Welcome to the Bulletin Board on "Changing Consumption and Production Patterns"! This page provides selected information on projects, initiatives, suggestions, and ideas for making consumption and production patterns more sustainable.

If you have any information on innovative policy instruments, new publications, meetings, events or websites related to "Changing Consumption and Production Patterns", a relevant business initiative, or any other idea or suggestion, do not hesitate to make it available to us.

If we consider that the information is of general interest, we will post it on this page, or elsewhere on the Consumption and Production website. This Bulletin Board will be updated on a quarterly or bi-monthly basis depending on the availability of resources. You can access back issues of the bulletin at the bottom of this page.

Please send your inputs to Oleg Dzioubinski, Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations, Two UN Plaza, Room DC2-2284, New York, NY 10017, USA, tel.: +1 212 963 1859, fax: +1 212 963 4260, e-mail: dzioubinski@un.org

A website developed by UNEP serves as a forum for sustainable production and consumption of agricultural products and food.

A study by a research group in Sweden presents a survey of data for estimating energy requirements in the food sector.

The first group of timber producers in Russia has been approved as environmentally sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council.

A website developed by the Green Design Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University allows users to estimate the overall environmental impacts from the production of various commodities and services.

New standards for household appliances in the United States will improve their efficiency, reduce energy use and cut carbon dioxide emissions.

The first retail clean energy store opens in Santa Monica, California.

The Green Mountain Wind Farm, one of the largest power generating wind facilities in the eastern United States, began serving its customers.

Government agencies and local and international NGOs joined efforts to reduce plastic bag use in Vietnam.

The Center for Environmental Citizenship has transformed its office into an eco-friendly model for small businesses and nonprofits for under $2,000.

A new cleaning process called wet cleaning is now available as a substitute for dry cleaning. It does not use hazardous chemicals and generates no hazardous waste.

Two initiatives of the UN Division for Sustainable Development are presented on the website.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is strengthening its work in the agri-food sector through a web-based information initiative. UNEP has recently developed a website http://www.agrifood-forum.net/ that serves as a forum for sustainable production and consumption of agricultural products and food. The goal of this initiative is to share knowledge about the environmentally sound management of agri-food production and consumption practices.

The Forum provides a network of information sources on the agri-food production and consumption chain, related environmental, social and economic impacts, as well as technologies and practices to prevent, or respond to, these impacts. It also provides a discussion forum on technical issues. The website is designed to help users access information on key issues related to agri-food production and consumption, namely: agrobiodiversity, water, energy, climate change, chemicals, desertification, consumption, trade, and poverty.

Users are given an opportunity to identify the best solutions to address environmental problems they may be facing, and good-practice case studies are collected and presented through this web site. Stakeholders are encouraged to share their good practices with a worldwide audience.

For more information, visit Sustainable Agri-Food Production and Consumption Forum at http://www.agrifood-forum.net/ or contact UNEP, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, 39-43 quai André -Citroën, 75739 Paris Cédex 15, France, tel.: +33-1-44-37-14-50, fax: +33-1-44-37-14-74, e-mail: unep.tie@unep.fr

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The Environmental Strategies Research Group (ESRG) in Sweden prepared a report "Energy Use in the Food Sector: A data survey" (authors Annika Carlsson-Kanyama and Mireille Faist). The study presents a survey of data for estimating energy requirements in the food sector. Studies on this subject are important because of the considerable amount of energy that the whole chain of food production and consumption uses; in Sweden, for example, it constitutes one fifth of the total energy use.

The report contains a large amount of data on the energy required for crop farming, animal husbandry, food processing, storage, transportation and food preparation. This database can be used for estimating the energy use for various food items over their life cycle. As a concrete example of the applicability of the database, estimates of the energy requirements of a hamburger with bread, lettuce, onions, cucumbers and cheese are calculated.

The authors indicate that the data can be used for quick and rough assessments of the energy use for various food products over their life cycle. Another possible use is illustration of major differences in energy use for various food products (animal-based vs. plant-based, cultivated in the greenhouses vs. in the open, fresh vs. canned or frozen, etc.) The report emphasizes that further studies on the subject are necessary, and more data on food losses, storage times, storage energy and food processing are required to increase reliability and accuracy.

The report (AFR report 291) can be ordered through Ms. Christina Sars, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Swedish Waste Research Council, e-mail: kristina.sars@environ.se or accessed (in PDF format) directly at http://www.fms.ecology.su.se/pdf/energyuse.pdf

For more information, contact Ms. Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Environmental Strategies Research Group, Box 2142, S-103 14 Stockholm, Sweden, tel.: +46-8-402-38-13, e-mail: carlsson@fms.ecology.su.se or visit the ESRG website http://www.fms.ecology.su.se/

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The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international organization founded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to coordinate the independent certification of good forest management to a set of strict criteria, approved the first group of timber producers in Russia as environmentally sustainable. The first step in the certification process in Russia took place in April within the area of the Altai-Sayan eco-region, home to a very high diversity of plants and animals, including the endangered snow leopard. The first area certified as sustainable is the 32,712-hectare Kosikhinsky Forest Enterprise, a manufacturing company in Barnaul, capital of the Altai region in Siberia.

Russia’s Association of Environmentally Responsible Timber Producers (also organized on WWF’s initiative) brings together around 20 Russian timber producers with average annual production of 600,000 cubic meters of timber. It aims to connect them with Western companies committed to buying products from forests certified under the Forest Stewardship Council. A major role in the process of certification was played by a United Kingdom trading company, Pricebatch (Altai UK) Ltd., a supplier for The Body Shop chain, a retailer of bath and personal care products.

Russian timber producers have already lost a large portion of the European market because they failed to provide certified wood. By attracting the attention of other Russian timber producers to the new market opportunities and demands of ecologically oriented companies, the Forest Stewardship Council hopes to enhance sound forestry practices and encourage other Russian companies to improve their forest management.

For more information, contact Katya Pal, e-mail: kpal@wwf.ru or Irina Prokhorova, e-mail: iprokhorova@wwf.ru or visit the website of WWF Russian Programme Office http://www.wwf.ru/english/home.htm (English version) or http://www.wwf.ru (Russian version). More information about the activities of the Forest Stewardship Council worldwide is available on the website http://www.fscoax.org

Sources: Environment News Service (ENS), April 27, 2000, website: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-27-03.html and WWF Russian Programme Office News, April 27, 2000, website: http://www.wwf.ru/news/39.htm (in Russian)

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The Green Design Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University has developed a website that allows users to estimate the overall environmental impacts from the production of a certain dollar amount of approximately 500 commodities or services in the United States. It provides rough guidance on the relative impacts of different types of products, materials, services, or industries with respect to resource use and emissions throughout the United States.

The entire production supply chain is included. The effects of producing, for example, a $20,000 motor vehicle would include not only the impacts of assembly, but also the impact from mining of metals, making electronic parts, forming windows, and other operations that are needed for parts to build the car. This analysis is a form of life cycle assessment based upon an economic input-output model of the United States, publicly available data and linear algebra calculation methods.

To make an estimate, a user may browse or search for one of 500 commodity or service sectors in the model. Environmental impacts include energy use, air pollutants, hazardous wastes, toxic emissions and dollar estimates of external air pollution costs. The analysis presents results for production only, so in case of motor vehicles, gasoline use and maintenance need to be evaluated separately.

For more information, contact Dr. H. Scott Matthews, Research Director, Green Design Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, tel.: +1-412-268-3645 or visit the website http://www.eiolca.net

For more information on the Green Design Initiative that promotes environmentally conscious engineering, product and process design, manufacturing, and architecture, visit the website http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/

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Appliance manufacturers, energy efficiency advocates and public officials in the United States announced an agreement to improve the energy efficiency of household appliances. The agreement includes joint recommendations for new minimum efficiency standards for clothes washers, tax credits for manufacturers who produce washers or refrigerators that exceed the efficiency standards, and new, higher qualification levels for these products to obtain the voluntary Energy Star label. The clothes washer standards that manufacturers have agreed to will reduce hot water use and total energy consumption due to the clothes washers by about one third.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has committed to upgrade several other efficiency standards this year. The DOE proposed new standards for water heaters and is expected to propose new central air conditioner standards this summer. Improving air conditioner efficiency is particularly important because of the strain that cooling equipment places on the electric system as evidenced by power outages in Chicago, New York, New Orleans and other regions of the country last summer.

The new clothes washer efficiency standards will be phased in starting in 2004 and affect all new washers sold in the United States. By 2007, energy use by washers will be cut by about half. The water savings are expected to reach up to 11 trillion gallons in the same period. Through reduction in energy use, the agreement is also expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 310 million metric tons over the next 30 years.

The agreement was endorsed by Whirlpool Corporation, Maytag Company and GE Corporation. All three companies are already producing some highly efficient appliances. Products that meet the 2007 standard are already available, and can be identified by the Energy Star label.

For more information on Energy Star rated products, visit the website http://www.energystar.gov

Source: Environment News Service, May 23, 2000, website http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-23-06.html

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The Commonwealth Energy Corporation opened in April what it claims is "the first retail clean energy store on the planet" in Santa Monica, California. Commonwealth Energy provides environmentally friendly power, energy efficiency products, and energy management services. All of the power comes from renewable energy sources certified by the State of California, including geothermal, wind, solar, biomass and small hydro power. The company is striving to help its customers save money on their residential or commercial power bills while at the same time improving the sustainability of energy services.

Among the products that the energy store will carry are the Power Planner device, which limits the amount of energy supplied to an electric appliance at any given time to the amount required; the NightStar Flashlight, the first renewable energy flashlight that utilizes an efficient energy conversion and storage system that does not require batteries or incandescent light bulbs; Super Long Life compact fluorescent light bulbs that last up to seven years and use only 15 watts of energy; and the Wattman voltage controller which reduces the energy required for High Intensity Discharge lighting systems on parking lots and auto dealerships.

For more information, contact Commonwealth Energy Corporation, 15901 Red Hill Avenue, Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780, tel.: +1-800-962-4655 or +1-714-258-0470, e-mail: contactus@powersavers.com or visit the website http://www.powersavers.com/home/home.htm

Source: Environment News Service AmeriScan, April 20, 2000, website: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-20-09.html

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The Green Mountain Wind Farm, a 10.4-megawatt wind facility, officially began serving its customers on May 1, 2000. It is located on a stretch of vacant farmland and reclaimed strip mine near Garrett, Pennsylvania, and is one of the largest power generating wind facilities ever built in the eastern United States. There are eight 200-foot high windmills, each with a tubular tower and three blades approximately 95 feet in length. Each turbine has a capacity of 1,300 kilowatts of electricity. The wind farm will generate over 20 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, enough to power 2,500 average Pennsylvania households. Based on Pennsylvania's average electricity mix, every year this wind farm will prevent up to 17,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The wind farm is the result of a three-party agreement between GreenMountain.com, Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. (Disgen), and American National Wind Power, the facility's owners. It is worth noting that this project transformed a former coal strip mine into a showcase of the latest wind energy technology. An important part of the process was support from the local community and Green Mountain Energy customers and growing demand for clean power. GreenMountain.com provides environmentally cleaner electricity to residential customers in California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

For more information, contact: Ms. Suzie Quinn, tel.: +1-802-846-6315, e-mail: Suzie.quinn@greenmountain.com or Mr. Steve Macken, tel.: +1-510-418-5005, e-mail: Stevemacken@natwindpower.com .

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Like many other countries, Vietnam faces problems with plastic waste, especially plastic bags and packages. On the occasion of Earth Day, 22 April 2000, thirteen government agencies and local and international NGOs joined efforts in the campaign for the reduction of plastic bag use in Vietnam. The core group comprised representatives from the National Environment Agency (NEA), Birdlife International in Vietnam, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

In Vietnam, millions of plastic bags and packages are being discarded every day, most of which end up as land and water polluting waste. Most people in the country are not aware of the harmful environmental consequences that plastic bags can cause, in particular because most are not biodegradable. A campaign of public education that targets all major stakeholders – consumers, managers and employees of supermarkets and smaller stores as well as producers of plastic – has therefore been launched. Its intention is to encourage wider use of bags or baskets that are made from traditional or non-plastic materials such as rattan, bamboo or fabric and to promote collection of plastic bags for re-use in shops and supermarkets.

For more information, contact Ms. Dinh Thi Minh Thu, IUCN Vietnam, fax: +844-8-258794, e-mail: thu@iucn.org.vn or Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Cuong, National Environment Agency (NEA), tel.: +844-8-224421, fax: +844-8-223189

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The Center for Environmental Citizenship (CEC), a nonprofit founded to encourage college students to be environmentally aware citizens, has transformed its Washington, DC office into an eco-friendly model for small businesses and nonprofits for under $2,000. CEC solicited the help of a volunteer architect to design bigger desks and create screens to divide the large rooms for its growing staff. Staff members joined their efforts to find sustainable building materials, order non-toxic paints and cleansers, and install energy-efficient lighting. They wanted not just to work in a pleasant office space, but also to show that it is possible to design an eco-friendly office on a tight budget.

Staffers built desks from Dakota Burl Biocomposite, a wood free board product made from compressed sunflower seed shells. Screens between desks were made from 100 percent hemp canvas. Shelving was made from formaldehyde free particleboard and recycled steel brackets. Pine boxes were installed on recycled steel poles above desks for personal items. The walls and furniture were brightened with colorful milk based paints and clear non-toxic shellac. Compact fluorescent and full spectrum light fixtures provide more efficient lighting. The office uses recycled sources for copy paper, toilet paper and paper towels.

For more information, contact Ms. Susan Comfort, Executive Director, Center for Environmental Citizenship, tel.: +1-202-234-5994, e-mail: susan@envirocitizen.org or visit the website: http://www.envirocitizen.org/ecoffice.html

Source: Environment News Service AmeriScan, April 13, 2000, website http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-13-09.html

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A new commercial cleaning process that does not use hazardous chemicals is now available. The name for it is wet cleaning. In conventional dry cleaning, the dominant solvent used is perchloroethylene, a hazardous air pollutant and a possible human carcinogen. Professional wet cleaning uses water and biodegradable soaps that can be released just as the wastewater from an ordinary home washing machine is discharged. The process generates no hazardous waste.

The input of the four elements of garment cleaning (solvent, detergents, agitation, and heat) are computer controlled based on the type of fabric being cleaned. In water, non-toxic detergents and conditioners are used to lift dirt out of the garment and revitalize the fabric. The garments are agitated in the computerized wet cleaning machine just enough to extract the dirt and grime, but not enough to alter the structure, size or color. The garments are then transferred to a high-tech drying unit that senses humidity as many as 400 times per minute. To ensure that no shrinkage occurs, the dryer automatically stops once the prescribed level of moisture is reached. Garments are then treated as they would in the dry cleaning process - wrinkles are pressed out, garments are hung up and bagged.

Sources: Environment News Service Ameriscan, May 19, 2000, website

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-19-09.html and Earth’s 911 website http://www.1800cleanup.org/

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In the October-November 1999 issue of News and Trends we informed you of the first Expert Working Group Meeting on Improving Governments' Role in Promoting Environmental Managerial Accounting (EMA) that was held in Washington, DC in August 1999. Now you can access the meeting documents on the Technology page of the UN Division for Sustainable Development website at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/estema1.htm. The second Expert Working Group meeting on EMA was held in Vienna, Austria on 15-16 May 2000. This meeting was organized in partnership with the Austrian Ministry of Transportation, Innovation and Technology. The full report of this meeting and future work on this initiative will also be available on the same website.

The first Regional Expert Group Meeting on National Cleaner Technology Strategies (NCTS) for the Latin American and Caribbean Region was held in Bogota, Colombia, in October 1999, in conjunction with the Second Regional Conference of the Americas on Cleaner Production, under the auspices of the Colombian Ministry of Environment and the Departamento Administrativo del Medio Ambiente (DAMA) (see October-November 1999 issue of News and Trends). The meeting documents are currently available at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/estncts1.htm. Preparations are underway for the second Regional Expert Group Meeting on NCTS for the Region of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, to be hosted by the Government of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava on 27-30 June 2000.

For more information, contact Mr. Tarcisio Alvarez-Rivero, Economic Affairs Officer, UN DESA, Division for Sustainable Development, tel.: +1-212-963-5708, fax: +1-212-963-4260,

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Previous issues of "News and Trends"

News and Trends December 1999 - February 2000

News and Trends October - November   1999

News and Trends July - September 1999

News and Trends April - June 1999

News and Trends February-March 1999

News and Trends December 1998-January 1999 

News and Trends October-November 1998 

News and Trends August-September 1998 

News and Trends June-July 1998 

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