SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION – BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

The aim of the considerations is to define the essence of sustainable consumption as one of the conditions of the practical realisation of sustainable development concept. The paper underlines the importance of sustainable consumption implementation as well as its importance for the future development. The existence of narrow and broad understanding of sustainable consumption was indicated in the elaboration. In the first case, it concerns environmental aspects, whereas in the second, it covers three dimensions: economic, environmental and social ones. The authors also indicated the practices in fames of sustainable consumption on different levels, i.e. individuals, households and governmental ones. They considered different aspects of sustainable consumption, which is an alternative occurrence in relation to consumptionism and manifests itself in eco-consumption, collaborative consumption, deconsumption and responsible consumption. Nevertheless, sustainable consumption is on the margin of mainstream consumption processes. The elaboration also presents a number of factors and obstacles for realisation of the sustainable consumption, both on demand and supply side. First, it requires fundamental changes in value system, social awareness and consumer habits. The state should use particular tools (informational, legal, economic and financial ones) to enable realisation of the sustainable consumption concept.