Consumers International is working with some of its members in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia to address the need for low income consumers to access safer and more sustainable products. The IKEA Foundation, who believe in safer, healthier homes for children to grow up in, is funding this exciting project.
In many low income countries, the market prevalence of poor quality, unsafe and environmentally unsound products and services has a detrimental effect on consumers’ ability to make safer and more sustainable consumer choices. The consumption of unsafe and hazardous products, such as the use of biomass fuels for cooking leading to indoor air pollution, has negative health and environmental implications.
This situation is exacerbated by a lack of access to information and support to enable families to make informed choices, restricted choice due to limited income and other factors.
The project will give people living in low-income communities in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia the information they need to buy safe products, with a particular focus on women and children as they are often the victims of these household accidents.
The project will begin by identifying which products are most commonly used by these communities. These products will then be rigorously tested to identify which ones are safe and sustainable, appose to those which aren’t.
A communications campaign to educate and empower consumers about dangerous and unsustainable products will form the latter part of the project. If a product is found to be dangerous, but without a viable alternative, Consumers International will engage with manufacturers to bring a new product to market.
For World Consumer Rights Day (15 March 2020), consumer organisations around the world came together to call for global changes to avert environmental breakdown. The #SustainableConsumer campaign rallied over 160 members in more than 100 countries across the globe, alongside Consumers International partners such the United Nations, to mark the day.
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In our blog to mark World Environment Day 2020, our Sustainable Consumption Manager, Naomi Scott-Mearns, explores the potential for consumers, and consumer advocacy, to be a powerful actor in taking action to preserve biodiversity across the globe.
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