‘Ecological-oriented consumption’: a pluriactoral approach

International Journal of Sustainable Development

Volumn 3, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 26-39

  Zaccaī, Edwin ^a  

^a FREE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS   (Belgium)

Author keywords

actors; citizens; consumption; labels; sustainable development

Indexed keywords

EID: 38149027571     PISSN: 09601406     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2000.001524     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Boltanski, L. and Thevenot, L. (1991) De la justification, Gallimard, Paris.
2. Carley, M. and Spapens, P. (1998) Sharing the world, Earthscan, London.
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4. CRIOC (1997) La publicité verte dans Ia presse hebdomadaire beige, CRIOC, Bruxelles.
5. Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B. (1979) The world of goods. Towards an anthropology of consumption, Allen Lane, London.
6. Gabriel, Y. and Lang, T. (1995) The Unmanageable Consumer, Sage, London.
7. German Bundestag (1997) Enquete commission on the ‘Protection of Humanity and the Environment, 144/97, proceedings, Bonn.
8. Godeau, A. (1998) ‘Responsible consumption as a lever for sustainable development’, in Beyond Sustainabilizy, International NWO conference, Amsterdam, pp. 40—45.
9. Goodwin, N.R., Ackerman, F. and Kiron, D. (1997) The Consumer Society, Island Press, Washington.
10. Hajer, M. (1996) ‘Ecological modernization as cultural politics’, in Lash et al. (Editors) Risk, Environment and Modernity, Sage, London.
11. OECD (1997a) Sustainable Consumption and Production, OECD, Paris.
12. OECD (l997b) Consommation et production écologiquement viables. Definition des concepts, OECD, Paris.
13. OECD (1997c) Evaluer les instruments économiques, OECD, Paris.
14. Oosterhuis, F., Rubik, F. and Scholl, G. (1996) Product Policy in Europe.’ New Environmental Perspectives, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
15. Rochefort, R. (1995) La société des consommateurs, Odile Jacob, Paris.
16. Sachs, W. (Editor) (1993) Global Ecology, Zed Books, London.
17. Sen, A. (1973) ‘Behaviour and the concept of preference’, in Economica, Vol. 40.
18. Stengers, I. and Zaccaī, E. (1994) ‘Expert en environnement, celui par qui les questions arrivent’, in Critique Régionale, No. 20, Bruxelles.
19. Thevenot, L. (1989) ‘Equilibre et rationalité dans un univers complexe’, in Revue Economique, Vol. 40, Paris.
20. UNCED (1992) Agenda 21, United Nations, New York.
21. Von Weiszacker, E. et al. (1997) Factor Four, Earthscan, London.
22. WCED (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
23. Wieviorka, M. (1977) L’Etat, Ie pat ronat et les consommateurs, PUF, Paris.
24. Zaccaī, E. (1995) ‘ Secteurs économiques et association d’environnement’, in Ecoiogie etpolitique, No. 15, Paris.
25. Zaccaī, E. (1995) ‘Sustainable development: characteristics and interpretations’, Geographica Helvetica, Vol. 2, pp. 73—80.
26. ‘Noir, Jaune, Blues’ opinion survey of French-speaking Belgians, Le Soir, Brussels, 10 — 11/11/97, p.22. In the Flemish population, this attitude is just as widespread if not more. See, for example, De Groene Gids 2, 1994, Editions Memo, Louvain; a large compendium of ecological products (including social criteria as well).
27. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Somitomo: ‘ Consumer Awareness and Behavior concerning Global Environmental Problems and their impact on Corporate Business Strategy in Japan’, March 1996, p. 17.
28. At least in certain industrialized countries These trends are not necessarily at the same point in all countries, but the phenomenon is observed in all developed countries.
29. ‘ Unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, particularly in the industrialized countries, are identified in Agenda 21 as the major cause of continued deterioration of the global environment’ (28). ‘(…) attention should be given to the efficiency of resource use, including consideration of a tenfold term and a possible factor-four increase in industrialized countries in the next two or three decades’ (28.f) Program for the further implementation of’ Agenda 21, UNGASS, proceedings, 1/7/97, United Nations, New York.
30. Following these authors (p. 184), nevertheless, the marriage between consumer and environmental protection interests may be subject to troubles, with the fear, most notably, of prices rising owing to ecological protectionism.
31. ‘The need to ensure that greener purchasing programmes are compatible with fair and free trade stands among the most sensitive challenges encountered by greener purchasing’. OECD, l997a, p. 37. Oosterhuis et al. (1996, p. 64) define the actors groups as Consumers, Enterprises, Traders and Interest groups, aside from the public sector.
32. Globally, according to this study carried out in Belgium in 1996, this advertising is growing: 13.8% of the advertising in the weekly and monthly press studied, compared with 8.6% in 1993. The study insists on the ambiguity of this advertising, a part of which does not observe the advertising code of ethics (CRIOC, 1997).
33. At least that is the way that it appears in the eyes of the public. Actually, in the past the percentage of recycled fibres contained in certain types of paper was intentionally concealed, because it was considered a negative argument for the product’s image (‘waste’). On the contrary, certain types of paper that are ‘in’ today sometimes intentionally have a slightly grey, recycled look to them. Also, the forests where the trees providing paper pulp are grown often do not at all resemble the picture that we can have of a ‘virgin forest’. And the paper-makers stress the positive influence on the increase in forest land in some countries because of forest rational exploitations.
34. http:www.corpwatch.org and http://www.monitor@essential.org.
35. The European Commission. http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dgll/ecolabel (in July 1997).
36. Canada’s official system, EcoLogo, has an elegant way of expressing this de facto situation: ‘All consumer products and services have varying environmental impact, but those certified by the Environmental Choice Program help reduce the burden on the environment’ (Presentation folder, 1997).
37. See Alternatives économiques, February 1998, Pans, p. 56, and the sites listed in the note 8.
38. p. 149. The authors also noted that the British Greens, who had seriously raised the issue of ‘Consume less’ in their campaign of 1992, discovered that it was a ‘political suicide’. Something quite similar happened with the German Greens in 1998, when they strongly recommended a high energy tax. The cited book is Sklair (1991) The Sociology of the Global System, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.
39. OECD (1997a) p. 48. This report recognizes that ‘a defining framework and set of goals has not yet been defined by governments to comprehensively address consumption issues and evaluate policy responses.’ (p. 47).
40. OECD (1997a) p. 14.