Sustainable consumption and production. An effort to reconcile the determinants of environmental impact

Since the early nineties, the term “sustainable consumption and production” (SCP) has defined the goal of policy-makers and scholars striving to solve the problems of sustainable development. However, despite the consistent and wide-ranging efforts of governments and business in response to the research, global environmental pollution and the degradation of ecosystems have increased over the years. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we provide a critical review of SCP, analyzing the evolution of the concept, and examining the main causes of environmental damage linking SCP and the IPAT equation. In particular, we initially focus on the strategies toward sustainable production and the role played by technology. Then, we test this outcome against the dynamics of consumption and the measures implemented to modify consumption at business and government level. Second, we introduce a theoretical framework that helps in stylizing current societal models on the basis of their consumption and production patterns