Value-Chain Approach
The Value Chain Approach
Identifying key points of intervention for sustainable consumption and production
The Value-Chain Approach is a methodology for catalysing science-based policy action on sustainable consumption and production. Its purpose is to identify key points of intervention within economic systems to reduce natural-resource use and environmental impacts caused by production and consumption, and to define a common agenda for action.
The Value-Chain Approach anchors natural-resource use and environmental impacts within the socio-economic reality of production and consumption by drawing on diverse bodies of knowledge. It applies the natural sciences to map resource use and environmental impacts along the value chains of high-impact economic sectors. Then integrates a range of social sciences such as political economy, sociology and anthropology to understand the socio-economic systems within which resource use takes place.
By applying a systems analysis, the Value-Chain Approach identifies the socio-economic drivers and barriers that cause the value chains of different sectors to operate as they do. This takes into account the complex feedback loops that determine and influence the operations and behaviours of actors along different stages of the value chain.
Critically, the Value-Chain Approach goes beyond an understanding of where resource use and environmental impacts occur, to understand why this is happening and what the key points of intervention are for science-based policy action.
VALUE CHAIN APPROACH REPORT
In advance of the 5th United Nations Environment Assembly, the Task Group of the One Planet network and International Resource Panel (IRP) has released its report showcasing the ‘Value-Chain Approach,’ a methodology for science-based policy action on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
Consolidating existing action & defining a common agenda for systems transformation
Through consultation and collaboration, the Value-Chain Approach identifies where solutions already exist at key intervention points, and where there are gaps and opportunities, and defines a common agenda for concerted actions that can transform the system. This participatory approach taps into the bodies of lay and practical knowledge that are collectively held among SCP practitioners, as well as ensuring their crucial buy-in for the implementation of this common agenda.
The Value-Chain Approach organises information and data to shape impactful action, making it a practical interface between science on natural resources and action on sustainable consumption and production. By being specific (naming the type of resource, type of impact, stage of the value chain) and by engaging all stakeholders, the approach generates solutions that are actionable at different levels by different actors.
Explore the Value-Chain Approach
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A PRODUCT OF THE IRP - ONE PLANET NETWORK TASK GROUP
The Value-Chain Approach is the product of the IRP and the One Planet network Task Group, an 18-month collaboration that formed in response to the resolution on sustainable consumption and production at the 4th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA4), composed of experts on natural-resource use from the IRP, and practitioners on sustainable consumption and production from across the One Planet network.
