What's new with ISF's SPAC Program?

Currently we are working on a 6-year strategy, focusing especially on national and regional plans and policy frameworks supporting SPAC initiatives in those areas. We are expanding our networking and alliance-building with NGOs, researchers, progressive businesses and government workers within the US and around the world.

Preparing for Stockholm

ISF is currently discussing plans for its participation in the 3rd Expert Meeting on the 10-Year Framework of Programs on SCP, taking place this year in Stockholm, Sweden.

ECO Forum NGO Strategy Meeting

March 1-3, 2007. Brussels, Belgium. At this NGO strategy meeting to prepare for the UNECE Environment for Europe conference this October in Belgrade, ISF chaired a 4-hour SPAC Issue Group meeting and co-chaired another session to discuss a joint proposal for a one-day NGO conference linking SPAC and biodiversity protection, on October 9, the day before the UNECE Belgrade conference. One of the aims of the ECO Forum strategy is to push for a Pan-European regional SPAC strategy.

Building Capacities in Central Eastern Europe

Feb. 27-28, 2007. Prague, Czech Republic . Participating in the CEE Network's regional NGO conference "Reunion 2007: Building Capacities and Partnership on Sustainable Consumption ," ISF gave an opening presenation on "Accelerating the Shift: 10-Year Frameworks, the Marrakech Process and CEE Regional and National Initiatives." This event, which continued into the weekend, opened at the Czech Environment Ministry, where the region's first national SPAC strategy was created. We are hoping that the Environment Minister will play a leading role in partnership with the CEE Network in promoting national SPAC strategies throughout this region, as well as in the Environment for Europe.

Linking Knowledge to Action at Chiang Mai conference

Jan. 23-27, 2007. Chiang Mai, Thailand . The purpose of this dialogue event. "Linking Knowledge and Action for Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems," was "to foster and increase collaborations between scientists and practitioners to advance research and action agendas pursuing sustainability of production and consumption systems." ISF gave a presentation on "International Initiatives and Cooperation Opportunities" and facilitated a 3-hour dialogue session on energy goods and services. ISF also participated in the SPACES Working Group sessions before and following the conference.

ISF talks SPAC in Ukraine

Sept 6-10, 2006. Kiev, Ukarine. ISF gave two presentations on sustainable production and consumption at ANPED's Annual General Meeting , as well as contributing to ANPED SPAC Working Group strategy. Part of the strategy involves coordination with ECO Forum and other groups in preparing a regional NGO statement on SPAC at next year's Environment for Europe ministerial meeting.

Assessing energy and climate at the CSD

May 1-12, 2006, New York . Hosting a CitNet delegation of nearly 40 US NGOs, ISF participated at the 14th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York. The CitNet delegation included a strong showing by coal mining activists from Appalachia, telling their story about mountaintop removal and other impacts of coal mining. ISF also helped organize a side event on The Sustainable Production and Consumption of Energy: Views from Civil Society , including presentations from Russia, South Africa, Appalachia and from American Heat author, Don Brown.

CitNet roundtable promoting sustainable production and consumption of energy

Dec 13 2005, Washington, DC. On behalf of the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development and the North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance, ISF organized a roundtable titled Leadership on Sustainability in 2006: Promoting Sustainable Production and Consumption of Energy as a part of the People Speak 2005 series. This event was held in Washington DC on Dec 13 2005.

ISF in Bulgaria discussing transatlantic NGO alliance on SPAC agenda

Sept. 8-13, 2005. ISF at ANPED Annual General Meeting in Borovets, Bulgaria, will discuss links between European and North American NGOs on common SPAC strategy based on recent regional statements. ISF also contributed to the background documents to the AGM titled "Making sense of Sustainable Consumption and Production".

ISF in Costa Rica promoting civil society participation on SPAC

Sept. 5-8, 2005. ISF encouraged coordination and collaboration of NGOs at the Second International Experts Meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production, organized by UNEP and UN DESA, held in San Jose, Costa Rica. Veena Ramani represented ISF and SPAC Watch at this intergovernmental meeting that focused on national and regional SPAC policies and priorities.
ISF's report on the Costa Rica Meeting

Labor Day launch of North American statement on SPAC

Sept. 5, 2005. Labor Day press release: "Producing and consuming in North America: Are we improving or undermining our quality of life?" highlights North American regional statement on Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Workshop on North American Framework for SPAC

May 31-June 1, 2005. This week, ISF and NASCA host a regional multi-stakeholder workshop to discuss and report on what is happening in North America to promote sustainable production and consumption. One objective of the meeting is to develop a regional framework to improve cooperation and effectiveness. Another function of this meeting is to provide citizen input into the upcoming International Experts Meeting on SPAC in Costa Rica this September.

SPAC at CSD-13

May 2005. ISF has published a short report about sustainable production and consumption issues during the 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. The report is available here .

Getting the Goods (April 2005) released

Apr. 2005. ISF has released the latest edition of " Getting the Goods " its newsletter on Sustainable Production and Consumption. This edition contains articles on the developments in SPAC across the world.

ISF designs ANPED SPAC WG page

Mar 2005. ISF designed and released the home page of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG) of the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED). ISF is an active member of the SPAC WG. The WG web page can be accessed at http://spac.anped.org/

ISF attends CSD IPM

Mar 2005. ISF attended the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM) to the 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable development, held in New York, between Feb. 28 and Mar. 4. The ISF report on sustainable production and consumption at the IPM can be found here.

Collaborating with the ANPED SPAC Working Group

Oct. 2004: ISF's Executive Director, Mr. Jeffrey Barber attended the Annual General Meeting of ANPED, (held in Croatia between October 22- 24) and actively participated in the meetings of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG). Among other decisions, the WG agreed to set up a website devoted to its activities and projects. ISF will be involved in creating the website.

Production-Consumption Systems: Research frontiers

Oct. 2004: ISF's Executive Director, Mr. Jeffrey Barber attended an international workshop organized by The Unit for Social and Environmental Research (USER), Chiang Mai University titled "Sustainable Production-Consumption Systems: Research Frontiers" between October 1- 3 2004. The purpose of this workshop was to arrive at an improved framework and agenda for research on the sustainability of production-consumption systems that increasingly stretch across disparate parts of the globe.

Newsletter and CSD 12

April 2004: ISF published "Getting the Goods: Civil society news and views on sustainable production and consumption" in April 2004 for circulation at the 12th session of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD 12) and beyond. ISF's report of SPAC activities at CSD is available here.

Monitoring Marrakech

March 2004: ISF has launched a separate section on the ICSPAC website, that is dedicated to monitoring the 10 year framework process that has been spearheaded by UNEP and UN DESA. The webpage is available at http://icspac.net/marrakech/

ISF helps create and launch online database

Jan. 2004: ISF, in collaboration with the North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance (NASCA), the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, the Canadian Center for Pollution Prevention and the University of Sonora, has launched the Sustainable Consumption and Production Database . The database aims at facilitating cooperation among organizations in Canada, United States and Mexico that are interested in promoting sustainable consumption and production. Internet users can access a single website to find information about sustainable consumption and production initiatives and programmes throughout North America. The Database is also intended as a resource for citizens to learn about projects or initiatives that they can support, join, or replicate in their own community. [ Read the NASCA press release .]

Keynote speech on SPAC given in China

December 7, 2003: ISF's Jeffrey Barber delivered the keynote speech titled "US progress towards sustainable production and consumption" in the International Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption held at Changsha, in the Hunan province of China. The Forum, that took place between Dec 6 - 8 2003 was jointly organized by UNEP, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) of China, the People's Government of Hunan Province (PGHP), and the China Science and Technology Association (CSTA).

Strategy meeting at UNEP-RONA

October 1, 2003: ISF hosted an informal strategy meeting on behalf of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG) of the Citizen's Network for Sustainable Development (CitNet). This meeting, was held on October 1st 2003 at the United Nations Environment program office in Washington DC.

Details of the meeting (invitation)

Meeting Report

SPAC Watch initiative

June to December 2003: ISF is spearheading the SPAC Watch initiative on behalf of the International Coalition on Sustainable Production and Consumption (ICSPAC). SPAC Watch involves NGOs around the world in a global collaborative effort to assess the progress of national governments in incorporating SPAC tools and principles in national policies and legislations as per their obligations under the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

Details of the campaign

ISF at expert SPAC meeting

June 2003: ISF participated in the International Expert Meeting on Production and Consumption that was held in Marrakech, Morocco between June 16 - 19 2003. This meeting was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).

Read ISF's meeting report

Read ISF's analysis of the meeting published in Network 2015

For a short summary of the meeting, official meeting outcomes and related news, visit http://icspac.net/marrakech/

Co-chairmanship of SPAC Issue Group

May 2003: ISF's Jeffrey Barber accepted the position of Co-Chairman of ECO-Forum's Issue Group on sustainable production and consumption. His duties will include building coalitions and improving the capacity of the Issue Group to raise priorities related to sustainable production and consumption in Europe.

Visit ECO-Forum's SPAC issue Group web page
Visit ICSPAC's web page about ECO-Forum

SPAC workshop at Kyiv

May 22 2003: ISF organized a workshop on SPAC at the 5th Pan European Ministers Conference "Environment for Europe" held in Kyiv in May 2003. Participants in the Workshop, titled " Towards Sustainable Production & Consumption in the ECE Region", explored the reactions of various governments' progress towards SPAC policies, identified a wide range of obstacles, and explored ideas for monitoring, assessing, and reporting.

See event summary for more details.

SPAC Update released

May 2003: ISF published a new issue of the newsletter "SPAC Update" in time for the Environment for Europe meeting in Kyiv. The new issue features events from CSD - 11, the World Summit on Sustainable development and considers Water and SPAC.

Read SPAC Update May 2003 (PDF)

SPAC side events at CSD-11

May 1st 2003: ISF organized a side event titled "Changing production and consumption patterns: national strategies, the CSD and the 10-year framework" at the 11th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development held at New York between April 28 - May 9 2003. ISF's Jeffrey Barber also presented a paper at another side event on the same day, titled "Ecological Footprinting: A tool to measure SPAC patterns" organized by Association 4D of France.

Read details of both side events

ISF at CSD-11

April 28 - May 9 2003: ISF was active at the 11th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development held at New York between April 28 - May 9t 2003. On April 28, during the interactive ministerial roundtable, ISF made a representation on behalf of Non-Government Organizations on the issues of poverty eradication and changing unsustainable production and consumption patterns. On May 1st, ISF both organized a side event on SPAC, as well as made a presentation at a side event hosted by another organization (details)

ISF chaired the meetings of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Caucus held on several days through CSD - 11. ISF also contributed two articles to "Taking Issue", the daily newsletter brought out by the Sustainable Development Issues Network .

Read a summary of SPAC issues during CSD -11

Read "SPAC: Not an issue" published in Taking Issue Vol:3

Read "Keep it coherent" published in Taking Issue Vol:7

SPAC strategy meeting

April 21st 2003: ISF hosted a meeting titled "The Ten Year Framework on Sustainable Production and Consumption" at the United Nations Environmental Program's Regional Office for North America (UNEP RONA) on behalf of the SPAC Working Group of the Citizen's Network for Sustainable Development. The meeting reviewed the current state of discussions on developing the ten year framework of programs on sustainable production and consumption, as proposed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year. It also discussed what ideas and actions US and other civil society organizations can contribute to this global effort.



	What's new with ISF's SPAC Program? Currently we are working on a 6-year strategy, focusing especially on national and regional plans and policy frameworks supporting SPAC initiatives in those areas. We are expanding our networking and alliance-building with NGOs, researchers, progressive businesses and government workers within the US and around the world. Preparing for Stockholm ISF is currently discussing plans for its participation in the 3rd Expert Meeting on the 10-Year Framework of Programs on SCP, taking place this year in Stockholm, Sweden. ECO Forum NGO Strategy Meeting March 1-3, 2007. Brussels, Belgium. At this NGO strategy meeting to prepare for the UNECE Environment for Europe conference this October in Belgrade, ISF chaired a 4-hour SPAC Issue Group meeting and co-chaired another session to discuss a joint proposal for a one-day NGO conference linking SPAC and biodiversity protection, on October 9, the day before the UNECE Belgrade conference. One of the aims of the ECO Forum strategy is to push for a Pan-European regional SPAC strategy. Building Capacities in Central Eastern Europe Feb. 27-28, 2007. Prague, Czech Republic . Participating in the CEE Network's regional NGO conference "Reunion 2007: Building Capacities and Partnership on Sustainable Consumption ," ISF gave an opening presenation on "Accelerating the Shift: 10-Year Frameworks, the Marrakech Process and CEE Regional and National Initiatives." This event, which continued into the weekend, opened at the Czech Environment Ministry, where the region's first national SPAC strategy was created. We are hoping that the Environment Minister will play a leading role in partnership with the CEE Network in promoting national SPAC strategies throughout this region, as well as in the Environment for Europe. Linking Knowledge to Action at Chiang Mai conference Jan. 23-27, 2007. Chiang Mai, Thailand . The purpose of this dialogue event. "Linking Knowledge and Action for Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems," was "to foster and increase collaborations between scientists and practitioners to advance research and action agendas pursuing sustainability of production and consumption systems." ISF gave a presentation on "International Initiatives and Cooperation Opportunities" and facilitated a 3-hour dialogue session on energy goods and services. ISF also participated in the SPACES Working Group sessions before and following the conference. ISF talks SPAC in Ukraine Sept 6-10, 2006. Kiev, Ukarine. ISF gave two presentations on sustainable production and consumption at ANPED's Annual General Meeting , as well as contributing to ANPED SPAC Working Group strategy. Part of the strategy involves coordination with ECO Forum and other groups in preparing a regional NGO statement on SPAC at next year's Environment for Europe ministerial meeting. Assessing energy and climate at the CSD May 1-12, 2006, New York . Hosting a CitNet delegation of nearly 40 US NGOs, ISF participated at the 14th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York. The CitNet delegation included a strong showing by coal mining activists from Appalachia, telling their story about mountaintop removal and other impacts of coal mining. ISF also helped organize a side event on The Sustainable Production and Consumption of Energy: Views from Civil Society , including presentations from Russia, South Africa, Appalachia and from American Heat author, Don Brown. CitNet roundtable promoting sustainable production and consumption of energy Dec 13 2005, Washington, DC. On behalf of the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development and the North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance, ISF organized a roundtable titled Leadership on Sustainability in 2006: Promoting Sustainable Production and Consumption of Energy as a part of the People Speak 2005 series. This event was held in Washington DC on Dec 13 2005. ISF in Bulgaria discussing transatlantic NGO alliance on SPAC agenda Sept. 8-13, 2005. ISF at ANPED Annual General Meeting in Borovets, Bulgaria, will discuss links between European and North American NGOs on common SPAC strategy based on recent regional statements. ISF also contributed to the background documents to the AGM titled "Making sense of Sustainable Consumption and Production". ISF in Costa Rica promoting civil society participation on SPAC Sept. 5-8, 2005. ISF encouraged coordination and collaboration of NGOs at the Second International Experts Meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production, organized by UNEP and UN DESA, held in San Jose, Costa Rica. Veena Ramani represented ISF and SPAC Watch at this intergovernmental meeting that focused on national and regional SPAC policies and priorities. ISF's report on the Costa Rica Meeting Labor Day launch of North American statement on SPAC Sept. 5, 2005. Labor Day press release: "Producing and consuming in North America: Are we improving or undermining our quality of life?" highlights North American regional statement on Sustainable Production and Consumption. Workshop on North American Framework for SPAC May 31-June 1, 2005. This week, ISF and NASCA host a regional multi-stakeholder workshop to discuss and report on what is happening in North America to promote sustainable production and consumption. One objective of the meeting is to develop a regional framework to improve cooperation and effectiveness. Another function of this meeting is to provide citizen input into the upcoming International Experts Meeting on SPAC in Costa Rica this September. SPAC at CSD-13 May 2005. ISF has published a short report about sustainable production and consumption issues during the 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. The report is available here . Getting the Goods (April 2005) released Apr. 2005. ISF has released the latest edition of " Getting the Goods " its newsletter on Sustainable Production and Consumption. This edition contains articles on the developments in SPAC across the world. ISF designs ANPED SPAC WG page Mar 2005. ISF designed and released the home page of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG) of the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED). ISF is an active member of the SPAC WG. The WG web page can be accessed at http://spac.anped.org/ ISF attends CSD IPM Mar 2005. ISF attended the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM) to the 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable development, held in New York, between Feb. 28 and Mar. 4. The ISF report on sustainable production and consumption at the IPM can be found here. Collaborating with the ANPED SPAC Working Group Oct. 2004: ISF's Executive Director, Mr. Jeffrey Barber attended the Annual General Meeting of ANPED, (held in Croatia between October 22- 24) and actively participated in the meetings of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG). Among other decisions, the WG agreed to set up a website devoted to its activities and projects. ISF will be involved in creating the website. Production-Consumption Systems: Research frontiers Oct. 2004: ISF's Executive Director, Mr. Jeffrey Barber attended an international workshop organized by The Unit for Social and Environmental Research (USER), Chiang Mai University titled "Sustainable Production-Consumption Systems: Research Frontiers" between October 1- 3 2004. The purpose of this workshop was to arrive at an improved framework and agenda for research on the sustainability of production-consumption systems that increasingly stretch across disparate parts of the globe. Newsletter and CSD 12 April 2004: ISF published "Getting the Goods: Civil society news and views on sustainable production and consumption" in April 2004 for circulation at the 12th session of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD 12) and beyond. ISF's report of SPAC activities at CSD is available here. Monitoring Marrakech March 2004: ISF has launched a separate section on the ICSPAC website, that is dedicated to monitoring the 10 year framework process that has been spearheaded by UNEP and UN DESA. The webpage is available at http://icspac.net/marrakech/ ISF helps create and launch online database Jan. 2004: ISF, in collaboration with the North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance (NASCA), the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, the Canadian Center for Pollution Prevention and the University of Sonora, has launched the Sustainable Consumption and Production Database . The database aims at facilitating cooperation among organizations in Canada, United States and Mexico that are interested in promoting sustainable consumption and production. Internet users can access a single website to find information about sustainable consumption and production initiatives and programmes throughout North America. The Database is also intended as a resource for citizens to learn about projects or initiatives that they can support, join, or replicate in their own community. [ Read the NASCA press release .] Keynote speech on SPAC given in China December 7, 2003: ISF's Jeffrey Barber delivered the keynote speech titled "US progress towards sustainable production and consumption" in the International Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption held at Changsha, in the Hunan province of China. The Forum, that took place between Dec 6 - 8 2003 was jointly organized by UNEP, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) of China, the People's Government of Hunan Province (PGHP), and the China Science and Technology Association (CSTA). Strategy meeting at UNEP-RONA October 1, 2003: ISF hosted an informal strategy meeting on behalf of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Working Group (SPAC WG) of the Citizen's Network for Sustainable Development (CitNet). This meeting, was held on October 1st 2003 at the United Nations Environment program office in Washington DC. Details of the meeting (invitation) Meeting Report SPAC Watch initiative June to December 2003: ISF is spearheading the SPAC Watch initiative on behalf of the International Coalition on Sustainable Production and Consumption (ICSPAC). SPAC Watch involves NGOs around the world in a global collaborative effort to assess the progress of national governments in incorporating SPAC tools and principles in national policies and legislations as per their obligations under the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. Details of the campaign ISF at expert SPAC meeting June 2003: ISF participated in the International Expert Meeting on Production and Consumption that was held in Marrakech, Morocco between June 16 - 19 2003. This meeting was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). Read ISF's meeting report Read ISF's analysis of the meeting published in Network 2015 For a short summary of the meeting, official meeting outcomes and related news, visit http://icspac.net/marrakech/ Co-chairmanship of SPAC Issue Group May 2003: ISF's Jeffrey Barber accepted the position of Co-Chairman of ECO-Forum's Issue Group on sustainable production and consumption. His duties will include building coalitions and improving the capacity of the Issue Group to raise priorities related to sustainable production and consumption in Europe. Visit ECO-Forum's SPAC issue Group web page Visit ICSPAC's web page about ECO-Forum SPAC workshop at Kyiv May 22 2003: ISF organized a workshop on SPAC at the 5th Pan European Ministers Conference "Environment for Europe" held in Kyiv in May 2003. Participants in the Workshop, titled " Towards Sustainable Production & Consumption in the ECE Region", explored the reactions of various governments' progress towards SPAC policies, identified a wide range of obstacles, and explored ideas for monitoring, assessing, and reporting. See event summary for more details. SPAC Update released May 2003: ISF published a new issue of the newsletter "SPAC Update" in time for the Environment for Europe meeting in Kyiv. The new issue features events from CSD - 11, the World Summit on Sustainable development and considers Water and SPAC. Read SPAC Update May 2003 (PDF) SPAC side events at CSD-11 May 1st 2003: ISF organized a side event titled "Changing production and consumption patterns: national strategies, the CSD and the 10-year framework" at the 11th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development held at New York between April 28 - May 9 2003. ISF's Jeffrey Barber also presented a paper at another side event on the same day, titled "Ecological Footprinting: A tool to measure SPAC patterns" organized by Association 4D of France. Read details of both side events ISF at CSD-11 April 28 - May 9 2003: ISF was active at the 11th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development held at New York between April 28 - May 9t 2003. On April 28, during the interactive ministerial roundtable, ISF made a representation on behalf of Non-Government Organizations on the issues of poverty eradication and changing unsustainable production and consumption patterns. On May 1st, ISF both organized a side event on SPAC, as well as made a presentation at a side event hosted by another organization (details) ISF chaired the meetings of the Sustainable Production and Consumption Caucus held on several days through CSD - 11. ISF also contributed two articles to "Taking Issue", the daily newsletter brought out by the Sustainable Development Issues Network . Read a summary of SPAC issues during CSD -11 Read "SPAC: Not an issue" published in Taking Issue Vol:3 Read "Keep it coherent" published in Taking Issue Vol:7 SPAC strategy meeting April 21st 2003: ISF hosted a meeting titled "The Ten Year Framework on Sustainable Production and Consumption" at the United Nations Environmental Program's Regional Office for North America (UNEP RONA) on behalf of the SPAC Working Group of the Citizen's Network for Sustainable Development. The meeting reviewed the current state of discussions on developing the ten year framework of programs on sustainable production and consumption, as proposed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year. It also discussed what ideas and actions US and other civil society organizations can contribute to this global effort.

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