Sustainable Lifestyles Courses
Introduction to Sustainable Lifestyle
As one target under SDG 12, sustainable lifestyles (SDG12.8) emphasizes on enhancing the making of just & sound decisions to alter or create patterns of behavior that aim at embracing economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects at individual or society levels. The EU funded SWITCH Asia Programme through Regional Policy Advocacy Component together with UNEP and AIT, joins partners around the world in enriching knowledge and information to promote sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature to encourage behavior change and become more eco-friendly. The offline course was built on core contents and knowledge from 3 regional dialogues organized in 2020 under the project as a foundation that triggered discussion and exchange of experiences from experts and practitioners of 3 key sectors: Tourism, Food & Agriculture and Packaging, which have social and economic implications in Asia.
The Region is the second most visited region for international tourist in the world, generating huge percentage of GDP shared to the region. In 2019, report from World Travel and Tourism Council indicated that tourism in Asia contributed 9.8 % to total GDP, and a study showed that the tourism sector had created more than 21 million new jobs in the region, accounting for 56% of all new jobs globally, during 2015-2020. The Asia region also performed an important role in global food & agriculture market. It is accounted for 19% of total global food and agriculture exports and 31% of total food and agriculture imports according to 2016 economic report from Rabobank. In packaging industry, Asia market is accounted as the largest packaging consumption with 40.6% of total 891 billion dollar of world packaging consumption in 2018. The total sales of packaging in Asia is forecasted to grow at an annual average rate of 4.0% and reach 4,558.2 billion dollars in 2024. Packaging, especially for Food and Breweries, have become essential component of modern lifestyles. Food manufacturing and distribution cannot function without sophisticated packaging to preserve the quantity and quality of the food to be consumed by the consumers.
The dialogues took into consideration of the spreading of COVID19 and how it has affected the behaviors and generated impacts to society and environment. For example, After COVID-19, one more packaging waste came to light: packing for medical goods like mask, sanitizers etc. The challenges are huge since all packing after post consumption becomes waste that need resources for processing. The offline course offered solutions and good practices for replication and scaling-up to become more sustainable and increase sustainable lifestyles uptake. The dialogues also presented new findings, innovation and creativity on green production, which can enhance sound decisions on sustainable consumption.