SDGs & me: Responsible consumption and production

Consumption and production patterns have wide environmental and social impacts. The Sustainable Development Goal 'Responsible consumption and production' (SDG 12) calls for action on many fronts. These include the adoption of sustainable practices by businesses, promotion of sustainable procurement practices by policymakers, environmentally aware lifestyles of consumers as well as the development of new technologies and production and consumption methods, by researchers, scientists and others.

Monitoring SDG 12 in an EU context focuses on progress made in decoupling environmental impacts from economic growth, fostering the green economy, while tackling waste generation and management.

Source dataset: SDG_12_21, SDG_12_41, SDG_12_51

In 2020, raw material consumption decreased by 3% (13.7 tonnes per capita) compared with 2016 (14.0 tonnes per capita). 

The share of secondary raw materials out of all input materials in the economy (‘circularity rate’) stood at 11.7% in 2021, an increase of 0.2 percentage points since 2017 (11.5%). 

In addition, in 2020, the generation of waste went down by 5% to 4.8 tonnes per capita in comparison with 2016 (5.1 tonnes per capita). 

How is your country doing?

Do you know how much waste is generated in your country? What about the extent to which recycled materials are used to create new products? 

The visualisation tools in our data visualization ‘SDGs & me’ will help you to easily explore and evaluate the situation in your country as well as enable you to compare it to others.

Select a country in the header below and choose between different SDG 12 indicators:

The European Commission has recently adopted an important package of measures for the sustainable use of key natural resources. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of natural ecosystems across the EU, better help Europe to adapt to climate change, and ensure lasting food and material security. 

Resource on these measures can be accessed here: 

• Adoption of European Sustainability Reporting Standards: Q&A
• Soil monitoring and resilience: Q&A with links to legal texts and factsheet
• New Genomic Techniques: Q&A with links to legal texts, factsheet and animation
• Plant and forest reproductive material: Q&A with links to legal texts and factsheet
• Food waste: Q&A with links to legal texts, factsheet and background material
• Textile waste proposal

Would you like to learn more?

You can find out more about the EU’s progress towards the SDGs with the following products: 

• The publication Sustainable Development in the European Union – Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context – 2023 edition, which monitors progress towards the SDGs in an EU context; 
• The visualisation tool - SDG country overview - which compares country level data with the EU average for each SDG; 
• The recording of the webinar on the EU’s progress, held on 25 May;
• The annual conference dedicated to renewables and energy efficiency, held from 20-22 June, on the occasion of the European Sustainable Energy Week 2023.