Production and consumption

It is becoming increasingly clear: in order to tackle the current environmental problems we must change our production and consumption patterns. Encouraging supply and demand of environmentally friendly products is one of the ways to achieve this. Besides producers, consumers and other parties, the distribution sector plays a key role in this.

Research shows that close and effective cooperation between distribution, production and consumer organisations, among others, can and must contribute to improvement in this area. The government plays an important coordinating and stimulating role in this. Past actions also show that positive intentions to cooperate are present in different layers of society. These parties have been brought together in the Social Forum on Environmentally Responsible Consumption.

Through carefully planned pilot projects we want to organise the intended cooperation in practice. With those experiences we will develop a broadly based plan of action to upscale the most successful initiatives in Flanders. The ultimate goal is a larger-scale cooperation with long-term objectives.

With a call, we invited companies and organisations to commit themselves to this innovative approach. We directed this call especially to the distribution and production sectors, consumer organisations, environmental NGOs and other interested parties. This is an opportunity to participate in a unique and innovative project, through which you will be able to show yourself as a forerunner in the process towards more sustainable production and consumption.

Do you have a good idea for a pilot project for Environmentally Responsible Consumption and wish to develop a proposal, or are you interested in collaborating? Do not hesitate to contact us. OVAM will provide professional support. Please send your response as soon as possible (preferably by 1 August) to BECO, who have been appointed by OVAM to guide the process. Developed project proposals are expected by 1 October 2008 at the latest.

For more information on this approach you can consult the publication "Analysis of innovative environmental policy instruments towards the realisation of environmentally responsible production and consumption" .