The World Economic Forum. Consumption Dilemma
The World Economic Forum of 2011 deals with the problem of consumption dilemma. The participants of the forum look for leverage points for accelerating sustainable growth. There are a lot of examples of individual companies having success at achieving sustainability. Globally, this problem is unsolved as far as the use of natural resources increases and environmental degradation rises. That is why it is necessary to make changes on the global level. The participants of the forum express the important role of innovations in the development of the world economy and business. A combination of scarcity of natural resources, climate changes, and growth of the global population makes the experts think over the problem of sustainable consumption.
A more transformational approach is necessary to solve this problem. Generally speaking, the nature of consumption should be transformed from one based on the acquisition of goods to another based on the creation of well-being and value. It is necessary to think over a new definition of the notion of well-being and development on the global level on the one hand and search for new means of achieving it on the other hand. The global economy needs considerable changes but it should be pointed out that changes are always disruptive as far as there are always be losers and winners and there are always be highly-developed countries and those which are behind these developed ones.
Basic Leverage Points of Sustainable Consumption
There are three basic leverage points of sustainable consumption. These basic points are consumers, businesses, and governments. Every participant in this process should be taken into account to achieve success in sustainable consumption. Consumers are the key shapers of the global economy. Their needs are the levers of production. The global economy depends on their engagement and their choices. Every company should take into account their interests and demands to have success in the world market on the one hand and influence their decision-making which guarantees success on the other hand. Businesses are the builders of a sustainable consumption economy through innovation and investments. Co-innovation is an effective way of adaptation to social changes and consumers’ interests. Governments help to achieve sustainable consumption if businesses fail to do it. Governments may rally stakeholders and create the atmosphere for successful control of consumers’ decision-making. From all the above said, we can conclude that the leverage points of sustainable consumption are the values of citizens, the long-term innovated strategies for businesses, and the supportive policy of the government.
The development of innovations is the most effective way of healthy development. Such innovations include developing principles for smarter subsidy reforms, creating transparent brands through technology-enabled networks, making the production environmentally friendly, or looking for ways of improving waste recycling programs. Technological improvements reduce the intensity of resource use.
The World Economic Forum provides an effective model of achieving sustainable consumption changing the way of development from incrementalism to transformation. The leverage points of this process are consumers, businesses, and governments. The engagement of consumers and innovations provided by businesses and government policy may guarantee success for achieving sustainable consumption. The effectiveness of economic development and well-being of the country depends on innovations that allow providing more valuable goods for lower prices and making the production of these goods environmentally friendly.