Sustainable Consumption Toolkit

USDN is pleased to announce the launch a new Sustainable Consumption Toolkit for cities. The Toolkit introduces the concept of sustainable consumption and highlights strategies that cities can take to advance it at the community level.

The Toolkit is designed to meet two important needs:

• Provide a clear and concise framing of key concepts that reveals how consumption is at the heart of many of the sustainability challenges cities are facing.
• Showcase specific examples of initiatives cities are already using that reduce the impacts of consumption and help to foster a new sense of individual and community prosperity.

From the Toolkit:

Communities have relied on consumption to drive economic growth and define collective prosperity but at an increasing cost to environmental quality and social equity. Consumption is a key driver of climate change, pollution and resource depletion. And our consumer appetite compounds work and income stresses, leaving us little time to enjoy the things that really matter. We need a fundamental shift in the way we produce and consume goods and services to reorient our economic and social systems around a more sustainable model.

The Sustainable Consumption Toolkit is a one-of-a-kind resource to guide cities as they lead this emerging field of practice. It provides a platform for capturing the learning from USDN member cities as well as the broader set of partners and stakeholders working with us to advance sustainable consumption. USDN is grateful for support from the Garfield Foundation and the significant contributions from One Earth and other partners such as SCORAI, the EPA Forum on Climate and Materials Management and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality that helped bring the Toolkit to fruition.

For more information about the Toolkit and USDN’s Sustainable Consumption in Cities project, please contact Babe O’Sullivan project lead, at babeosullivan@gmail.com or (971) 212-2724.

Visit the toolkit site »