Policy Needs for Sustainable Consumption—Results of an 7 Effectiveness Evaluation of Policy Instruments

Sustainable consumption policy instruments have rarely been evaluated for their 16 effectiveness and efficiency. This paper presents some key results of a major European 17 research project dedicated to this task. Based on the analysis of key driving forces and the 18 relevant actors in the three dominating fields if household consumption (housing, mobility 19 and nutrition) we derive some conclusions for policy makers with recommendations for how 20 sustainable consumption and greening of the markets could be facilitated by a combination 21 of policy measures and institutional adaptations. We furthermore offer suggestions 22 regarding which policy measures have been used, which have been underexploited and 23 which have not been tested at all and address the question who must be involved to make 24 specific measures effective. Based on a gap analysis and applying a system innovation 25 approach we additionally develop recommendations for general framework setting towards 26 sustainable consumption systems. In a last step we finally question how the undervalued 27 aspect of sustainable consumption – an adequate contribution do human well-being – needs 28 to be approached to keep our economies within the limits of our environmental space.