Responsible Consumption Mission
BWA Consortium Collaborative Program

For updates on the Climate Adaptation Mission, visit our website.

This website shares our progress on the Mission led by BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA) and its partners exploring how systemic behavioural public policy experiments supporting 'responsible consumption' could have a substantial impact on transitioning Victoria's material-footprint*. It is part of the BWA Consortium, which has a focus on identifying shared policy challenges between partners and tackling them with behavioural approaches.

This mission leverages the combined reach, resources and expertise of the following BWA Consortium partners: Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Vic), Sustainability Victoria, The Shannon Company, and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment.

*Material-footprint is a consumption-based indicator of used raw material extraction to meet the final demand of the economy.

Interested in getting involved? Complete the expression of interest form to let us know how you'd like to get involved.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Lifestyles of affluent countries, and affluent populations within countries, are recognised as a significant driver of the unsustainable impacts of economic development, resulting in increasing global inequality and the poor well-being of vulnerable populations while we approach or exceed multiple boundaries of planetary health in areas such as climate, pollution and material intensity.

Noteworthily, the European Union (EU) Parliament called for the first-ever legally binding targets to reduce material and consumption footprints by 2030, which included calls for the absolute reduction of resource consumption. For Australia's continued economic stability and flourishing, a shift towards a more 'reformist' position may be necessary if we are to continue ties with the EU as our second-largest trade partner.

The Responsible Consumption Mission is guided by the ambitious goal of reducing per capital material resource consumption in Australia by 15% by 2030 while maintaining community wellbeing and economic resilience. Our work aims to understand if and how behavioural public policy approaches could contribute to reducing the impact of lifestyles in affluent populations while also aligning with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals to promote prosperity while also protecting the planet.

The Responsible Consumption Mission aims to reduce per capita material resource consumption in Australia by 15% by 2030 while maintaining community wellbeing and economic resilience. Our work aims to understand if and how behavioural public policy approaches could be useful in reducing the impact of lifestyles in affluent populations.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION?

Responsible consumption focuses on the behaviours and attitudes of humans that sustain social, environmental, and economic wellbeing.

A large focus of this project will aim to change the nature and quality of consumption behaviour, for example by de-emphasising convenience and cheapness in the decision-making process of consumption behaviour.

This could mean a drastic transformation in what our society considers as 'the good life' and how we as individuals, citizens, consumers, employ(ers/ees), producers, entrepreneurs, public servants, politicians, community and societal members can achieve it. The potential contribution for behavioural public policy to link individual and system change in this area is significant.

Examples of responsible consumption programs:

Conscious consumerism (i.e. purchasing decisions that have positive social, economic, and environmental impacts)
Choosing ethical and eco-friendly brands and products
Supporting relevant charities, policies and initiatives
Avoiding higher impact items and products
Favouring services and more durable, reusable and repairable items

WHAT ARE THE MISSION'S GOALS?

MISSION GOALS

The Mission's goal is to reduce per capita material resource consumption in Australia by 15% by 2030 while maintaining community wellbeing and economic resilience.

The goal is in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.2: [by 2030] achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. It aims to identify opportunities for de-coupling consumption demand and economic growth, close the gap in research and policy on sustainable consumption and de-materialising the economy, and address the wider goals relevant to all consortium partners.

INTERESTS AND PRIORITIES

BWA and its partners agreed upon a list of priority areas to target for the Mission. While there are many material streams that contribute to responsible consumption, the following priority areas were recognised as being under-addressed in research and practice.

Three priority areas were identified and selected:

fashion and textiles;
electronics and electrical devices; and
furniture and large household items.

Responsible Consumption Mission Initial Scoping Paper

For readers seeking to understand the full scope of the Responsible Consumption Mission

WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR

From April 2021, BWA and its partners came to an agreement on the Responsible Consumption Mission and its 'problem focus': to reduce Australia's material footprint through responsible consumption.

Our meeting concluded:

the Mission's Model of Implementation to be a co-designed bootcamp supported by targeted research;
to engage both internal and wider audiences on the Mission's program and goals;
to seek a more ambitious proposal.

Between June and September 2021 we undertook the first phase of the Responsible Consumption Mission: Scoping & Prioritisation.

This involved defining the Mission goal, agreeing on explicit prioritisation criteria, identifying and working with a variety of stakeholders to generate a "long-list" of behaviour change challenges, and prioritising those behaviours to identify a short-list to take into the next phase of the mission: Intervention Co-design.

For more information about the Scoping and Prioritisation phase see the Summary Report.

Summary Report

For readers seeking a detailed summary of the Scoping & Prioritisation phase of the Mission

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?

The purpose of the Intervention Co-design phase is to develop behaviour change interventions which align with the bigger objectives of the Mission.

This phase involves an intensive “bootcamp” approach to intervention design. This includes multiple online workshops with internal and external stakeholders, facilitated by behavioural experts, conducted over several months. The co-design phase will also be supported by parallel research support to address any behavioural research needs that arise during the workshops. The output from this process will be a small number of deployable behaviour change interventions which will be trialled and evaluated during 2022.

Interested in getting involved?

Are you interested in being kept up-to-date or being involved in any future aspects of this program?

Complete the expression of interest form to let us know how you'd like to get involved.