if you want more info on Rio and its outcomes. At Rio +20, sustainable consumption and production was high on the agenda for world leaders and they adopted the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns or the 10YFP for short. The 10YFP and its associated One Planet network provided a frame and platform for action to achieve a shift to sustainable consumption and production. It consists of six programmes: Sustainable Public Procurement, Consumer Information for SCP, Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Lifestyles and Education, Sustainable Buildings and Construction, and Sustainable Food Systems. (UNEP)
When the SDGs were negotiated, the 10YFP was included as the first target and its mandate was extended from 2022 to 2030. In addition, a clause about common but differentiated responsibility was added. You may have heard of the term common but differentiated responsibility as I have referenced on the channel before because it is quite important in climate change negotiations. Effectively it means that all countries share in responsibility for environmental destruction but recognizes that developed countries have a larger historic contribution and therefore must take the lead and also provide support to developing countries to act.
Where we are currently
As of 2022, 62 countries had policies for SCP, with over 400 individual policies. (Our World in Data) However, the distribution of these policies is very uneven, with 79 per cent of policies reported by high-income and upper middle income countries, 0.5 per cent by low-income countries and only 7.7 per cent by least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States. (United Nations).
Target 12.2
By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
What it means
This target looks pretty straight forward on the surface, but like anything is a little more complicated when you dig deeper. The reason it gets complicated is because of the very integrated global economy we are all a part of. Many things we consume are produced elsewhere so when we look at efficient resource management at the country level, it can get quite complicated to attribute responsibility for extraction.
The easiest way to understand this target is to look at the two primary indicators- Material Footprint and Domestic Material Consumption. The DMC reports the actual amount of material in an economy, whereas the MF is the virtual amount required across the whole supply chain to service final demand.
Let’s start with Material Footprint. Material Footprint (MF) reflects the amount of primary materials required to meet humans basic needs. source It is an attribution of global material extraction to domestic final demand of a country. (UN Stats) It is calculated by the following equation:
Domestic extraction of materials + Raw material equivalent of imports - Raw material equivalent of exports
Traditionally, material footprint is also analysed per capita and per unit of GDP.
Now onto Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) which measures the total amount of material (such as biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals) directly used in an economy and is calculated very similarly to Material Footprint but only accounts for direct material flows like physical imports and exports. It does not account for all global material flows related to final consumption in a country or region, as indirect or embodied materials of imported and exported products are not considered. (UN Stats) It’s equation is:
Domestic extraction of materials + Direct imports - Direct exports
With this measure, a country can have a very high DMC because it has a large primary production sector for export or it can a very low DMC because it has outsourced most of the material intensive industrial process to other countries. Material Footprint corrects for this and ensures that material flows underpinning a country’s consumption are attributed to the final consumers and not where it was produced. (UN Stats)
This is all a bit nuanced so let me use a quick example to show how this works. With DMC a car imported from Japan would count only for what it is, the car and all its components. With Material Footprint, there would be a more comprehensive calculation of the consumption that the car requires to be built in Japan - electricity needed to keep the factory going, the protective equipment worn by workers, etc.
You may be asking, why even calculate DMC if it doesn’t properly attribute consumption to where it is deserved? Well, DMC has high environmental relevance as an indicator of potential environmental pressure on a domestic territory regardless of where the consumption takes place. (UN Stats) A great example of this would be the DRC which produces 70% of the world’s cobalt but consumes virtually none of it. It’s important to have a measure for showing this environmental destruction in the country even though it is not the people of the DRC actually consuming the end material.
Where we are currently
Analysis over the last 20 years shows that global material footprint continues to grow. Overall, it increased from 57.1 billion tonnes in 2000 to 95.9 billion tonnes in 2019. And even with population growth, the per capita material consumption continues to grow. However, its rate of growth has thankfully slowed. Average annual growth rate of the global material footprint for 2015–2019 was 1.1 per cent, while for 2000–2019 it was 2.8 per cent. (UN Stats)
DMC increased from 2000 and in 2019 amounted to 95.1 gigatons or 12.3 tons per capita. This trend was typical for all DMC components such as biomass, metal ores, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels. Environmental pressure is unevenly distributed around the world. Over the past 20 years, about 70% of global DMC has been in Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia, as well as Northern America and Europe. But there have been a lot of changes in the regional structure of DMC, there was a decrease in the shares of DMC in Northern America and Europe from 36% in 2000 to 22% in 2019 and an increase in Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia from 31% to 43% over the same time period. (UN Stats)
Target 12.3
By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
What it means
Roughly a third of the world's food is lost or wasted. That's about 1.3 billion tons a year. (The World Counts) And food loss happens at the production steps of value chain from losses on farm due to weather, pests, diseases or low market prices, to spoilage during storage, packaging and transportation. Food waste happens in the consumer and retail stages in the value chain, including in supermarkets where practices like overstocking, inaccurately predicting shelf-life and product damage are common, and consumers wasting food at home or in restaurants by not properly predicting the amounts needed.
The food system uses significant natural resources - 20% of global land, 32% of energy and 70% of water withdrawn from lakes, rivers and groundwater (UC Davis). Therefore, reducing food loss and waste is critical for reducing costs and increasing the efficiency of the food system, improving food security and nutrition, and promoting environmental sustainability. (SDG 12 Hub)
This target is measured by two sub-indices - the food loss index and the food waste index. The Food Loss Index (FLI) measures losses along the food supply chain starting from post-harvest losses on the farm up to but not including retail stage. The Food Waste Index, measures food waste at retail and consumer level (households and food service). Both indices compare the percentage of food lost or wasted to a baseline year of 2015. (UN Stats)
Where we are currently
We already know we aren’t doing well on a global level but let’s have a look at how we are doing on food loss a regional level. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest losses at 21.4 percent, followed by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with 18.9 percent and 17.3 percent respectively. Structural inadequacies in these two regions have resulted in food being lost in large quantities between the farm and retail levels. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia also register high food loss figures, at 15.1 percent, driven by high losses in the fruits and vegetable value chains. The lowest losses occur in Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and Northern America at 12.3 percent and 9.9 percent respectively.
For food waste, an estimated 931 million tonnes of food, or 17% of total food available to consumers in 2019, went into the waste bins of households, retailers, restaurants and other food services, according to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report. Most of the waste comes from households, which discard 11% of the total food available at the consumption stage of the supply chain. Food services and retail outlets waste 5% and 2% respectively. On a global per capita-level, 121 kilograms of consumer level food is wasted each year, with 74 kilograms of this happening in households. (UN Stats)
In many countries still do not publish statistics on food loss or food waste, the general trend is that food waste continues to trend up. In other words. It is just getting worse.
Target 12.4
By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
What it means
There are over 140,000 different chemicals used in all economic sectors globally. They have many benefits but also potential to adverse impacts to human health and the environment if not properly managed. This target is focused on properly managing chemicals that their wastes according to a number of already existing multinational environmental agreements or MEAs for short. In fact, the first indicator for this target is the number of countries who are parties to the 5 main MEAs concerning chemicals, which are:
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
The Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
Minamata Convention on Mercury
The second indicator is hazardous waste generated per capita in tonnes per km sq of land area and per capita and proportion of hazardous waste treated, by type of treatment shown as a percent It’s also worth noting that this indicator is broken down into type of hazardous waste generated and that this includes e-waste. There is rapid growth of global e-waste which is driven by growing consumption, short product life cycles, and little repair, as I poked fun of in my intro. But it truly is a very big issue particularly given the growing consumption of electronics and disposal of e-waste of in low- and middle-income countries that lack sufficient infrastructure to properly manage it. (UN Stats)
Where we are currently
When it comes to the conventions, Almost all 193 United Nations Member States are party to at least one of these conventions and 157 of them are party to three. In March 2022, the UN Environment Assembly adopted a historic resolution to develop a global plastics treaty to end plastic pollution, so this is an area that will continue to develop. (The Lancet)
And while this is good news, the reality is that most forms of hazardous waste are increasing. And there is severely lacking data on the hazardous waste generated per capita, only 27 countries have reported these figures. (Our World in Data) So instead we can look at a few specific types of waste.
In 2019, the amount of e-waste generated was 7.3 kg per capita out of which only 1.7 kilograms was managed in an environmentally sound way. The amount of e-waste generated is expected to grow to 9.0 kg per capita in 2030.
COVID-19 led to rapid changes in the amounts and types of waste being generated. A significant increase in the volume of clinical waste being generated in hospitals and other health care facilities, including highly infectious waste, other infection and pathological waste, sharps waste, pharmaceutical and cytotoxic waste, face masks, chemical waste, and general healthcare waste arising both from patients and from healthcare workers treating them and wearing personal protective equipment.
A total of 98 Mt of CO2-equivalents were released into the atmosphere from discarded cooling equipment such as refrigerators, air-conditioners and freezers that were not managed in an environmentally sound manner. This equals approximately the emissions of 20 million passenger cars per year, or 0.3% of global energy related emissions. (UN Stats)
Target 12.5
By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
What it means
This target is largely an extension of the previous one, although it is slightly more broad focusing on reducing all types of waste generated, not just chemicals and hazardous waste. This is the target that most closely aligns to the concept of circular economy that some of you may be familiar with. Circular economy is model involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible to extend the life cycle of products as long as possible and to reduce waste the greatest degree possible.
Circular economy is implemented at every stage of the value chain - from doing material extraction in the most efficient way possible, or where possible using recycled materials, to designing products for longterm use and eliminating planned obselsence, to enhancing refurbishment of products instead of creating news ones, to encouraging borrowing and sharing of products or shifting products to services where possible, to encouraging long time use or reuse, and ensuring proper recycling and waste management. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
This target is measured by the national recycling rate which is defined as the quantity of material recycled in the country plus quantities exported for recycling out of total waste generated in the country, minus material imported intended for recycling.
Where we are currently
Unfortunately, the statistics on national recycling rates are not widely reported, with less than 60 countries reporting (Our World in Data). Generally, recycling is increasing globally, particularly in developed countries, but many products remain unrecyclable. The OECD estimates plastic recycling rates are around 14-18% globally (OECD).
Target 12.6
Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
What it means
As you can tell, this target is all about engaging the private sector in sustainability. Unlike other SDGs like health or education, consumption and production are largely influenced by companies rather than governments. In many ways, consumption is a core ideology of capitalism. Companies are encouraged to grow and therefore must convince consumers to buy more. This is why it is so crucial to find unique business models that increase resource efficiency, shift from physical products to services, or that encourage more conscious consumption.
One example I like to use here to explain what I mean here is the smart phone. Now of course we know smart phones are notorious for planned obsolescence and I am not excusing that but the idea behind a smart phone is one that has a lot of elements of more conscious consumption. For example, a smart phone serves many functions that were previously fulfilled by many other devices. People used to own a camera, a calculator, a thermometer, etc. etc. and now it’s all in one device in their pockets. In addition, industries that used to be heavily reliant on physical products like the music industry and movies, now can make their products digitally available. In addition, app market places provide a more service based model of consumption rather than a physical one. Now we also know that digital services are not without impact, for example data centres, so I am not trying to say by any means that smart phones are perfect but I do think they represent how innovation to product design can reduce material consumption and can still support business models.
Now back to this target, it is measured by the number of companies publishing sustainability reports. The focus of this indicator is on tracking the publishing of sustainability information, rather than on the practice of publishing stand-alone sustainability reports so it also includes when companies publish sustainability information in annual reports. source
There have been a number of efforts to standardize sustainability reporting globally to ensure that it meets minimum standards. For example, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was created to in 2021 with a mission to develop a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards to meet investors' information needs. (IFRS)
Where we are currently
Luckily, there is a lot more data available on this target than the last two More than 60% of public companies publish a sustainability report. This number has more than doubled since 2016. Third-party assurance of sustainability information has also increased, exceeding 50% for the largest companies in the world. In North America, the number of reports almost tripled from 2016 to 2020. Europe and Asia experienced a twofold increase. At the same time, the data shows considerably slower growth rates in Africa, Latin America and Oceania. The manufacturing, finance and insurance industries feature the highest numbers of companies publishing sustainability reports, while the utility sector maintains the largest share of companies consistently publishing sustainability reports throughout the period. Overall, almost all sectors have seen a twofold increase in the number of sustainability reports published in the reporting period. (UN Stats)
In terms of what is most published on the environmental indicators that are most disclosed are CO2 direct emissions, energy consumption, and water withdrawal, while less attention is paid to water recycled, ozone-depleting substances, and hazardous waste produced. In the social dimension, more than half of companies disclose information on the health and safety training of employees, while few report on the gender pay gap. In the corporate governance area, most companies disclose on board gender diversity, while information on bribery and fraud controversies is the least disclosed. (UN Stats)
Target 12.7
Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
What it means
Sustainable Public Procurement is defined by UN Stats as “a process whereby public organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life cycle basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst significantly reducing negative impacts on the environment.”
Public procurement is an important sustainability lever factor in all countries, representing on average 13–20 percent of GDP. Governments can us their purchasing power to drive markets towards more sustainable and innovative products and services. (UN Stats)
It is measured by the number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans.
Where we are currently
In 2022, 67 national governments reported to the United Nations Environment Programme on the implementation of sustainable public procurement policies and action plans, a 50 per cent increase from 2020 which had only 40 countries. (UN Stats)
Target 12.8
By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
What it means
This target recognizes that people need appropriate levels of knowledge about sustainable development, global citizenship and peace to take appropriate action and positively contribute to the well-being of their communities. UN Stats
Embedded within this target are two types of education Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). These both nurture respect for all, build a sense of belonging to a common humanity, foster responsibility for a shared planet, and help learners become responsible and active global citizens and proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world according to the UN. UN Stats
It is measured by an indicator that looks at the extent to which global citizenship education and education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in national education policies; curricula; teacher education; and student assessment.
Where we are currently
Around 90 percent of countries report that GCED and ESD are at least partially mainstreamed in national education, however only 15% of countries report high levels of integration in all four areas. Much lower rates of mainstreaming are reported in technical and vocational education coming in at 57% and in adult education at 51%. There are regional differences noted with particularly high rates reported in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean. UN Stats
However gaps and areas of improvement still exist. A recent global survey of primary and secondary teachers found that one in four teachers do not feel ready to teach themes related to sustainable development, global citizenship and peace, despite the 80% being keen to learn more. UN Stats
Means of Implementation
Target 12.A : Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
Target 12.B : Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Target 12.C : Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities
Keep Learning
Here are a few great resources for further reading and learning:
Goal 12 Overview (2023, United Nations)
SDG Tracker (2023, Our World in Data)
UNEP Sustainable Lifestyles (2023, United Nations)