Mikulas Huba, The Society for Sustainable Living in the Slovak Republic
In Agenda 21 (1992), developed countries agreed to take the lead in achieving sustainable consumption patterns in order to emphasise optimisation of resource use and minimisation of waste.
In response to the above mentioned, as well as to the Third Ministerial Conference „Environment for Europe“ (1995), recommendations were made to undertake changes in consumption patterns and individual lifestyles through awareness raising, technical raising, technical regulations and incentives, and the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy organised a workshop on encouraging local initiatives towards sustainable consumption patterns. It was held in Vienna, February 2 - 4, 1998.
It has been widely recognised that the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production
is the major cause of the deterioration of the environment. It also exacerbates poverty and social inequity.
In the conclusions from the Vienna Workshop, it was stated that local systems - and cities primarily - are efficient starting points for promoting sustainable consumption patterns because they:
- represent the main concentrations of production and consumption and the main producers of adverse environmental impacts,
- offer an institutional framework for tailor-made local action, particularly fitting with the diversified nature of sustainability issues,
- are close to citizens and local industries.
The workshop recommendation were divided into several parts.
1. Influencing consumer behaviour should be recognised as an important approach within a broader long-term strategy towards achieving sustainable consumption patterns. Policy promoting this approach should aim at reducing adverse environmental impact, improving the living standards including the health and safety of the present generation, ensuring the well-being of future generations, achieving a greater degree of social equity and empowerment, and strengthening communities.
2. Governments at various levels should have instruments in place to motivate as many people as possible to choose a lifestyle which minimises the overall impact from a life-cycle perspective on natural resources and the environment. Through the utilisation of services (rather than products) and improved options for consumers, the consumption of resources can often be reduced, and dematerialisation can be achieved by, for instance, using timeless, long-life, repairable and versatile products made of recyclable materials.
3. Cross-sectoral partnerships should constitute the basis for effective and equitable encouragement of local initiatives. Interactive policy-making is an opportunity to bring together the expertise of governmental and NGO bodies in developing sustainable alternatives to dominant consumption patterns.
4. Environmental education will help to sensitise the population, who, as consumers of private and public goods and services, will demand a high level of environmentally friendly alternatives.
There are many ways of increasing environmental knowledge, both through schools and training facilities, and through a variety of channels in the community, the workplace and elsewhere. Programmes adopted to local priorities and needs can be adopted to promote initiatives and community-based efforts towards sustainable consumption patterns.
5. Behavioural change can best be motivated by presenting the attractiveness of alternatives. Sustainable consumption can be promoted in terms of improved quality of life, community spirit and fun. Public participation should be an integral part of the planning and decision-making process.
6. The realisation of a sustainable, liveable city and changes in lifestyles, require an integrated decision-making framework and a fundamental shift in transitional perspectives. There needs to be a change in focus from curative measures to measures based on anticipation and prevention, and from managing the environment to managing demands at the individual, community, business and urban levels.
7. To make policy measures on sustainable consumption both effective and credible, all public policies, regardless of their levels, should be made consistent and coherent with the wider goals of sustainable development.
8. Encouraging local initiatives toward sustainable consumption patterns requires the municipal government to take an active role in the preparation of Local Agenda 21 together with all stakeholders.
Concerning economic instruments and financing mechanisms, it can be said that, to achieve sustainable consumption is related to the support of local supply networks. This would imply e.g. closing production cycles in the region (production - marketing - consumption - utilisation and recycling of waste), using regional resources and potential, promoting the establishment of local businesses, and improving economic and social conditions in the area.. Shopping in one neighbourhood also reduces the need for transport. Decentralising jobs, by strengthening the regional economy, reduce commuter traffic into densely populated centres.
It should be recognised, too, that agriculture, as a part of the regional economy may be boosted by modified consumption behaviour. The sale ofd agricultural produce at the place of production strengthens agriculture supply function as regards quantity and quality. Direct contacts between producers and consumers promote a transition from conventional to organic farming. Furthermore, packaging for shorter distances, and complicated storage and preservation can be reduced.
Local taxes, charges, fees and subsidies should be reviewed to ensure that they do not support unsustainable patterns of consumption ad production. Internalisation of environmental costs into prices of goods and services will influence consumer behaviour in a positive way and should also ensure the full recovery of the costs of important environmental services.
The capacity of local governments to finance activities that promote sustainable consumption should be strengthened, especially in CEE countries. A mechanism at the national level should be established to accelerate the transfer of know-how to lower levels.
Existing funding mechanisms should be reviewed and new sources of finance should be identified to support local initiatives of citizen groups, NGOs and small and medium-size companies towards sustainable consumption.
The total life cycle, energy and water consumption should be given particular attention.
Measuring equipment and devices together with effective tariff systems should be widely applied to reduce unsustainable consumption.
Improved international mechanisms and pilot projects should promote practical east-west and east-east cooperation through the exchange of experience and the development of guidelines on good practice for joint initiatives between central and local governments.
According to Eva Charkiewicz et al (1998), sustainable consumption and production are good both for consumers and business. At the same time, it is an obligation for governments.
From different arguments, supporting such a statement, can be mentioned inter allia:
Good environmental management at production sites (see e.g. EMAS or ISO 14000 standards) contributes to the increase in productivity of resources, generates immediate and long term savings, lowers production costs, and increases income. For companies, long term competitive advantage can be gained from the adoption of these standards which link quality and environmental management criteria. Orientation on sustainability allows for the increase of motivational benefits through generating better relationships with employees and customers.
In CEE countries there is an almost untapped market for „green“ products and services. The domestic demand for such products contrasts with very low, or even zero supply, and lack of distribution channels and alternative linkages between sustainable producers and consumers.
Care for the community, motivational benefits for employees and customers contribute to increasing profitability and provide a good image for the company as a stable trading partner.
Concerning the customers, sustainable consumption diminishes the multiple health risks of dirty production and wasteful consumption such as cancer, allergies, loss of fertility, mutagenic impacts, and various other diseases related to social and environmental stress.
It serves as a preventive health care, it saves money, time, prevents suffering, and allows for a longer life in good health.
Quality product consumption allows better use of a households resources and saves them for other needs.
Sustainable consumption and production allows the retention of resources and circulation and sharing of wealth within local communities.
It assures a better quality of life, protects people from being pulled into accelerated time use patterns, and helps build up social solidarity networks which people need to survive.
Health costs and loss in productivity due to environmental degradation, dirty production and careless consumption patterns are higher than the costs of preventive environmental policies.
The framework of sustainable consumption and production provides a „package“ of instruments for preventive environmental policies and will contribute to save resources.
The longer we wait with shifting to sustainable consumption and production, the more expensive it will be. CEE countries are too poor not to take care of cleaning up the environment by way of adopting the best available solutions.
Strong pro-sustainable policies in a country will lead to lasting social, economic and political power and will provide an internal space of security and economic prosperity in case of unexpected changes in global terms of trade.
According to the National report Towards Sustainable Slovakia (M. Huba et al, 1995), both sustainable consumption and production in Slovakia, and with the highest probability in all the CEE region, are very underdeveloped. The general reasons are, among others:
- overly antrophocentric and unilateral interpretation of antic-judeo-christian roots of our philosophy,
- long-term tradition of unsustainable thinking and acting, especially of consumption
patterns - consumerism, modern hedonism, so called artificial values, excessive individualism, lack of solidarity,
- inability to find adequate position (role) of the free market in the contemporary society,
- pressure of over-consumption from one side related to over-pollution from the other side,
- prioritization of unsustainable economic interests to environmental, ethical and other non-economic, resp. non-materialistic interests,
- style of thinking, focusing on short term goals and horizons,
- lack of new, non-conforming, inspirational visions,
- dominance of stereotypical pragmatism and technocratism in the spirit of Toffler Second Wave,
- underestimation of these problems from the side of the majority of politicians and formal approach to these problems from the side of principle political powers,
- in general, an ignorance of these problems from the majority of opinion-makers like journalists, artists, teachers, priests, intellectuals,
- stereotypical illusion of unlimited natural resources,
- illusion of permanent material growth and identification of prosperity with GDP (or GNP),
- „competition“ of many other problems like unemployment, criminality...,
- limits of too ambivalent definition of the concept of sustainable development,
- shallow approach to fundamental values from the side of a consumer society,
- lack of interest to act sustainable from the side of extremely poor people,
- lack of feeling of responsibility from the side of inhabitants of the former collectivistic and paternalistic regimes,
- lack of concrete positive examples of sustainable models in practice,
- general lack of time in a contemporary, dynamic, permanently changing and extremely complicated world,
- filtration of information from the central bodies,
- language and other barriers for spreading information, opinions, alternative models, etc.
- general lack of knowledge, understanding, and public awareness to these problems,
- lack of qualification of contemporary politicians for solving such unusual and complicated problems,
- phenomenon of lack of morality - corruption, conflict of interests, monopolies, mafias...
Despite the above mentioned obstacles, there exist several challenges and even success stories in Slovakia in the nineties. Today 20 - 25 Slovak cities and towns are involved in different programmes and projects, like Healthy city, Local Agenda 21, Sustainable city, Brundtland city, etc. Several villages and about one dozen of rural regions or better to say microregions are active in this field, too. These localities or regions create conditions for changing consumption - production patterns towards sustainability. At the same time, Slovak NGOs are active in developing and/or promoting pro-sustainable patterns of behaviour in different fields and at different levels (from vegetarianism, through energy savings and recycling to, e.g. permaculture or alternative tourism).
According to the sociological surveys (e.g. FOCUS agency, 1996), more than two-thirds of the inquired prefer environmental protection and the long-term objectives of sustainability to short-term increase of material living standard. The problem is, that mentioned expression has mostly the character of declaration, and the share of potential active participants in real pro-environmental and/or pro-sustainable activities is very small.
Butorova, Z. (ed.) (1996): She and He in Slovakia: Gender Issues in Public Opinion), FOCUS, Bratislava.
Federal Ministry of Environment, Youth and Family Affairs of Austria (1998): Encouraging Local Initiatives Towards Sustainable Consumption Patterns. Vienna.
Huba, M. et al (1996): Towards Sustainable Slovakia. The Third Edition. STUŽ/SR, Bratislava
Charkiewicz Eva et al (1998): Impacts of Economic Globalisation and Changes in Consumption and Production Patterns in CEE and Other Countries in Transition. Umanotera, Ljubljana.
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992): Agenda 21, UNO, New York