Sustainable consumption and production

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is at the core of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically addressed by SDG 12. This goal aims to "ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns," acting as a cross-cutting theme that feeds into other SDGs such as those related to climate change, poverty, health, and sustainable cities.

SCP involves using services and products in a way that minimizes environmental damage, preserves natural resources, and promotes social equity. The purpose is to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, which means pursuing economic development in a way that can be sustained by the planet over the long term. SCP requires changes at all levels of society, from individuals to businesses to governments.

At the individual level, SCP implies making lifestyle choices that reduce environmental impact. This might include reducing, reusing, and recycling waste, choosing products with less packaging, and opting for more sustainable forms of transport like cycling or public transport.

For businesses, SCP entails adopting sustainable business models and practices. This could include improving resource efficiency, investing in renewable energy, designing products that are durable and recyclable, and ensuring fair labor practices.

At the government level, SCP involves implementing policies that support sustainable business practices and incentivize sustainable consumer behavior. This might involve regulations to reduce pollution, subsidies for renewable energy, and campaigns to raise awareness about sustainable consumption.

SCP also plays a role in several other SDGs. For example, sustainable production practices can help mitigate climate change (SDG 13) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, by reducing the pressure on natural resources, SCP supports the goals related to life below water (SDG 14) and life on land (SDG 15).

While progress has been made in certain areas, challenges remain in achieving the shift towards SCP. These include existing patterns of overconsumption, limited awareness about the impacts of consumption, and the need for technological innovation to enable more sustainable production.

Quality attributes such as moisture content, colour parameters and shrinkage of apples change undesirably during the drying process. Drying is a highly dynamic process, thus, an effective optimisation in terms of product quality and process performance requires continuous non-invasive measurement of the parameters in question.
This study investigated the drying behaviour of purple-speckled Cocoyam and the effect of drying temperature (40 °C, 60 °C and 75 °C), slice thickness (4 mm, 7 mm and 10 mm) and pre-treatments (blanching in boiling water for 3 min, blanching in boiling water for 3 min followed by dipping in 0.1 per cent sodium metabisulfite for 5 min) and non-pre-treated slices. The process and quality criteria under consideration included the total drying time, rehydration ratio, colour difference, browning index and specific energy consumption.
Elsevier,

Current Opinion in Insect Science, Volume 40, August 2020

Materials, structures, surfaces and buildings of insects are of a great scientific interest, but such basic knowledge about the functional principles of these structures is also highly relevant for technical applications, especially in architecture. Some of the greatest challenges for today's architecture are multifunctionality, energy saving and sustainability — problems that insects have partially solved during their evolution. Entomologists have collected a huge amount of information about the structure and function of such living constructions and surfaces.

Elsevier,

William D. Fletcher, Craig B. Smith, Chapter 9 - What would it take to reach net zero?, Reaching Net Zero, Elsevier, 2020, Pages 107-122

This chapter addresses SDGs 13, 15, and 12 by examining scenarios for reaching net zero production and consumption, but also the challenges in implementation.
China is a key player in global production, consumption, and trade of seafood. Given this dominance, Chinese choices regarding what seafood to eat, and how and where to source it, are increasingly important—for China, and for the rest of the world. This perspective explores this issue using a transdisciplinary approach and discusses plausible trajectories and implications for assumptions of future modeling efforts and global environmental sustainability and seafood supply.
The consumption of plant-based milk substitutes has spread rapidly around the world due to its numerous positive health effects on the human body. Individuals with cow's milk allergy, lactose intolerance, and hypocholesterolemia prefer these beverages. In spite of the added sugar and lack of total protein content, phenolic compounds, unsaturated fatty acids, antioxidant activity, and bioactive compounds such as phytosterols and isoflavones make plant-based milk substitutes an excellent choice.

Pathways towards a defossilated sustainable power system for West Africa within the time horizon of 2015–2050 is researched, by applying linear optimisation modelling to determine the cost optimal generation mix to meet the demand based on assumed costs and technologies in 5-year intervals. Six scenarios were developed, which aimed at examining the impact of various policy constraints such as cross-border electricity trade and greenhouse gas emissions costs.

Producing food exerts pressures on the environment. Understanding the location and magnitude of food production is key to reducing the impacts of these pressures on nature and people. In this Perspective, Kuempel et al. outline an approach for integrating life cycle assessment and cumulative impact mapping data and methodologies to map the cumulative environmental pressure of food systems. The approach enables quantification of current and potential future environmental pressures, which are needed to reduce the net impact of feeding humanity.

This book chapter advances SDGs 12, 13 and 14 by discussing the current warming of the Arctic climate caused by human exploitation activities and the potential impact these activities may have in driving a number of marine mammals and other vertebrate species to extinction, unless strong conservation initiatives are put in place immediately.
Elsevier,

Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Systems, Encyclopedia of the World's Biomes, 2020

This book chapter addresses SDGs 15, 12, and 11 by discussing the conservation of terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal/marine ecosystems, and how to identify global percent protection goals.

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