Page 159 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

142 L.A. Reisch and S. Bietz

In Germany, for instance, the importance of private consumption for the
development of a more ‘sustainable Germany’ has been a topic of discussion inside
expert circles since about the mid-1990s. Consumer and environmental advocacy
groups, through conferences and action campaigns, were the first to attempt to
popularise the idea of sustainable consumption. While concepts such as curbing
climate change, rescuing the rain forests and saving energy have meanwhile been
mainstreamed in most European societies – and are even used as ‘good causes’ in
cause-related marketing by businesses – the consumer movement is still the key
driver, both in its breadth and depth, for sustainable or ‘strategic’ consumption. In
addition to traditional modes of communication, activists and advocacy groups are
making increasing use of interactive communication paths and new media such as
social networks and other Web 2.0 applications to reach their publics (Hinton 2009;
Repo et al. 2009). As opposed to traditional one-way ‘expert to consumer’ com-
munication, the latter allow for instant reaction, multi-sender communication, and
consumer-produced up-to-date content and participatory approaches, empowering
consumers and promoting consumer interest with a formerly unknown momentum
(Reisch 2010).
The perception of the importance of consumers as powerful agents of change, in
both politics and research, has fundamentally changed as engaged consumers are
seen as a source of creativity, competence, seriousness and potential pressure. The
share of organic, fair trade and sustainable products in the market is now growing.
Only a decade ago, consumption was not seen as a relevant topic for either politics
or economic research. Traditionally, economic, environmental and even develop-
ment policy research focused on the company, on production processes and on the
value chain. The extension of interest to the demand side of the market and ‘sustain-
able production and consumption patterns’ was long overdue and a welcome new
perspective (Reisch et al. 2010).
Consumption can be defined as a complex multi-level process of acquisition,
use and disposal of co-production and self-production in households and social
networks. It has now become a relevant dimension of sustainability politics. Today
the promotion of sustainable consumption and production patterns is internation-
ally established as a research field and is starting to be institutionalized in the form
of university chairs, research institutes, university courses and research pro-
grammes. In the political sphere – stimulated by international conferences from
Rio to Marrakech to Copenhagen – sustainable consumption has gradually been
accepted as an area of political activity on all levels, from regional, national,
European to international and supranational. In summer 2008, the European
Commission (2008) published an ‘Action Plan on Sustainable Consumption and
Production’ (SCP). Its main target is to arrange a dynamic framework to improve
the energy and environmental performance of products and encourage their uptake
by consumers. The Action Plan consists of three parts: smarter consumption and
environmentally better products, leaner production and global markets for sustain-
able products. The character of the Action Plan is that of a ‘communication’ of
proposed measures and activities, which are then to be implemented by specific
actions, as stipulated by directives and regulations. Member states have started – and