Promote sustainable production and consumption (SPAC)

Programme on Sustainable ConsumptionWork Plan for the new MillenniumBackgroundAs a consumer protection organisation, CUTS is closely involved with promotion of sustainable patterns of consumption and production. Under sustainable consumption, CUTS would like to focus its work on Chapter 4 of the Agenda 21 and the various principles of the Rio Declaration.

Action Plan

I Policy Framework on Sustainable Consumption

Here the endeavour will be not only to understand and disseminate the concept of sustainable consumption but also its inter-linkages with other related areas such as production patterns, underconsumption, poverty, demography etc. The work will be divided into two parts, i.e. first, developing the policy statement on sustainable consumption and then lobbying with government and non-government organisations to get it implemented in the country. This experience would be shared with consumer and environment groups in India and in other countries.

IA UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection Including the New Elements on 
Sustainable Consumption

Activities	Process	Target Group
A) Expansion of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection into other related areas, such as under-consumption, safe drinking water etc. B) Evaluating implementation of the Guidelines	Lobby along with CI CUTS is preparing a detailed report which evaluates implementation of the Guidelines (State of the Indian Consumer) Organising conferences to incorporate feedback, ideas of other organisations (Ongoing) Identifying consumer organisations as regular partners for developing a network (using the existing Ecofrig network)	Consumer and environment groups, media, government officials, manufacturers, academia
Developing a National Consumer Policy Statement for India	CUTS has prepared a draft Policy Statement Sharing this draft with the network partners and incorporating their suggestions	Consumer and environment groups, media, government officials, manufacturers, academia

IB Policy Advocacy on the Guidelines

Activities	Process	Target Group
Lobbying with the government to adopt and implement this policy in India	Sharing the draft with officials of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Lobbying Together with the network and with Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC) Publishing articles in newspapers	Ministry of Consumer Affairs Ministry of Environment & Forests Media
Analysis of the implementation in India	A regular review of the implementation status Sharing the concern with network partners
Using the above analysis to develop similar Policy Statements for other countries.	Identification of countries and Consumer organisations with whom to work on this agenda Use the above analysis to develop similar analyses and policy statements for these. Developing and sharing a toolkit proposal for implementing the Guidelines in other countries (Ongoing)	Consumer Organisations in developing countries and economies in transition VROM*

*Note: Dutch Ministry of Environment (VROM) has expressed interest in 3 above with certain qualifications. 
IC Sustainable-India Study and Lobbying

Activities	Process	Target Group
Prepare sustainability reports for Indian states	Begin with Sustainable Rajasthan Develop proposal and fundraise in collaboration with Friends of Earth, Netherlands and experts/research organisations in India	Rajasthan government State Pollution Control Board State Planning Commission Other relevant ministries Probable research partners (NCAER, IGIDR, SID, CARS etc) Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Norway, IGIDR
Prepare Sustainable India report and policy statement	Build a Sustainable India network Replicate Sustainable Rajasthan work Prepare Sustainable India report and Policy statement and present at Rio +10	Consumer and Environmental NGOs Research partners (NCAER, IGIDR, SID, CARS etc)
(A) Lobby for adoption with the state government and government of India (B) Interact with the governments of other countries	Involve Sustainable India network Share draft policy statement with partners	Ministry of Environment and Forests National Planning Commission Other relevant Ministries National governments Intergovernmental organisations

ID Consumption Study of South Asia

Activities	Process	Target Group
A study of class based consumption patterns and their sustainability	Meetings to discuss benchmarks/parameters and scope Research including data collection and statistical analysis Policy pointers	A sample of the upper, middle and the lower class of South Asian countries UNEP/TIE
Policy debate on appropriateness/portability of Northern sustainable consumption policies/concepts in the Southern context	Multi-stakeholder meetings	All stakeholders

Note: UNEP/TIE is interested to work on this project with CUTS. A concept paper was sent to UNEP/TIE, which is under consideration under their Year 2000 work programme. It can be noted that lobbying activities are not discussed for this project, as this will be decided on the basis of outputs and in consultation with UNEP/TIE 
II Environment-Friendly Technologies & Practices

Activities	Process	Target Group
Identification of good and bad practices of business	Documentation of the Good and Bad Practices and Models that exist on waste disposal, recycling etc. Critically reviewing contents/development/implementation various codes of conduct of industry/business	Consumer and environment groups, especially those working on sustainable consumption issues UN Commission on Sustainable Development and other intergovernmental bodies DFID, Norway
Information dissemination and campaign to promote good practices, general promotion of 4Rs (reduce, refuse, reuse and recycle)	Acting as a clearing-house for information on good and bad practices Outreach through printed and audio-visual media to disseminate information and train volunteers/ representatives of network partners	Consumer and environment groups, media, manufacturers, government officials
Promoting `good’ advertising and condemning `bad’ advertising	Identifying and documenting good advertising practices that promote sustainable consumption Identifying and documenting bad (misleading/dud) advertising which promotes overconsumption/unsustainable consumption or misleads the consumer in other ways Organising campaigns as a follow up to the above activities and linking this campaign to the work programme on ecolabelling	Advertising firms Manufacturers Ministries of Environment/Food and Consumer Affairs
‘Leapfrogging’ from old technologies to environmentally sustainable technologies	Selection of areas such as four stroke engines, retrofitting in refrigerators, automobile engines etc., which offer opportunities to switchover to environment friendly options	Manufacturers GEF SDC DGXI (EC) GTZ
Campaigns to be developed in these selected areas, as per the ongoing campaign on Ecofrig	For example Ecofrig Action Plan	Identified as per the Action Plan

III Ecolabelling: Ecomark

Activities	Process	Target Group
Analysis of the existing standards that have been developed and the existing range of products.	A review of the BIS standards and the Ecomark standards, output being used as a Fact Sheet A review on the existing status of the Ecomark scheme A survey on the awareness levels as well as attitudes among manufacturers and consumers (Completed) The output of the above being presented as a Discussion Paper	Bureau of Indian Standards Central Pollution Control Board Steering Committee and Technical Committee on Ecomark
Comparative analysis among ecolabelling criteria in other countries	Internet surfing on ecolabelling sites Correspondence with NGOs/governments for obtaining ecolabelling criteria (Ongoing) Output in the form of a briefing paper
Targeting of few selected products for promoting Ecomark	Organising campaigns to educate consumers/industry on Ecomark (conferences) Lobbying with manufacturers to go for these criteria by siting advantages of doing so Training and awareness generation of manufacturers (big and small) on ways and means to produce eco-friendly products Lobbying with Madhya Bharat Paper Limited for using the Ecomark on their products	Network partners Media Manufacturers of the selected products (lead-acid batteries, fly-ash bricks etc) Ministry of Environment & Forests
Challenging false environmental claims by manufacturers (Link with work under `advertising’ above)	Compiling all the relevant information of such cases Approaching MRTP commission/State Commission	Manufacturers Media Network partners MRTP Commission State Commission
Influencing government procurement	Representations to the government officials, using print media etc. to stress on importance of procuring only ecolabelled products	Director General of Supplies and Disposals, DRDO etc.

IV Energy Availability & Efficiency

Activities	Process	Target Group
Identification of alternatives for energy production and transmission	Undertaking research to document and analyse various alternatives that are available including renewable energy areas
Information dissemination	Awareness campaign, reader friendly manuals etc.	Government officials, media, civil society Joyce – Mertz Gilmore Foundation
Advocating with the government for an environment friendly energy policy	Using the window available in the draft regulations of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission	Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, State Electricity Boards