Bar soap vs. liquid soap: a case for sustainable consumption?

By Kristen Tam

In Latin America, a bar of organic, three-ingredient, “sustainably made” soap can be bought for around eight euros—a premium price partly due to international shipping. In contrast, for 40 cents, a consumer can purchase a bottle of liquid soap with 30 ingredients from a nearby convenience store. So, which is the more sustainable option? This example illustrates the complexities of sustainable consumption and highlights factors to consider in the quest to reduce the global consumption footprint equitably. These themes were central at the side event “Momentum for Target 16: Enhancing Collective Action to Reduce the Global Footprint of Consumption Equitably” on 28 November 2024 at CBD COP16.

“Over-consumption and efficiency degrowth are absent from nearly every biodiversity and climate conversation,” remarked Matthew Bell, Sustainability Leader of EY Global Climate Change. He emphasized that reducing biodiversity loss fundamentally requires a reduction in consumption. Many economies prioritize GDP growth, often driven by consumption, which leads to overuse of resources. This overconsumption places additional stress on ecosystems, which are increasingly overfished, over-farmed, and deforested. Reducing consumption can lessen the extraction of resources, thereby helping protect biodiversity. According to Bell, addressing consumption involves collective action from consumers, producers, and governing bodies.

Diversify diets to boost biodiversity
“Consumers have the power to choose what we eat,” said Gina Kennedy, Principal Scientist at the Alliance Bioversity & CIAT. “The problem is, our plates and farms are not diverse. There are 30,000 plant species available for food, but we heavily rely on just 12 in our daily diets.” Such limited dietary diversity promotes monoculture farming, which weakens resilience to diseases and climate change. By encouraging more diverse diets, we can enhance biodiversity. This change requires a multi-sectoral approach involving chefs, farmers, nutritionists, and even celebrities.

Kennedy’s work has focused on fostering excitement around diverse foods through initiatives like the Pacific Island Food Revolution cooking competition, co-hosted by celebrity chef Robert Oliver. Such initiatives aim to increase public awareness and engagement with more diverse foods. Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) affirmed that a healthy diet depends on dietary diversity, underscoring the need to expand our food choices.

Sustainability shouldn’t be a luxury
While consumers can choose what they buy and use, financial, cultural, and local accessibility constraints often limit these choices. “The consumer may want to buy diverse foods, or, going back to the soap example, an organic, plastic-free soap bar,” noted Camila Cosse Braslavsky, Sustainable Consumption Specialist at Consumers International, “but it could be 20 times the cost of a plastic liquid soap bottle from the supermarket.”

The hope is for all products on store shelves to be sustainably produced and affordable. Requiring detailed ingredient labelling and disclosure of environmental and health impacts could help shift responsibility toward producers. Labelling standards that highlight elements like sugars and fats can push companies toward transparency, empowering consumers to make informed choices. This awareness may gradually reduce demand for highly synthetic, low-cost products, encouraging a market shift toward natural, longer-lasting products across industries, from food and personal care to clothing.

“We need to decrease our global footprint equitably,” emphasized Jonathan Green, Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute. He advocates for the adoption of consumption-based metrics in trade agreements and food security discussions. While labelling increases product awareness, it still requires consumers to afford more sustainable choices. Consumption-based reporting, required at national and global levels, could hold over-consuming nations accountable. Monitoring consumption trends over time could provide insight into whether global consumption is increasing or decreasing.

Global policies such as Target 16 within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) offer a path toward more equitable consumption. The CGIAR Environmental Health & Biodiversity (EH&B) Platform aims to bring greater attention to the role of consumption in addressing biodiversity loss. This article highlights essential strategies, and at COP16, there is a strong push for global treaties and country commitments to the KMGBF to achieve Target 16.

The path to sustainable consumption is complex, requiring actions across all levels of society. However, by working collectively to address consumption habits, we can move closer to an equitable and sustainable future.