About Responsibility in Production and Consumption

This paper aims at bringing out the complexities of Sustainable Development Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. This is done in the context of the EURECA-PRO initiative, the European University on Responsible Consumption and Production. The author argues that the official description of SDG 12 takes responsibility and sustainability to have the same meaning, as well as producers and consumers to be enlightened and behaving voluntarily in a responsible manner. In a more differentiated approach, responsibility means taking concrete actions towards strategic sustainability goals. Producers take on this responsibility only in a voluntary manner, when it pays off for them not to keep externalizing the socio-ecological costs of their actions. Consumers do not automatically act responsibly either, since many of them do not have the capabilities or economic possibilities to take part in responsible consumption. Concluding, the author argues that collective agency can be a way towards holding corporations accountable for their actions, as well as towards creating possibilities for consumers to participate in responsible consumption practices.