sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade-166a51dbf7b25b8a.pdf

This research synthesis briefing from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) outlines the institute's work on sustainable consumption, production, and trade. It focuses on the development of consumption-based accounting tools to reveal the full environmental costs of goods and services, the role of government and business in driving sustainable behavior, and the vulnerabilities inherent in complex global supply chains.

• Current tools and indicators often fail to capture the full environmental costs of consumption, frequently ignoring emissions from the production and transport of imported goods and focusing only on domestic emissions.
• SEI has developed multi-regional input-output (MRIO) models and footprinting tools, such as the IOTA model, which tracks resource flows across 129 countries and 57 industrial sectors to link economic flows with physical resource flows and environmental impacts.
• While consumers can contribute to sustainable patterns, systemic changes driven by government and business are essential because infrastructure design, social norms, and current business models often lock consumers into unsustainable behaviors.
• Global supply chains create interdependencies that can transfer vulnerabilities; shocks such as natural disasters in producer regions or changes in import patterns by importers can lead to price shocks, market volatility, and shortages.
• SEI utilizes a 'Pixel-to-Consumer' model to trace commodities from their specific point of origin to their final destination, which was used in a 2013 study to link soya bean consumption in various countries to deforestation in the Amazon in Brazil.
• The institute has implemented various regional and national accounting tools, including REAP Sweden for Swedish municipalities, EUREAPA for EU member states, and REAP Petite for UK households.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade-166a51dbf7b25b8a.pdf. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade-166a51dbf7b25b8a.pdf. n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade-166a51dbf7b25b8a.pdf |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendseirsbsustainableconsumptionproductiontrade166a51dbf7b25b8apdf, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade-166a51dbf7b25b8a.pdf}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-rsb-sustainable-consumption-production-trade.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }