Sustainable Consumption Cultures, Practices and Lifestyles in India

Project Background

Talking about Sustainable Development, the first thought that comes to our mind is Environment Protection. But the concept of interrelatedness, of a shared planet, of global citizenship, and of ‘spaceship earth’ cannot be restricted to environmental issues alone but apply to interlinked responsibilities of environment protection and human development (Sustainable Development in India: Perspective). The Sustainable Development Goals which came into effect in 2016 and their respective targets present a holistic understanding of the term “Sustainable” for the world where there is no poverty, no hunger, and no discrimination along with protection of the planet. Since then, the world is talking about Sustainable Development and to achieve the goals, the concept of ‘Circular Economies’ is being pushed.

Circular Economy is seen as an alternative to ‘traditional’ linear economy based on the principle of ‘make, use and dispose’. In India, the traditional concept has always been the circular economy, where resources are used as long as possible, extracting maximum value followed by recovery and regeneration of products and materials at the end of each service life.

CUTS has documented 15 traditional sustainable practices in different regions of India with a potential of replication on a larger platform at an urban level in relation to the concept of Sustainable Culture and Circular economy. These practices focus on three core areas-
1. Sustainable Practices and their potential role in poverty alleviation, bringing in gender parity, promoting democratic rights and equality for all sections of the society.
2. Sustainable Practices and their potential of turning into business cases, thus promoting the agenda of Social Entrepreneurship.
3. Traditional Air cooling practices being used to fulfill the contemporary demands in an innovative way.

Goals and Objectives

• To regain and retain traditional and cultural practices in relation to Sustainable culture practiced in India since ages and establish a clear context of their use in urban modern day settings.
• To put these practices on a global platform for wider outreach and dissemination to suggests ways and ideas to the World to turn to a Sustainable Lifestyle.