In early 2016, the German Federal Government has adopted the National Program on Sustainable Consumption which lists 172 measures how Germany wants to achieve more sustainable consumption patterns. The program substantiates the German Sustainability Strategy and shall make a key contribution towards Germany achieving the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – especially SDG#12 promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns.
In this light, the German Federal Environment Agency has commissioned ConPolicy in collaboration with the Öko-Institute, the Technical University of Berlin and Prof Dr Lucia Reisch (Copenhagen Business School and Zeppelin University) to evaluate the measures proposed in the National Program on Sustainable Consumption and to make recommendations how the program can be developed further.
During the project period of three years, a framework for the evaluation has been developed, which was used to conduct an ex-ante evaluation of the full set of measures included in the National Program and an in-depth ex-post evaluation of selected measures as well as an examination of the program as a whole. Moreover, the project analyzed how an interplay of 'soft' and 'hard' measures could be used in order to foster sustainable consumption more effectively. The acceptance of such approaches was examined using case studies and focus-group interviews. Based on the interim results, policy recommendations were developed on how the national program could be advanced – involving feedback from various stakeholder groups.
The recommendations for action can be found here (German).
