While it is easy to clarify and isolate the typical forms of initiatives for the ethical finance and the fair trade sector, it is more difficult for the area of responsible consumption as there are numerous ways to view this vast field. This analysis will focus on commitments which include the involvement of citizens in responsible consumption or on important state initiatives touching responsible consumption, for example concerning the environment or public procurement. State support for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of enterprises will be mentioned in passing as they provide only the preconditions for responsible consumption. Due to the wide scope of application the responsible consumption sector occupies the highest percentage of the results from the questionnaire. Responsible consumption initiatives (1) are available in about 72% of the member states of the Council of Europe, while supporting regulations for this sector exist in 48% of the member states.

Legal initiatives can be observed in western European countries as well as in eastern and southern European countries (2) to a lesser extent. They take place at national, regional and local level. At European Union level many legal initiatives have also been carried out.

The quality of commitment of the existing legislation for responsible consumption is described below.

a. Initiatives which recognise the sector of responsible consumption

In this category different communications are available that pick out responsible consumption as a central theme and express the need to support the sector. They can be found in declarations and initiatives of different public authority organs (3) or legislative proposals (4), mostly at national level. The British Government’s Organic Action Plan encourages public procurement of locally-produced organic food. The Federal Plan for Sustainable Development 2000-2004 in Belgium sets out concrete, detailed aims with targets to achieve within a certain time to further the sector. Thus in 2003 the purchase of nutrition by public administrations was scheduled to account for 4% of the market for organic products and 4% for products which have been produced in a “socially responsible” way.

The European Union has expressed in many different documents the need to support and develop the sector of responsible consumption, most recently in the Consumer Policy Strategy 2002-2006 (5).

b. Regulations which provide legal support for the responsible consumption sector

At this level of legislation states have decided to actively support the sector. They do this by providing fiscal advantages, “responsible” labels, favourable legal frameworks for “sustainable” public procurement or by providing financial or other support for the sector.

Fiscal advantages exist, for example at national level in the Netherlands, where organic farmers and producers of organic products, who obtain at least 70% of their turnover selling organic products, can deduct up to € 10,227 from their income taxes. Furthermore, many states have established at national and regional level different public “responsible” labels to further the sector. They concern to a large extent the environment (6), but also different social conditions (7).

Legal frameworks which favour “sustainable public procurement” exist, for example, at local, regional or national level in Austria, Belgium, Germany, (8) Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Most of the laws take into account social, ecological, environmental or socio-political aspects in one way or another. Belgium provides a website (9) for public authorities to help them choose sustainable products and to advise them how to formulate the tender. The new public procurement law of Poland promotes ethical and fair solutions. Switzerland is known for advanced initiatives for green procurement (10). The first annual report (2002) of a cross-government sustainable procurement group in the United Kingdom has recently recommended some positive changes to support sustainable procurement. This includes an explicit policy commitment to pursue sustainable procurement or guidelines to government departments making clear the approach of value for money within sustainable procurement. Germany may be seen as advanced as it provides initiatives at local, regional and national levels. Furthermore, it provides public authorities with a handbook on green public procurement and a website (11) to promote sustainable procurement.

Financial support comes from local, regional and national public authorities and is directed, amongst others, to the following purposes: subsidies at national, regional and local level for the organisational and structural development of CSAs and AMAPs (12), for example in the Provence region in France, in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom; support for the promotion of local and organic food at regional and national level (13); national grants for campaigns on fair tourism or the Clean Clothes Campaign (14); support for organic farmers or for the conversion to organic production (15); support for CSR initiatives or the promotion of labour and social standards (16); support for the development and promotion of voluntary labels in Switzerland or the promotion of consumer schools in, for example, Belgium.

Other support includes providing training for farmers who want to adopt the CSA model or state organised conferences on CSR (both in Belgium); the establishment of working groups for sustainable consumption or a council for sustainable development (the Czech Republic, Germany); the documentation of ethical labour practices of businesses (Denmark); an initiative which promotes sustainable consumption practices among the general public (17); a legislative project for the promotion of sustainable agriculture (18) and a law concerning land-use regulation (19) which reserves a certain surface of land for agriculture (both in Switzerland).

European Union support for the sector can also be found in different legal initiatives such as European labels (20), directives which forbid misleading advertising (21), and communications which promote core labour standards and social governance (22). Furthermore, the European Union provides financial support for awareness-raising campaigns, for research and for the improvement of the structure of networks. Some legislation and European Court decisions (23) allow better integration of environmental and social aspects into public procurement procedures.

c. Commitment of public authorities to the sector of responsible consumption

The last class comprises local and national decisions through which different public authorities show that they are engaged in the sector of responsible consumption. Below are some examples of this.

Germany’s commitment includes not only environmental but also social aspects for public procurement. Thus the Munich City Council decided (24) that certain products, for example orange juice and carpets, should be tendered for with respect to the ILO Convention 182 against child labour. Since 2002 the City Council of Düsseldorf only buys service clothing for the fire department which has been produced under conditions which respect international labour law standards. Germany’s Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) was the first public institution which was certified according to the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS II), enabling an evaluation of their environmental performance. A commitment of public authorities to responsible consumption can be also seen in the organisation of international conferences for the training of public authorities for sustainable consumption. An example of this was an international meeting for mayors on renewable energies that was held in May 2004 in Germany. Likewise, the European Congress for Local Authority Environmental Officers, held in July 2004 in Germany, helped to increase the commitment of local authorities to responsible consumption.

At European level, the involvement of eighteen European local authorities (25) can be found in the Procura+ initiative which aims to establish a united campaign for fair and environmentally sound public procurement. The European Union recently committed itself by participating in EMAS (26) which provides a management tool to evaluate its environmental performance.

From Esther Petridis, Trends in Social Cohesion n°12, "Ethical, solidarity-based citizen involvement in the economy : a prerequisite for social cohesion", Council of Europe publishing, 2004, pp. 99/104