UNEP Global Outlook surveyon SCP policies

Defra - the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

1. Overview

Development of SCP strategy

Soon after the commitments on SCP which were made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the UK Government decided to develop a framework of national activity on sustainable consumption and production.

The rationale for this was set out in an innovative report, Changing Patterns - the UK Government Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production (2003). This emphasised the need to reform current trends of consumption and production, which are beyond the planet’s capacity to absorb pollution and provide natural resources. It established the policy aim of ‘decoupling’ - that is, breaking the link between economic growth and environmental degradation. It was a joint publication by the ministries covering the environment, enterprise and innovation. From the start, therefore, policy on SCP has involved a close cooperation between the environment and economic departments of state.

The rationale was developed further and described in the UK Sustainable Development Strategy Securing the Future (2005). The key chapter on SCP has the title ‘One-Planet Economy’, which gives a good indication of the underlying thinking. And, at a practical level, the strategy indicated how the SCP agenda would be taken forward in practice. It set out how actions would be mobilised around three main themes - production, products and consumption patterns.

Development of an overall SCP programme

Since 2005, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) worked to bring together and coordinate the many separate activities and projects which can contribute to SCP. From 2007 this was organised as a high-profile programme within the management structure of the Department.

The governance of the SCP Programme has been overseen by a Programme Board, with members from relevant ministries and from related government programmes. Activity has been organised into a number of workstreams, operating under a single framework of programme and project management.

An evidence-based approach

Good evidence and research supports the whole direction of the SCP Programme. There is a strong guiding principle that all policies developed on SCP in the UK should be soundly based on evidence and, in particular, on ‘whole lifecycle’ thinking. There is a now an extensive body of evidence studies and reports, which continues to grow.

Essentially, the SCP evidence programme is about improving the ways we can measure and address the impacts of consumption and production. The measurement theme includes work on cross-cutting tools such as ecological footprinting, material-flow analysis, life-cycle assessment and indicators for SCP; and also on more specific tools such as developing methodologies for measuring the carbon footprint of products across their whole life-cycle. Other research work supports the thematic areas of sustainable products and services; business resource efficiency; and the understanding of consumption behaviour and how it can be influenced.

The vision behind this work is that good evidence both enables and helps to drive environmental improvement. The aim is therefore to share the results widely with stakeholders and decision-makers in the UK and internationally.

Support for the development of SCP programmes in other countries

The UK was pleased to provide financial support to enable the production of UNEP guidance on the development of a national SCP programme. This was published in 2008 under the title Planning for Change - Guidelines for National Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. The guidelines show how national governments can plan, develop, implement and monitor a national SCP programme. There are also nine case studies which illustrate how governments are actually approaching this in different parts of the world - in Argentina, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Finland, Jamaica, Japan, Senegal and Thailand, as well as the UK.

Defra has also been keen to maintain bilateral contacts with countries interested in sharing experience on the principles and practicalities of developing a programme of SCP activities at national level. There have been structured discussions as well as study visits, involving several countries, including some of those in the UK’s initiative on Sustainable Development Dialogues.

2. Thematic areas within Defra’s SCP programme

A. Production - cleaner, more resource-efficient, innovative and competitive

The work programme relating to sustainable production covers a variety of activities:

  • Some of these activities are concerned with the tools and frameworks which can be used by businesses and other organisations wishing to become more sustainable - for example, in the fields of corporate responsibility, reporting and disclosure, and management systems.
  • There have also been funded programmes, through which Defra’s delivery partners work with businesses to promote greater resource efficiency and to reduce waste and emissions.
  • Other activities are intended to stimulate eco-innovation, in order to seize the economic opportunities from moving towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy.

1. Tools - measurement and reporting initiatives

In 2006, Defra published Environmental Reporting Guidelines which help businesses to identify and address their most significant environmental impacts. The guidelines include 22 suggested ‘key performance indicators’ (KPIs) for companies to consider when measuring and reporting their environmental performance, and when setting future targets.

In 2009, Defra also published (in partnership with the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change)specific guidance on measuring and reportinggreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The guidance is aimed at all sizes of business, as well as public organisations and civil society organisations.

2. Resource efficiency

Between 2005 and 2008, various forms of support to business on resource efficiency were provided through the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) programme. The programme was established to return to business £284 million raised over that period through the landfill tax. The funding channelled through several of the Government’s ‘delivery partners’ or programmes, including theWaste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Envirowise, the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP), the Carbon Trust, the Construction and Resources Waste Programme (CRWP) and the Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse (CRR).

Following a review of these arrangements, from 2010 Defra’s support for business resource efficiency is being focussed through a single delivery body (the Waste and Resources Action Programme, WRAP) working with industry, local authorities, government departments and consumers. Greater emphasis is being put on more sustainable product and process design, to minimise the use of resources in the early stages of the life cycle. The priorities for the programme in future will be:

  • Resource-efficient design and waste minimisation
  • Business resource efficiency
  • Developing and sustaining markets for recycled and reusable products and materials
  • Diverting commercial and domestic waste from landfill.

There is good evidence of the benefits from this programme, for example:

  • Estimates from 2006-07 indicate that work done by WRAP, NISP and Envirowise generated benefits of more than £0.5 billion annually, by helping to overcome the barriers which prevent firms taking measures to improve resource efficiency.
  • Engagement with a small number of large businesses in the construction sector has secured commitments to halve the waste going to landfill on major construction contracts (with a project value of about £11 billion) by the end of 2009. The benefits include landfill diverted, carbon savings, energy cost savings, sales growth, raw material savings, water use reduced or avoided, and hazardous waste savings.

3. Eco-innovation

In 2006, the UK Government set up aCommission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance, to advise on how to maximise the potential economic benefits of the transition to a lowcarbon, sustainable economy. The Commission’s report (2007) made many concrete recommendations and in 2008 the Government set out an approach - in Building a low carbon economy: unlocking innovation and skills - towards promoting low-carbon and resource-efficient products, processes, services and business models in the UK market.

Estimates for 2008/09 indicate that low-carbon goods and services and other environmental goods and services were worth £112 billion in the UK - and employed about 900,000 people.

B. Products and services - better at meeting consumer needs, but with lower impacts

In 2007-08, Defra strengthened the emphasis on its product-related work and published a Progress Report on Sustainable Products and Materials (2008) - presenting a clear rationale for sustainable product policies, describing what had been done so far, and setting out future plans.

The work which has been taken forward falls into three main areas:

  • A strong focus on energy-using products. The UK has been building up knowledge and action programmes in this area for about 15years, through its Market Transformation Programme. This continues to be a key area of activity, with a busy work programme at EU level under the framework directive which governs this family of products.
  • Building on the long experience of working with energy-using products, there have been initiatives to address a wider set of product types; and to do so across a wider range of environmental impacts. The approach has been piloted in a number of product areas which have significant impacts at various stages of their life-cycle. A “product roadmap” approach has been developed for about 10 types of product - sharing evidence with key stakeholders, identifying improvement opportunities and agreeing new commitments across government and business.
  • In addition to these sector-specific approaches, there are a number of ‘cross-cutting’ tools which aim to support shifts in the environmental performance of products in the market. Some key examples of these tools are the use of government procurement standards; the development of ecological assessment methods; and the framework for responsible ‘green marketing’.

1. Energy-using products

Products and equipment which use energy, such as white goods, lighting, televisions and electric motors, contribute significantly to the UK’s carbon emissions: around half of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions result from the use of energy-using products, in our homes, offices and industries. By phasing out the worst products from the market, and promoting the market uptake of the best products, it is possible to reduce these emissions significantly - and at the same time to reduce energy bills.

There are various types of activities and interventions which can help to achieve these benefits - some of which are being coordinated at the level of the EU single market, others through national action which is coordinated by Defra through its Market Transformation Programme.

This is an ambitious programme of work and a great deal of detail, across all the major product categories, can be found in the paper Saving energy through better products and appliances (the latest publication is from 2009 - but this will be updated). As this analysis shows, the current and projected policies are expected to deliver substantial carbon savings (in the order of 24 MtCO2 per year) and economic savings(with a net benefit of about £28 billion) over the next 10 years. But there is still considerable potential to increase these projected savings further, by advancing the takeup of best available technologies and influencing consumer behaviours.

As well its strong focus on energy-using products at national and EU level, the UK has played a very active partin international collaborationin this field. A notable success has been the Task Force on Sustainable Products which the UK led under the UN Marrakech Process. This helped to build up international cooperation into what is now a formal implementing agreement being coordinated under the authority of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

2. Product Roadmaps

Since 2007-08 Defra has been working with industry partners to pilot ‘product roadmaps’ - aiming to make real sustainability improvements in 10 high-impact product groups. In each area, working in a voluntary collaboration, the roadmap process sets out to:

  • establish a shared evidence base for the impacts that occur across the product’s life cycle
  • identify the existing actions being taken to address those impacts
  • develop and implement a voluntary action plan to address any gaps.

Full details for each of the 10 product areas are available on-line (see previous link) and are updated as the roadmaps progress. A good example is the sustainable clothing roadmap:

A review of the benefits of the roadmap approach, and the lessons learned from the pilots as a whole, will be completed in 2011.

3. Cross-cutting tools

Sustainable public procurement

Defra’s work on sustainable public purchasing aims not only to demonstrate how the public sector can ‘lead by example’ on sustainable behaviour across civil society; but also to give strong signals to the supply side of the market about more sustainable standards for products and services.

Working together with industry and with experts across the public sector, Defra leads on the development ofGovernment Buying Standards to steer the purchasing power of the public sector. The aim is to support green growth by encouraging green technologies, promoting innovation, working with small businesses and protecting the environment - at the same time as delivering good value for money. The standards include:

  • official specifications which all government buyers must follow when procuring a (growing) range of products
  • information about sustainable procurement and how to implement it in practice
  • direct links to web-sites with lists of products that meet the standards.

Defra guidance published in 2010 helps to show how sustainable procurement is applied in the context of sustainable operations more widely across the UK Government.

Methods for product assessment and benchmarking

A very helpful development since WSSD in 2002 has been the increasing activity at EU and global level to develop methods and data sources to support the ecological assessment of products. The ability to measure and benchmark the performance of products is crucial to getting sustainability embedded as a feature of market competition. But the process of establishing standard measurements and methodologies can be complex and resource-intensive, so the sharing of responsibility across institutions and business sectors is very important.

One of the ways in which the UK has contributed to this wider effort is in the pioneering of methodologies for the ‘carbon footprinting’ of products and services. The process of developing a standard measurement method was led by the British Standards Institution (BSI) with support from Defra and the Carbon Trust. The ‘publicly available specification’ (PAS 2050) was launched in 2008 and has attracted wide interest among businesses and among the community of policy-makers and standards experts internationally. The UK is encouraging this wider engagement in EU and international fora, and there is every indication that the practice of carbon footprinting will become much more widespread through global supply chains over the coming years.

There is encouraging evidence on the uptake of PAS 20050 so far. Since the methodology was launched in 2008, the UK’s Carbon Trust and its partners have completed more than 60 carbon footprinting projects worldwide; and more than 5,000 individual product lines have been ‘footprinted’.

Defra is currently supporting a review of the initial standard, in which BSI will consider whether improvements to the method can be made in the light of business experience and feedback, and of developments in other countries.

Green claims and marketing

In addition to promoting robust standards for regulated or third-party product labelling, Defra has been active in promoting good standards for ‘green claims’ and other self-declared forms of green marketing. These are the most common types of environmental communication to consumers in the UK market, so there are benefits in getting a greater share of commercial spending on advertising (about £20 billion annually) to be directed towards environmental messaging - providing this is done in a way that is fair and helpful to consumers.

The UK’s Green Claims Code was last updated in 2002, supplemented by more detailed practical guidance in 2003.

In the light of extensive new research and public consultation in 2009 and 2010, Defra is now working on a complete update of the guidance to businesses and advertising professionals. The aim is to support businesses in making good environmental claims, at the same time as protecting consumers from unfair marketing (and protecting responsible businesses from unfair competition).

The new guidance will be published early in 2011. Meanwhile the research and the draft guidance can be found on-line:

C. Consumption - understanding and influencing behaviour

The Framework for ProEnvironmental Behaviours

For several years, Defra has been working to develop a much more sophisticated picture of what motivates and influences consumption behaviour.

As a follow-up to the UK’s post-WSSD report in 2003 (Changing Patterns - the UK Government Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production) a dedicated Roundtable was set up to take a fresh and in-depth look at the challenges of sustainable consumption. The Roundtable’s report ‘Iwill if you will’ was published May 2006 with a wide range of recommendations for actions and policies to support a shift to more sustainable lifestyles.

A major step forward was the publication of Defra’s Framework for ProEnvironmental Behaviours in 2008. It was developed with the help and advice of a wide range of experts, Defra delivery partners and other stakeholders. It draws on a wide body of evidence to set out a new approach towards citizen engagement.

The Research:

The Framework:

Important features of this approach are the prioritisation of a set of key environmental behaviours and a model of ‘segmentation’. Together these can be used to target specific behaviours in specific segments of the population. The Framework covers:

  • A set of core principles and approaches for encouraging more environmentally friendly behaviour;
  • A set of 12 headline behaviour goals, covering the main areas of consumption: food and drink, personal travel, homes and household products, and travel tourism;
  • Consumer insight and evidence base: including an assessment of what kinds of actions people are already taking and their relative ability and willingness to do more;
  • An environmental segmentation model that divides the public into seven clusters, each sharing a distinct set of attitudes and beliefs towards the environment;
  • An assessment of the implications of this evidence and understanding for policy development and implementation, including the design of communications and marketing tools.

The Centre of Expertise on Influencing Behaviours