ABSTRACT
Twenty per cent of the world's population use an estimated 80 per cent of the world's resources. Such inequality can not continue. Current patterns of resource use ‘would push the world beyond what is sustainable; so either the developing world has to be held back or the developed world has to find ways to sustain current standards of living using far fewer resources’ (UK House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs, 1998). A working definition of sustainable consumption is ‘the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials, as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations’ (Ministry of the Environment, Norway, 1994).
