In just twenty years, by the time today's toddlers reach college, global consumption will have fundamentally changed: 2.6 billion new consumers will have joined the middle class, expecting and demanding the same quality of life that Americans enjoy today. Low-income consumers will represent a market of another $5 trillion.

According to the Global Footprint Network we would need five planets to sustain consumption if everyone lived like the average American and those numbers are based on resources available now. Availability of resources, from freshwater to indium, continues to decline. China's announcement last month of further reductions in its exports of rare earth metals, critical for manufacturing everything from cell phones to electric cars, shows that companies are already facing serious limitations on resources. Clearly, something needs to change.

What would sustainable consumption look like? (For our commentary on whether 'sustainable consumption' is the right phrase, see our post on GreenBiz.com). Businesses who are thought leaders in this area share a vision of an economy based on selling value, rather than quantity. Ford and BMW speak of becoming "mobility" companies rather than companies that sell cars. In a world where consumption is sustainable, business would provide products and services that meet needs within environmental, economic, and social constraints.

The proliferation of new product-sharing websites like Neighborgoods or Frenting, which allow consumers to easily borrow rarely-used items like tents or tools from neighbors or friends, demonstrates new consumer appetites for different modes of consumption. At the same time, though it's clear that there's growing concern about sustainability issues among consumers, there remains a gap between the desire of consumers to support responsible business and their actual behavior. If a more sustainable option happens to cost more, or doesn't match performance, or isn't as convenient, it's likely to stay on the shelf.

The first role of business, then, is to innovate so that the products and services they provide have maximum value and desirability, and cause minimum social and environmental harm. Ultimately, every option in a store should be a good option-- Walmart, for example, has a straightforward goal of selling "products that sustain people and the environment," period.

Until we reach that point, business has another important role to play in influencing consumers to make the right choices along the lifecycle. For some companies, that may mean better education and marketing to influence purchasing decisions. For others, like Levi's (which discovered that one of the largest environmental impacts of a pair of jeans was washing and drying), it may mean helping consumers use a product or service differently. Others may focus on consumer behavior at the end of a product's life.

The challenges of transitioning to sustainable consumption also present opportunities for innovation in business models, whether that's moving from selling products to services (like IBM, which now focuses on customized IT solutions rather than computer equipment), or creating an entirely new type of business (like Better Place, which is building the infrastructure and systems to enable adoption and use of electric vehicles). Over this semester at the CRB, we'll be addressing new business models for sustainable consumption in a panel discussion as part of the Peterson Lecture Series we host. We'll also have events focused on sustainable product design, changing consumer behavior, life-cycle analysis, and hold a workshop exploring how design thinking can be used to address a challenge in sustainable consumption. Best Buy's Kai Patel, featured in the next article, will be joined in conversation by Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility on February 2.

What happens when you bring left-brainers together with right-brainers? This semester, the Center for Responsible Business (CRB) partnered with California College of the Arts (CCA) to find out. Sustainable fashion design students from CCA were paired with students from UC Berkeley to work on the Levi's Sustainability Undergraduate Case Competition. Participants were asked to create innovative solutions on how Levi Strauss can "close the loop profitably" with denim recycling, reuse, and resale.

Last Spring, the Center for Responsible Business worked with Target to put on an undergraduate case competition that utilized social media to engage students. This semester, we continued to challenge students to communicate their ideas through a 2-minute YouTube video and blasted helpful hints and tips on Facebook and Twitter during the two-week case competition.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the case competition was the CRB's partnership with CCA. Three students from UC Berkeley were matched with two fashion design students, and the cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams were asked to collaborate on a solution, integrating design thinking with business knowledge. Each team's final deliverables included not only a YouTube video and oral presentation, but also a physical prototype of the proposed solution or product.

Asking the teams to provide a physical prototype of their idea allowed students to commit and engage fully in developing their solutions. The prototypes included jean jackets, raw materials for textile production, a new type of stitching, a jacket made from recycled denim yarn, replacement pant pieces, and even handkerchiefs. The winning team – with members Zahin Ali, Leslie Chen, Cecilia Xia from UC Berkeley, and CCA students Jean Saung and James Zormeir – proposed that Levi's create a one-of-a-kind "Levi's Strauss" handkerchief. These handkerchiefs,made from recycled denim and cotton, have various uses, from napkins to a bracelet accessory. Check out the team's video.

Jo Mackness, Executive Director at the CRB, was equally pleased with the outcomes of the competition. "The teams from the different schools were challenged to come together and develop a solution that was not only creative, but business viable, and of course environmentally sustainable," she said. "We were trying to create an experiential learning opportunity that mimics the cross functional context within which students will eventually operate in the 'real world' —interestingly, it was the students who collaborated the best—really embraced their team mates' ideas, who came out with the best all around solutions."

The goal of the competition was to further Levi Strauss' commitment to sustainability by developing innovative ways to "close the loop profitably". UC Berkeley and CCA students came together successfully to not only tackle the case from both a design and business perspective, but more importantly, apply the skills and knowledge they learned in the classroom (and studio, for CCA students) to a real-world business challenge. We were blown away by each team's creative and rigorous solutions to this case and look forward to what students have to offer in next year's case competition!

Around the world—and at the state level in the U.S.—policy on extended producer responsibility is quickly growing. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a strategy that places shared responsibility on manufacturers for what happens to products when consumers no longer want them.

In November, the Sustainable Products and Solutions Program at CRB hosted a roundtable on EPR that brought together manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, academics, and waste management companies together to explore solutions and opportunities in EPR. The event was co-hosted by the California Product Stewardship Council.

One focus was electronics. As continuous, short-term sales cycles push out more and more electronics- with components that are both valuable and sometimes hazardous-- manufacturers are now dealing with the issue of e-waste. 24 states have passed laws mandating e-waste recycling, and more laws are on the way. At the roundtable, one focus of discussion was the challenge of passing a uniform national e-waste law.

As the day progressed, and experts shared stories of everything from Best Buy's comprehensive consumer electronics recycling program (see PDF) to the huge opportunities for recyclers to recover valuable materials (see PDF), the topic of how to move forward on policy returned again and again.

The next day, as the roundtable focused on the challenges of EPR for packaging, the same theme emerged. How can the U.S. create harmonized law(s) on EPR, rather than myriad different state programs? How can we best work with states, since that's where the action is? How can we prevent exportation of toxic waste to other countries?

The answers are far from simple, but one interesting model was suggested by Bill Shireman, President and CEO of Future 500. Shireman was a leader in enacting California's Bottle Bill, and explained how he worked with allies to make that legislation successful. His recipe? Bring together a critical mass of key stakeholders-- NGOs, funder alliances, advocates, a few key brand owners and retailers, and reach agreement among them, then use that coalition to push for policy change. In the end, Shireman believes there's no question that EPR is coming to the U.S., and business will play a critical role in making that happen successfully.