Tools and Initiatives to Advance Sustainable

Consumption

8 February 2018

West Coast Climate and

Materials Management Forum

The West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum is

a collaboration of state, local, and tribal government

Develop ways to institutionalize sustainable materials

management practices.

Develop tools to help jurisdictions reduce the GHGs

associated with materials

Check out the Forum’s Resources

• Original Report Connecting Materials/Climate

• Research Summaries

• Turn-key Materials Management Presentation

• Climate Action Toolkit

• Food: Too Good to Waste Toolkit

• Climate Friendly Purchasing Toolkit

• Reducing GHGs Through Composting and Recycling

www.westcoastclimateforum.com

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This webinar is being provided as part of the West Coast Climate and Materials

Management Forum Webinar Series. The Forum is a collaboration of state,

local, and tribal governments. We invite guest speakers to share their views

on climate change topics to get participants thinking and talking about

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recommendation for use.

Please note the opinions, ideas, or data presented by speakers in this series do

not represent West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum

members policy or constitute endorsement by the forum.

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8 February 2018

The Tools and Initiatives to Advance Sustainable Consumption webinar will focus on new emerging

tools and initiatives for local governments in their efforts to advance sustainable consumption. The

Urban Sustainability Directors Network, a peer organization supporting innovation in municipal

sustainability, is leading the way in exploring the role of cities in shifting consumption. In 2016,

USDN launched its Sustainable Consumption Toolkit, a web-based resource for cities that highlights

the important relationship between consumption and sustainability and provides an inventory of

related local government actions. Babe O’Sullivan, a consultant with USDN, will provide an overview

of this tool and how it can serve Forum members as they consider new projects, programs and

policies to address the impacts of consumption.

Community repair events such as Repair Cafes, Fix-it Clinics and others are becoming a popular tool

for cities to engage residents in rebuilding a culture of repair and resourcefulness. With grants from

USDN and the State of Oregon, the City of Eugene is exploring best practice and the potential of

these events to change consumer attitudes and behaviors around repair and product life extension.

Anya Dobrowolski, the project lead, will share early findings from her research into community

repair events and initial results from the Eugene project.

Today’s Speakers

Babe O’Sullivan (Moderator & Presenter) is a sustainability professional with over fifteen years of experience in consumption and materials management programs. Currently, she is a working as a consultant for the Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network (USDN) as the lead for Sustainable Consumption in Cities, a multi-year project exploring the role of cities in advancing sustainable consumption. As part of that work, she helped to design and launch the new USDN Sustainable Consumption Toolkit providing guidance and resources to cities.

Anya Dobrowolski (presenter) is a sustainability researcher and project management consultant. Since 2015, Anya’s work has emphasized sustainable consumption and materials management. She currently works as a consultant for the City of Eugene’s community repair event research project, funded by the State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN). In 2017, Anya completed research for the first phase of DEQ’s Multi-Tenant Research Opportunity Project. Recently, Anya served as the project manager and primary author for the USDN Sustainable Consumption Toolkit, an online resource that provides guidance for cities interested in reducing material consumption.

Advancing Sustainable

Consumption: New Tools for

Local Governments

West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum

February 8, 2018

Babe O’Sullivan, USDN Project Consultant

“And I encourage you all to go shopping

more.”

President George Bush, 2001

Material use

Source: UNEP (2016) Resource Efficiency: Potential and Economic Implications:

http://www.resourcepanel.org/sites/default/files/documents/document/media/resource_efficiency_report_march_2017_web_res.pdf

GHG emissions

Source: IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers, In: Climate Change 2014, Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of

Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:

https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf

Life-cycle impacts

Materials and climate change

Source: USEPA (2009) Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management

Practices: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/ghg-land-materials-management.pdf

Sector-Based

Inventory

Consumption-

Based Inventory

City of Portland

7.7 MMTCO2e 17.1 MMTCO2e

Source: City of Portland’s 2015 Climate Action Plan: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/531984

Sustainable consumption

Reductions in what we consume

Shift in values away from materialism and consumerism

Technological innovation and efficiency gains

Recognition that consumption needs to rise for some

Transformation of the economy to function within real limits

Sustainability 2.0

We can’t ignore consumption

We uncover new solutions

We achieve multiple benefits across a

range of priorities

Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Peer network of 185 member communities

in North America representing 84 million

residents

Foster innovation

Share best practice

Accelerate diffusion of good ideas

Project advisors and partners

USDN

One Earth

Sustainable Consumption

Research and Action

Initiative (SCORAI)

Oregon Dept.

Environmental Quality

(DEQ)

US Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA)

The Garfield Foundation

Housing

Climate action

Food/food waste

Economy/business

Purchasing

Consumer goods

Local government initiatives

Overview

Value proposition for sustainable consumption

Potential city roles

Implementation challenges and potential solutions

Evaluation/effectiveness

Further resources

23

Climate action planning

Climate Change

Estimating consumption based emissions

Integrating consumption in climate action plans

Housing Encouraging development of smaller homes, accessory

dwelling units

McMansion ordinances

Co-housing

Food/Food Waste Gleaning

Preventing wasted food

Sustainable food procurement policies

Healthy corner stores

Business/Economy

Alternative economic indicators

Ownership models: worker-owned; co-ops

Benefit corporations and “B-corps”

Consumer goods

Consumer Goods

Building deconstruction

Tool lending libraries

Repair cafes

Resourceful campaigns

Thank you!sustainableconsumption.usdn.org

For more information, please contact:

Babe O’Sullivan, Project consultant

babeosullivan@gmail.com | 971-212-2724

Get Your Fix

Growing political capital, forging community connections and understanding participants at Community Repair Events

What is a Community

Repair Event?

Watch this video by Ron Greenfield:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31sM7x0Mi8

3 events

400+ participants

69%repair rate

Local government potential roles

▪ Promoter

▪ Funder

▪ Supporter

▪ Evangelist

▪ Incubator

▪ Ownerhttps://www.hennepin.us/stories/-/media/storytelling/repairing-stuff/fix-it-five-sidebar.jpg

Megaphone effect

▪ Early media coverage

contributed to success in organizing events

▪ Social media buzz:

▪ Rob Greenfield video- 463k views on Facebook

▪ Over 100 event shares on Facebook

▪ 700 “going” or “interested” responses

▪ 3 stories on local TV news stations

and 3 in the local daily paperPhoto by Sarah Grimm

Community impacts

▪ Genuine connections

▪ Build skills and opportunity

for intergenerational knowledge sharing

▪ Catalyst for community

conversations around repair opportunities and

consumption behaviors

▪ Reinforce intrinsic shared values

Photo by Sam Nystrom

Building political will and organizational

capacity

▪ Visits from Mayor and two city councilors

▪ Opportunities to collaborate

▪ Repair strategy moves forward

▪ Climate action planning

Photo by Sarah Grimm

This was such a fantastic event!!!! Thank you to all

who helped!! These fine volunteers helped repair

my 1966 GE blender that was a wedding gift to my

parents. It has made countless birthday cakes and

treats over the last many decades and now will

make countless more!

Fix-It Fair Participant via Facebook

My wife & I came for the first time today...I

actually couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear. The

whole event was great, helpful & venue good for

exposure...Thank you for all those who give of

their time to make this possible. I will be sharing

what a wonderful experience this was & to

encourage others to participate vs. disposing of

their repairable items.

Fix-It Fair Participant via Facebook

These are

great!

But, what are

the long term

impacts?

Research questions

▪ Are there long-lasting changes in attitude and behavior for community repair event participants?

▪ Do local repair businesses see changes in business volume when community repair events happen in their communities?

Project overview

▪ Initial CRE study

▪ 3 Fix-It Fairs

▪ Participant surveys

▪ Volume of sales for local businesses

▪ Waste diversion data

Initial CRE study

Methods

▪ Literature scan, surveys and follow up interviews with ten CRE coordinators

Findings

▪ Repair Cafés and Fix-It Clinics are similar but not the same

▪ Metrics and desired outcomes need specificity and data collection could be a stronger element of the programs

▪ Multiple product categories were the norm

▪ Managing participant expectations was a major challenge

▪ More room to leverage partnerships and sponsorships

Methods:

Behavior and attitudes towards repair

▪ Longitudinal data collection at intervention point, 6-months, 12-months

▪ Participant group of 100+

▪ Control group of 100+ non-participants

▪ Completing first 6 month follow-up now

Data collection: Behavior and attitudes survey

categories

▪ Quantification of habits

▪ Self-efficacy

▪ Dosage

▪ Barriers to repair

▪ Satisfaction

▪ Demographics

Data collection: Behavior and attitudes survey

categories

▪ Quantification of habits

▪ Self-efficacy

▪ Dosage

▪ Barriers to repair

▪ Satisfaction

▪ Demographics

Self-efficacy

▪ How likely are you to attempt a repair?

▪ How likely are you to take an item to a repair professional?

▪ Do you feel able to identify the reparability of a new purchase?

Data collection:

Behavior and attitudes hypothesisD

ata

sc

ore

Time

0-months 6-months 12-months

Control group

Participants

Business impacts data

▪ Ten repair businesses

▪ Tracking change over time (pre-and post-event

▪ Multiple options for reporting data

▪ Key challenge: recruiting large

enough pool for strong data set

Waste diversion data

▪ Weigh items at exit

▪ Successful repair?

▪ Who fixed it?

▪ Key challenge: directing traffic

THANK YOU!

Resources

Resources

•Community Repair Events: Common, better and best practices

for building community through repair (White Paper):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_s0aBw0olVuUjI-gthxgVFz-

_qFusEnS

•Culture of Repair: https://www.cultureofrepair.org/

•Fix It Clinics Website: http://fixitclinic.blogspot.com/

•Repair Cafe International: https://repaircafe.org/en/

•Fix-It Austin’s guide to hosting a Fix-It clinic: https://issuu.com/austinrecycles/docs/hostafixitclinicguide_final

Questions?

Babe O’Sullivan

Anya Dobrowolski

Future Webinars

More to come in the Webinar series in 2018:

April 2018: Consumption and GHGs: New Models and Insights

June: 2018: Measuring Success in Reducing Wasted Food Presented by Oregon DEQ and Portland State University

THANK YOU!

Please fill out the survey you receive after the webinar.

For more information, visit www.westcoastclimateforum.com