250
products are most healthy and which technical
products consume least energy, signed by labels
stuck onto the products. Examples are widespread, a clothing factory, for example, encouraged people not to by its products if they do not
need them. The products can be purchased in secondary form (organised by the clothing factory)
in order to reduce environmental load. With calling for attention to the environmental load of
products companies strengthened the loyalty of
“green consumers” was strengthened and probably “counter-propaganda” will a success in the
long-term.
Numerous civil movements and groups exist
that encourage people of changing their consumption habits (meat-free days, less processed
food, etc.). There are no reliable data on the
global effects of these movements and groups,
but their beneficial environmental effects cannot
be debated.
According to the supporters of degrowth,
with the fairer distribution of tax load, global
income could be decreased to a lower level that
would reduce consumption as well. This process would have ecological and economic benefits as well and would be favourable for the
society as well. In a fairer society violent crime
is rarer, illiterate people are less in number as
well. People are healthier while pregnancy is
less frequent among teenagers (Wilkinson and
Pickett 2009).
Economy should be steered towards completeness. The “economy of completeness” means
that more people provide themselves via various
formal and informal activities, i.e., producing
food and craftsman products for both own use
and sale and use household devices for longer
time periods and do not throw away them while
they can be repaired. The higher degree of selfsustaining is achieved, the less money will have
to be earned to reproduce the living standard
(Schor 1999, 2010). Multi-generation households
are also of high value. Movements like Transition
Cities and Ecovillages have important roles in
shaping the economy of completeness. Their primary aim is to reduce collective energy utilisation and build the economy and food production
on local resources.
Authors of the present book think that although
numerous targets were set by the degrowth theory, there are non-realistic ones among them,
therefore the realisation of the whole idea is
doubtful. Changing consumer customs is easy
nowhere, especially in developed countries.
Among others, people will give up hardly the
usual highly processed semi-prepared and prepared food that can be consumed right away or
within a few minutes. In order to change consumer habits widely higher level of environmental awareness would be necessary even in
developed countries as well. For this the global
education system is also to be changed fundamentally (Sect. 6.2). If this could be realised still,
it would take several generations till consumers
limit voluntarily their own consumption in the
interest of a global target. Realising the “economy of completeness” is even more problematic.
Around 70-80% of the population live in cities in
developed countries where somewhat selfsustaining lifestyle cannot be realised technically
either. Most people living in such conditions
would assess this ambition of creating the economy of completeness as a step back into the past.
This could be realised easier in poor and developing countries with fragmented land structure;
however, in most of these countries, the reduction
of consumption is not an aim.
Population growth and increasing demand for
raw material and energy resources make resources
gradually scanty while environmental effects
grow due to growing production and consumption. Reducing these global environmental effects
could be facilitated by the spreading of circular
economy. Geissdoerfer et al. (2017) indicate that
the introduction of circular economy was made
by Pearce and Turner (1990). The number of articles published regarding the topic increased rapidly from 2013 (Brennan 2000; Allwood 2014;
Lieder and Rashid 2016), especially many
Chinese scientists deal with the topic (Su et al.
2013; Geng et al. 2013; Ma et al. 2014; Geng
et al. 2016; Jiao and Boons 2017).
Circular economy is a production and consumption model that aims to prolong the life
cycle of products as much as possible with reusing bundles (packaging material, bottles, cases,
6 Steps Towards Realising Global Sustainable Development
products are most healthy and which technical
products consume least energy, signed by labels
stuck onto the products. Examples are widespread, a clothing factory, for example, encouraged people not to by its products if they do not
need them. The products can be purchased in secondary form (organised by the clothing factory)
in order to reduce environmental load. With calling for attention to the environmental load of
products companies strengthened the loyalty of
“green consumers” was strengthened and probably “counter-propaganda” will a success in the
long-term.
Numerous civil movements and groups exist
that encourage people of changing their consumption habits (meat-free days, less processed
food, etc.). There are no reliable data on the
global effects of these movements and groups,
but their beneficial environmental effects cannot
be debated.
According to the supporters of degrowth,
with the fairer distribution of tax load, global
income could be decreased to a lower level that
would reduce consumption as well. This process would have ecological and economic benefits as well and would be favourable for the
society as well. In a fairer society violent crime
is rarer, illiterate people are less in number as
well. People are healthier while pregnancy is
less frequent among teenagers (Wilkinson and
Pickett 2009).
Economy should be steered towards completeness. The “economy of completeness” means
that more people provide themselves via various
formal and informal activities, i.e., producing
food and craftsman products for both own use
and sale and use household devices for longer
time periods and do not throw away them while
they can be repaired. The higher degree of selfsustaining is achieved, the less money will have
to be earned to reproduce the living standard
(Schor 1999, 2010). Multi-generation households
are also of high value. Movements like Transition
Cities and Ecovillages have important roles in
shaping the economy of completeness. Their primary aim is to reduce collective energy utilisation and build the economy and food production
on local resources.
Authors of the present book think that although
numerous targets were set by the degrowth theory, there are non-realistic ones among them,
therefore the realisation of the whole idea is
doubtful. Changing consumer customs is easy
nowhere, especially in developed countries.
Among others, people will give up hardly the
usual highly processed semi-prepared and prepared food that can be consumed right away or
within a few minutes. In order to change consumer habits widely higher level of environmental awareness would be necessary even in
developed countries as well. For this the global
education system is also to be changed fundamentally (Sect. 6.2). If this could be realised still,
it would take several generations till consumers
limit voluntarily their own consumption in the
interest of a global target. Realising the “economy of completeness” is even more problematic.
Around 70-80% of the population live in cities in
developed countries where somewhat selfsustaining lifestyle cannot be realised technically
either. Most people living in such conditions
would assess this ambition of creating the economy of completeness as a step back into the past.
This could be realised easier in poor and developing countries with fragmented land structure;
however, in most of these countries, the reduction
of consumption is not an aim.
Population growth and increasing demand for
raw material and energy resources make resources
gradually scanty while environmental effects
grow due to growing production and consumption. Reducing these global environmental effects
could be facilitated by the spreading of circular
economy. Geissdoerfer et al. (2017) indicate that
the introduction of circular economy was made
by Pearce and Turner (1990). The number of articles published regarding the topic increased rapidly from 2013 (Brennan 2000; Allwood 2014;
Lieder and Rashid 2016), especially many
Chinese scientists deal with the topic (Su et al.
2013; Geng et al. 2013; Ma et al. 2014; Geng
et al. 2016; Jiao and Boons 2017).
Circular economy is a production and consumption model that aims to prolong the life
cycle of products as much as possible with reusing bundles (packaging material, bottles, cases,
6 Steps Towards Realising Global Sustainable Development