SDG 12, Sustainable Consumption and the UK’s Leading Retailers

Jones, Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-9566-9393, Wynn, Martin G ORCID: 0000-0001-7619-6079 and Comfort, Daphne (2020) SDG 12, Sustainable Consumption and the UK’s Leading Retailers. In: Transitioning to Sustainability. MDPI, Basel. ISBN 9783038978725

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Abstract

The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a blueprint to achieve a more sustainable future for all, but in many ways, the concept of sustainable consumption is fundamental to the transition to such a future. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that retailers have a vital role to play in promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption, not least in that they effectively act as gatekeepers between producers and consumers. This chapter provides an exploratory review of how the leading retailers in the UK are publicly addressing the issue of sustainable consumption. The results reveal mixed messages about the leading UK retailers’ approach to sustainable consumption. On the one hand, the majority of the selected retailers publicly emphasised their commitment to sustainable consumption on their corporate websites, but give limited attention as to how this is to be achieved. On the other hand, at store level the authors found no reference to the SDGs or more specifically to sustainable consumption, and while there was some very limited information on what might best be described as responsible consumption, it was often in small print on product packaging.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business > HF5428 Retail Trade T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Applied Business & Technology
Depositing User:	Martin Wynn
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2020 14:23
Last Modified:	04 Feb 2022 16:01
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/8185

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