Policy Tools and Supporting Role of Standards for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Abstract

The identified need for a holistic policy to promote Sustainable consumption and production (SCP), as well as the lack of design of appropriate tools for future application in the Bulgarian context, determine the main focus of the study. The role of standards as voluntary (“soft”) policies and the presented typology reveal the deficit of research related to identification of standards applicable in the different categories of SPC policy tools. The presented research is directed to the identification of existing tools and standards that can influence SCP patterns, as well as to the categorization and ranking according to their relative importance by applying the approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The analysis based on the consistent application of different descriptive, qualitative and quantitative methods identifies a variety of SCP tools and standards. This paper discusses the results of a prioritizing process, divided into three categories: six administrative tools, five economic tools and four information tools. The calculation of global and local weights at three hierarchical levels allowed an analysis of the possibilities for their application in the national context. The results showed the advantage of the designated economic tools, followed by the administrative and information tools. The findings offer a systematic approach to transition from the existing “mosaic” of policy elements to a coherent SCP policy in the Bulgarian economic and social context.