The United Nations have recognized the importance of fostering sustainable consumption by making this topic one of the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time the status quo about sustainable consumption is ambivalent: While there exists a wide range of initiatives that seek to transform consumptions patters, particularly consumers living in the developed countries are far from conducting their lives sustainably.
Against this background the German Federal Government is developing a programme to foster sustainable consumption. Today it hosts a conference about Sustainable Consumption in Germany at which corner stones of the programme will be presented and it will be discussed how the programmes’ objectives should be implemented. In addition to German Federal Minister for the Environment, Dr Barbara Hendricks, and Secretary of State, Gerd Billen from the Federal German Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection, representatives from academia, business and civil society participate in the discussion. Con-Policy Director Prof Dr Christian moderates the conference.