In Agenda 21 – the action plan from the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 – sustainable consumption was presented as a major challenge for achieving sustainable development: ‘the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalance’ (UN 1992: §4.3). Agenda 21 addresses both consumption and production, which are closely linked. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine the one without the other. This essay focuses on consumption.

What is sustainable consumption? The term ‘sustainable consumption’ is defined along the lines of the World Commission on Energy and Development's definition for sustainable development as ‘the use of goods and services that responds to basic needs and brings a better quality of life, while minimising the use of natural resources and toxic materials, and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life-cycle, so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations’ (Norwegian Ministry of Environment 1994).