Reduced consumption and production of goods and services sustainably form part of the goals of UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 also known as SDG 12, which came into force in 2015. This goal is vital to general developmental sustenance since it considers the optimum depletion of basic endowment, the lessening of waste, and the creation of a healthier economy. Therefore, it is possible to state that the recognition of the role and activities within the framework of the SDG 12 has to become the step towards the formation of the sustainable world.
Understanding SDG 12
SDG 12 focuses on sustainably consumption and production; this means MINING and USING of products without DISHING THE EARTHSYSTEM ECOLOGY and exhausting the natural resources or fuelling injustice to other persons. The goal pertains to a number of outcomes and objectives and mainly aimed at the enhancement of resource and energy savings, sustainable infrastructure development, and access to necessary services and green jobs. It makes industries, business entities and customers embrace their sustainable development policies, thus lowering their impact on the natural environment while pursuing economic opportunities for the growth of all stakeholders.
Key Targets and Indicators
- Efficient Resource Use: The first of the targets set in relation to the 12th SDG is transition to sustainable management of resources and efficient use of non-renewable resources by the year 2030. This entails developing strategies for use in managing organization resources so that it is possible to achieve higher levels of productivity without polluting the environment.
- Sustainable Management of Chemicals and Waste:It is planned to reduce the amount of dangerous chemicals released into the air, water, and soil by 2020 while also taking care to ensure that products are made with chemicals that are transferred through their life cycles in an environmentally sound manner. External and social responsibility of this target, this is achieved to minimize the negative effects of hazardous chemicals and wastes on human life and the ecological system. This has been further extended.
- Reducing Waste Generation: The targets for sustainable consumption and production set for the year 2030 is to significantly increase recycle, reduce and reuse minimizing waste generation. This includes supporting the ideas of circular economy, where products and materials are utilized improving their utilization and working time, before recovery and preparation for reuse.
- Encouraging Sustainable Practices: Another key outcome is promoting companies’ inclusion of sustainability information into their reporting cycle, especially the large and transnational corporations. This has assisted in improving transparency and accountability so that cooperate governance and the environment is enhanced.
- Sustainable Public Procurement: It is important to encourage using, at the national level, of sustainable procurement practices, aligned with national policies and strategic development patterns. Governments can support the expansion of green procurement by exercising purchasing power so as to stimulate the green market.
- Awareness and Education: Preventing unnecessarily wasted resources, fostering awareness in other populations around the world and ensuring by 2030 that every person on this planet knows what sustainable development and lifestyle supported by nature means is critical. Awareness creation and education efforts can motivate consumers to seek eco-friendly products and to force companies to embrace environmental friendly production methods.
Sustainable consumption and production
It is the base of the sustainable development. They contribute to solving the main issues of our time, including climate change, the destruction of global bio-diversity, and social injustice. Sustainable business, organizations, and industries will save resources, and at the same time, decrease the emission of bad outputs in the environment; in addition, it will create employment opportunities. Sustainable consumption patterns can yield from improved health, reduced waste and pollution in an effort to promote wellness.
Implementation Strategies
As highlighted in this paper, the realization of SDG 12 will call for everyone’s contribution from the governments through corporate and individual consumers. Here are some strategies for implementing sustainable consumption and production patterns:
- Policy and Regulatory Frameworks: Global governments have to develop good policies and legal requirements that will support sustainability. This involves putting down guidelines for resource utilisation, waste disposal, and the conservation of the natural environment. The following are also other key aspects of sustainability, for example, financial and monetary policies that support sustainability can include offering tax credit to green businesses, subsidies among others etc.
- Corporate Responsibility: Businesses therefore hold a very central part in the implementation of SDG 12. They can therefore cope with the environmental challenges and impact as well as grow their economies. There is a need to have Corporate Social Responsibility and standardized supply chain to track the performance.
- Technological Innovation: This suggests that investment in technological change is critical in improving resource utilisation and minimising waste. Future technologies, for instance, the renewable resource, energy efficient production methods, and eco-friendly raw materials can remarkably decrease the strain on the environment.
- Consumer Awareness: Consumers when informed and when encouraged to make the right choices in this direction, will embrace the use of sustainable products. Media efforts such as awareness campaigns, eco-labelling and endorsing sustainability in lifestyle change will help affect consumer behaviour.
- Collaboration and Partnerships: To attain the achievement of SDG 12, government, business, and civil society players must cooperate. The strategic alliances between the different stakeholders may address the challenges through resource integration, knowledge and networks.
Challenges and Opportunities
While the pursuit of sustainable consumption and production patterns presents numerous challenges, it also offers significant opportunities:
Challenges
- Resistance to Change: One of the major problems is that the change processes, which go in the sphere of business-to-consumer relations, encounter resistance. It can be a long process to change to sustainable practices,both in terms of time and money, and sometimes people just do not know the rules or are not willing.
- Economic Constraints: Restrained economic capabilities may also be a reality in the developing world inhibiting their ability to venture into green innovation. Storing economic progress with emphasizing sustainability objectives may not always be easy.
Opportunities
- Economic Growth: Later on, it was established that sustainable practices are capable of generating new forms of revenues, trade, markets, and employment. Innovative capacity as well as entrepreneurial opportunities for economic growth exist in green economy.
- Environmental Benefits: They include; cutting down on resource use which controls climate change, preserving the ecosystem to prevent despoliation, and decreasing emissions of pollution.
- Social Well-being: SPC supports social well-being through consumption and production patterns that make them more healthful, working conditions, and lessening social inequality.
The greatly important goal of developing sustainable consumption and sustainable production is crucial in achieving comprehensive sustainable development. This paper discusses the positive roles of sustainable development in that they help to conserve the environment, spur economic development and improve social welfare. However, there are also promising prospects with which it is possible to build the future of sustainable development. There are various steps that, together with the collective work and joint action of all citizens, can help to coordinate consumption and production with the need for sustainable development for future generations.
India's Progress towards Fulfilling SDG 12
The third goal of the UN’s post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda is focused on sustainable consumption and production. With a population in Billions, India has not been left behind in this process of attaining this goal. As part of this study, India’s endeavours and efforts towards catering to requirement of SDG 12 are brought to light along with the existing opportunities and prospects.
Policy Framework and Initiatives
The government of India has put a very strong policy regime in place for sustainable consumption and production. There are various policies, strategies and activities drawn by the government that are intending towards minimizing wastage and maximizing resource utilisation. Some of the key initiatives include:
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission): This was launched in 2014 as a nationwide campaign against open defecation and poor solid waste disposal. The mission hitherto has been implemented through construction of millions of toilets and waste management infrastructure in the country.
- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (Ujjwala Scheme): As per this scheme the LPG connections are given to the women of BPL families who still use traditional stoves plains like wood and coal which causes deforestation and pollution.
- National Policy on Biofuels: This strategy was implemented in 2018 for the purpose of guaranteeing that people switch to the usage of biofuels as opposed to fossil fuels. It is aimed at increasing consumption and production of bio fuels, thus cutting greenhouse emissions and supporting sustainable energy policy.
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): The government of the day has put measures that make the producer bear the cost of managing the whole life cycle of his products, disposal of waste inclusive. It promotes the development of new products that can be recycled, and reduces on the overall production of wastes.
Progress and Achievements
In the index SDG India 2023-24 it has been seen that India has done much better towards the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 12. The country’s progress in SDGscore was from 57 in the SDG 2018 to 71 SDG 2023-24 in aspects of sustainable consumption and production.
Some key achievements include:
- Reduction in Hazardous Waste: Between 2000 and 2019, the amount of hazardous trash generated per person decreased from 6.8 kg to 6.2 kg. The percentage of hazardous waste handled or disposed of increased from 90.3 percent in 2016 to 94.7 percent in 2019.
- Sustainable Public Procurement: It also pointed out that the government has been focusing on encouraging greener procurement within projects by selecting ‘green’ products and services in projects financed by the government. This approach contributes to the development of market for green products and decreases the negative effects of private consumption in the environment.
- Awareness and Education: Different awareness creation and education programs have been initiated to make the populace change their consumption and production patterns in favour of sustainable usage. These efforts are set out to compel consumers into making green decisions and organizations into going green.
- Corporate Responsibility: CSR (cooperate social responsibility) policies regarding sustainability have become popular with many Indian organizations have adopted them. Targets they are funding include: clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).
Challenges and Opportunities
Although the situation in India has improved in many areas the following barriers can still be identified in reaching the goal set by SDG 12:
- Economic Constraints: The use of sustainable technologies and practices is very expensive and most developing countries such as India cannot afford to embrace the technology due to finance. But the problem remains that developing countries have less financial power to invest in technologies and practices that are sustainable. Sustainability may be a good thing, but putting it together with economic development may be a tough nut to crack.
- Resistance to Change: Both business and consumers have always remarked ways in which they resist change. Change requires resources to implement, and many business and consumers may not be willing to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.
- Policy Implementation: It is very important to correctly enforce policies and regulations in order to support the accomplishment of SDG 12. It is even complicated to enforce compliance and track progress due to the complexity of the country and the population’s diversification in India.
However, there are major prospects for India to build up the further steps toward SDG 12 implementation. These opportunities include:
- Technological Innovation: Technology can be used to improve the usage of resources and minimize wastage though more investment on it. There is certainly much that can be done to lessen the environmental impact of manufacturing with the aid of advanced technologies including, renewable power, efficient production processes and eco-friendly material.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Public-private partnership refers to the government, private entities, and civil society in achieving efficient utilization of resources, knowledge, and contacts in advancing sustainable processes in various fields. In this sense, these partnerships can be useful to avoid economic limitations and to achieve the sustainable development.
- Consumer Awareness: By creating awareness among its consumers as to why they should change their habits towards sustainable consumption, it will be possible to promote sales of such sustainable products. Promotion and information raising, labelling and sustainability campaigns and programs can affect the consumers’ behaviour.
India has made considerable progress toward achieve the SDG 12 and several programs have been implemented that focuses the sustainable consumption and production practices. There are, still, some issues to address, however, the potential future development is virtually limitless. While making the consumers aware regarding sustainable environment, focusing over public private partnership and expanding investment on technological advancement, India can surely come along way to sustainability and help in creating sustainable environment for the entire world. By turbulent and coordinated means, the resources’ per capita US consumption and production pattern can be aligned to the sustainable generic template for India as well as other countries for benefit of this and the successive generations.