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| III. Plan of Action |
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| We, the undersigned, commit ourselves to the following actions: |
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| • Revalue |
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Conduct first, a self-assessment of our own lifestyle choices in light of the elements of this treaty, and make personal commitments towards change. |
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Participate with business and industry, government, academia, voluntary and community organizations, political groups, and other personal affiliations to examine jointly the ways we can improve our consumption and production patterns to meet basic human needs around the world. |
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Develop new concepts of wealth and associated indicators of development for individuals, communities, and nations which support new models of socio-economic and human development which are equitable, environmentally sustainable, and recognize the full range of human aspirations. |
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Create awareness and set an example in our organizations and the community of more balanced working environments which strengthen a sense of community, encourage human creativity and depth in personal relationships, and meet the physical, mental and spiritual needs of people. |
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Recognize the things in life which truly bring joy and satisfaction. Notice, appreciate, and care for the relationships that sustain us, whether with our fellow human beings or with the natural world of which we are a part, and spend time enjoying and enlivening them. |
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Commit ourselves to learn from communities which live in sustainable ways utilizing appropriate technologies. |
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Analyze resistance to change from within consumer societies and find ways to motivate people to accept new values and behavior. |
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| • Restructure and Redistribute |
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Influence international and national fiscal, monetary, and trade policies to include: integration of social and environmental costs into product prices, fair trade, land redistribution, debt alleviation, and equitable tax systems, regulation of transnational corporations, an end to structural adjustment policies, and changes in other structural forces which negatively impact equitable and environmentally sustainable production and consumption patterns. |
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Promote conversion to an equitable and ecologically sustainable economy, and take responsibility for the needs of those whose livelihoods are negatively affected. Strengthen local and regional economies as the basis for community self-reliance in meeting basic needs for all people and research and promote alternative investment and employment opportunities to assist those who are displaced when unsustainable industries are halted. |
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Support and participate in initiatives such as alternative trade markets, networks, and cooperatives with environmentally and socially responsible services and products. Enrourage local and regional consumer-producer networks such as community supported agriculture (CSA).Especially encourage linking Northern consumers with Southern producers to ensure fair payment and support environmentally sustainable production in the South. |
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Establish and publish a set of criteria for socially just and environmentally sustainable consuming and investing, appropriate to different regions. |
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Participate in the creation and monitoring of national ecolabelling systems, based on local and regional criteria set by NGOs and social movements, and share them internationally. Urge governments to reform their trade laws to cover misleading and inaccurate labelling on products. |
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Join and initiate campaigns to pressure companies to end policies and production processes which are socially and environmentally detrimental to communities around the world. |
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Support legislation to strengthen consumer rights, especially to ensure environmentally sustainable, safe and healthy products, and establish the "right to know" laws which enable people to make informed consumption choices. |
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Support, initiate, and use "green" funds that make socially and environmentally responsible investments. |
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Influence governments to counter the disproportionate influence of commercial self-interests in government and the media. |
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Support responsible tourism and create awareness about the negative effects of air travel. |
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Participate in and support educational efforts, both formal and informal, which aim to increase awareness of critical global issues and their root causes and interrelationships, develop new values and attitudes, and motivate changes in consumption, production and lifestyle.Social movements and NGOs should: |
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provide educational methodologies which focus on values clarification and moving beyond blame to constructive action; |
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provide training and assistance for leaders of business and industry, government, unions and others on consumption and production; |
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initiate and support the training and work of environmental counselors who provide responsible consumption and product information; |
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cooperate with media to initiate and strengthen educational programs on the social and environmental impacts of consumption and production and to build awareness of consumer responsibility any potential; |
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support school reform movements to ensure integration of lifestyle education for responsible consumption |
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ensure that courses related to marketing, economics, development, environment, etc., adapt their content to the new realities; |
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ensure that equal access to consumption and lifestyle education - living better with less - be made available to all. |
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| • Reduce and Reuse |
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Reduce impacts from "industrialized agriculture" by consuming foods which are locally grown by organic methods, low on the food chain, aminimally processed, and sold in bulk. |
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Reduce energy consumption through use reduction, conversion to renewable sources, and utilization of efficient energy sustems. |
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Reduce the waste and polluting effects to automobiles and aircrafts through the alternative use of railroads, bicycles and public transportation. |
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Join coalitions and sponsor campaigns to pressure business and industry to eliminate built-in obsolescence, promote longer durability of products, reduce production of disposables, and alter production processes which create toxic, hazardous or radioactive wastes. |
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Promote product maintenance and repair systems and second-hand markets. |
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Reduce wasteful and energy intensive long distance transport of products by encouraging consumption of long and regional products. |
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| • Recycle |
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Promote, create and participate in local resource recovery systems, such as reuse and recycling centers, which involve separation at source. Pressure government and industry to financially support such local centers. |
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Urge packaging and distributing companies to implement an effective deposit-return system for containers and other packaging. |
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Pressure industry and government to organize "cradle to cradle" production processes. |
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Urge Northern governments, international financial institutions and aid agencies to give financial and technical support for resource recovery systems and management, particularly in the South. |
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Encourage industry to use recycled, before virgin, materials. |
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