Better by Design: more sustainability in the consumer goods sector in Latin America

Changing our ways of consumption and production is imperative in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is why the United Nations' Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 adopted the Ten-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP).

The project "Better by Design: more sustainability in the food and beverage sector in Latin America" advanced the implementation of the 10YFP in Latin America. Focusing on food and cleaning products, the project established sustainability aspects at all levels of the product life cycle of these fast moving consumer goods within pilot projects in Peru, Honduras and Nicaragua. In particular, the consumption of sustainable products was promoted through cooperation with producers and retailers at national level.

The project team developed practical tools for sustainable product design, covering all links of the supply chain as well as the consumer side. Examples of good practice for sustainability-oriented customer information and advertising help companies to make sustainability an issue for their customers.This, in turn, will raise demand for sustainable products among their client base. Moreover, the project team developed trainings to guarantee capacity-building in the government. Thus, the project assisted political decision-makers with the implementation of goals for sustainable ways of consumption and production set nationally, in Latin America, and in the Caribbean.

In this project, adelphi was responsible for sustainable product information and green marketing. In a series of participatory design-thinking workshops, adelphi expert Jan Christian Polanía Giese developed toolkits for conducting campaigns for sustainable consumption together with local partners. In doing so, adelphi brought together implementation partners from the retail sector and consumer policy makers from Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru and helped to start a dialogue on the implementation of the 10YFP in the region. adelphi also advised local consumer policy makers as well as local retailers on the UN Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information and on how to avoid greenwashing through reliable product information, thus making an important contribution to establishing sustainable consumption and production patterns in Latin America.