Sustainable development is about finding better ways of doing things, both for the future and the present. We might need to change the way we work and live now, but this doesn’t mean our quality of life will be reduced.

Consumption of goods and services can be analysed and managed at all scales through the chain of consumption, starting with the effects of individual lifestyle choices and spending patterns, through to the resource demands of specific goods and services, the impacts of economic sectors, through national economies to the global economy.

The impacts of our decisions as a society have very real consequences for people’s lives. Poor planning of communities, for example, reduces the quality of life for the people who live in them. Relying on imports rather than growing food locally puts the UK at risk of food shortages. By encouraging more sustainable food supply chains, we can ensure the UK has enough food for the long-term future.

Analysis of consumption patterns relates resource use to the environmental, social and economic impacts at the scale or context under investigation. The ideas of embodied resource use (the total resources needed to produce a product or service), resource intensity, and resource productivity are important tools for understanding the impacts of consumption. Key resource categories relating to human needs are food, energy, materials and water.

A sustainable development approach can bring many benefits in the short to medium term for all.