Global Civil Society & the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Responsible Consumption & Production


Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, which is key to sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations.

Our planet is running out of resources, but populations are continuing to grow. If the global population reaches 9.8 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets will be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles.

We need to change our consumption habits, and shifting our energy supplies to more sustainable ones are one of the main changes we must make if we are going to reduce our consumption levels. However, global crises triggered a resurgence in fossil fuel subsidies, nearly doubling from 2020 to 2021.

We are seeing promising changes in industries, including the trend towards sustainability reporting being on the rise, almost tripling the amount of published sustainability over just a few years, showing increased levels of commitment and awareness that sustainability should be at the core of business practices.

Food waste is another sign of over consumption, and tackling food loss is urgent and requires dedicated policies, informed by data, as well as investments in technologies, infrastructure, education and monitoring. A staggering 931 million tons of food is wasted a year, despite a huge number of the global population going hungry.

Name Acronym Founded City HQ Country/Territory HQ Type I Type II

World Waterpark Association

WWA 1980 Overland Park KS USA G

World Wide Fund for Nature

WWF 1961 Gland Switzerland F f

World Wood Day Foundation

WWDF 2013 F f

World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls

WWGBP 1970 E

World Youth Service and Enterprise

WYSE 1988 London UK G

WorldFish

1975 Bayan Lepas Malaysia E

Worldwide Airline Customer Relations Association

WACRA 1969 Vallejo CA USA D

Worldwide Coal Combustion Products Network

WWCCPN 1998 Aurora CO USA G

Worldwide Nitrocellulose Producers Association

WONIPA Zurich Switzerland G t

Worldwide Quality EXpress System /Network/

WQXS Network 1995 Brussels Belgium F

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production

WRAP 2000 Arlington VA USA G

XBRL Europe

Brussels Belgium E y

XBRL International

1998 Clark NJ USA F

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

1971 Portland OR USA G

Young Americas Business Trust

YABT 1999 Washington DC USA G

Young European Media Professionals

YEMP 2004 E t

Youth Business International

YBI 1999 London UK G

Youth For Public Transport

Y4PT 2009 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek Belgium F

Z User Group

ZUG 1992 Hamilton New Zealand E

Zangger Committee

ZC 1971 Vienna Austria E g

Zero Waste International Alliance

ZWIA 2003 J

Zircon Industry Association

ZIA London UK C t

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