Addressing unsustainable patterns of consumption is a crucial challenge for OECD Member countries in tackling environmental problems. However, measures to influence consumer demand have, in the past, received less attention than measures to influence production patterns. This progress report...

Making consumption patterns sustainable is a prerequisite to achieve the goal of sustainable development. Ten years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it is time to ask: are OECD countries moving towards sustainable consumption? What are the best policy options to effectively promote...

In 2010, the OECD’s Committee on Consumer Policy published a Consumer Policy Toolkit, which provides a framework for developing and implementing effective consumer policies (OECD, 2010). The report notes that industry self-regulation (ISR) can play an important role in addressing consumer...

Voluntary approaches are schemes whereby firms make commitments to improve their environmental performance.They cover arrangements such as public voluntary programmes, negotiated agreements or unilateral commitments. Until recently, voluntary approaches have not been subject to systematic...