The definition of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) has evolved through time but can best be understood in basic terms as the concept of producing and using resources without risking its depletion and endangering access for future generations. SCP is an important aspect of sustainability.
The dominant SCP framework is limited to addressing only the economic and environmental pillars of sustainable development while ignoring social issues. This leads to an approach that focuses too much on resource efficiency and technological solutions while disregarding social inequalities underpinning unsustainable consumption and production patterns.
A people-powered SCP framework puts people’s rights at the center of the whole production and consumption chain, stressing that every aspect of the system should be guided by the concept and principles of people’s rights – from the extraction of raw materials up to the consumption of commodities and services.
This means that the key point for PPSCP is not merely whether the perceived needs of the market are met through ecologically efficient production, but whether people’s rights and welfare are ensured, upheld and protected throughout the whole process.
PPSCP means that the principles of the right to development and all human rights that comprise it should be upheld. PPSCP fills in this gap by asserting that the production and consumption of commodities must also answer the question of not just whether the extraction of raw materials are done responsibly in relation to environmental standards but whether such extraction is allowed in the first place by affected communities through a democratic decision-making process and if they truly benefit from it.
PPSCP promotes the maximum possible self-sufficiency of communities and nations in meeting their own needs through the exercise of people’s sovereignty over the sustainable management and utilization of their own resources.
Communities have the biggest incentives to innovate because they have the biggest stake in SCP, namely, the realization of their collective rights and aspirations; whereas corporate innovations for SCP are largely motivated and at the same time restricted by private financial gains. Community-led PPSCP initiatives must therefore be supported and encouraged at all costs amid a global climate of repression led by the state and big corporations.
Using a rights-based approach means demanding and ensuring accountability from governments and corporations for the violation of people’s rights, such as the right to development, because of government policies and programs or business operations.
