For more sustainable consumption

The State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development has designated a project run by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH as the 2015 lighthouse project for the German National Sustainable Development Strategy. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ is developing a method for evaluating and comparing sustainability standards. The first website – www.siegelklarheit.de, an information site for consumers – was launched in February, and other portals are in development. By choosing this project, the Committee, which is chaired by Peter Altmaier, Head of the Federal Chancellery, has signalled its commitment to strengthening sustainable consumption in practice. ‘Maintaining sustainability standards in manufacturing, corporate governance and consumer and user behaviour can stimulate innovation,’ says Altmaier. In the coalition agreement, the German Government undertook to improve the general conditions for sustainable consumption.

‘We are creating the transparency that consumers, public procurement officers and companies need to make conscious purchasing decisions with the help of sustainability criteria,’ says Friederike Sorg, who manages the project. In the medium term, she believes that making it easier to compare different standards could lead to international harmonisation of standards. This would make the certification process simpler and less expensive.

GIZ supports many certification projects around the world. In its forest projects, it focuses on certifying sustainable areas, for example in cooperation with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In the food sector, GIZ is working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist the cocoa industry. By 2012, 22 per cent of world production had been certified. For coffee, the figure is even higher at 40 per cent. GIZ’s partner in this area is the Common Code for the Coffee Community Association (4C).