BSR Insight Articles About Sustainable Consumption

Is Sustainability a Factor in Your Purchasing Decisions?

Ted Howes, Former Director, Advisory Services Joyce Sood, Former Digital Communications Manager

In a new video, Bay Area residents tackle the issue of sustainable consumption as it relates to everyday purchasing decisions. Read more →

Posted: November 13, 2012 | Topics: Consumer Products, Sustainable Consumption

New York Times’ Haili Cao on Sustainable Consumption

In one of 27 video interviews conducted with speakers and attendees at the BSR Conference 2012, Haili Cao, managing editor of the New York Times Chinese website, reflected on changes in the sustainability landscape in the past 20 years. Read more →

Posted: November 13, 2012 | Topics: Conference, Sustainable Consumption

No Oxymoron in ‘Sustainable Fashion’

Julia Robinson, Communications Associate

The fashion industry has come under increasing scrutiny for its environmental footprint as well as for ballooning hyper-consumption. BSR's new brief, "Sustainable Fashion Design: Oxymoron No More?," explores the trends shaping sustainable fashion and design. Although sustainable fashion remains a niche trend, larger companies, such as Marks and Spencer, are starting to explore the concept. According to the report, most industry efforts have focused on materials selection and fail to consider opportunities such as developing more durable designs, the recyclability of garments, considerations around laundering (which affects both energy and water use), and the importance of accounting for consumption patterns. The report also focuses on how "slow fashion"—with fewer production cycles, and "evergreen" clothing designs that are not tied to ephemeral trends—can influence consumers to buy less. Read more →

Posted: October 16, 2012 | Topics: Consumer Products, Sustainable Consumption

What Total Cost of Ownership Offers Sustainable Procurement

Jessica Davis Pluess, Manager, Research

What if procurement and sustainability managers in your company spoke the same language? It's likely that the concept of total cost of ownership (TCO) would find its way into the conversation. For procurement managers, TCO captures the costs associated with a product over its lifetime—from the development and design of a product through its use, maintenance, and disposal. Similar to the way sustainability managers think about the impacts of a product on the environment and society throughout its lifecycle, TCO takes a long-term view of the value a product brings to a company by evaluating the direct and indirect costs of a product at the time of purchase. Over the next few months, BSR's new Center for Sustainable Procurement (CSP) will be exploring ways the TCO model and its application could support the incorporation of sustainability information and data into procurement decisions. Is there an opportunity to align TCO and lifecycle assessment (LCA) information to form a total impact and ownership model? Read more →

Posted: September 11, 2012 | Topics: Strategy & Integration, Supply Chain, Sustainable Consumption, Travel & Tourism

The World’s ‘Most Sustainable’ Suit?

Susanne LeBlanc, Analyst, BSR

Recently, Marks and Spencer (M&S) launched the "World's Most Sustainable Suit." Touted by M&S as "one of the greenest garments ever made," the suit is made of organic wool, with a lining of recycled plastic bottles and reclaimed fabric for the pockets and waistband. The suit offers an optimistic vision for the future of fashion but also highlights limitations in the industry: Even for sustainability leaders such as M&S, sustainable design is primarily a question of materials selection. Other design choices that have implications for sustainability, such as cut or construction, are largely ignored. Sustainable materials will have a limited impact if ill-fitting and poorly made garments are worn only a few times before ending up in a landfill. Ultimately, sustainable design will require a more holistic approach to accurately account for impacts in the clothing lifecycle. Read more about sustainable design in the latest blog for BSR's NICE Consumer Project. Read more →

Posted: September 4, 2012 | Topics: Consumer Products, Sustainable Consumption