Assessing the environmental impacts of UK supply chains
Sustainable consumption is essential for preserving natural resources, protecting biodiversity, and mitigating climate change. To support the transition towards greener, more resilient supply chains, our work focuses on these main areas:
- measuring the sustainability of consumption,
- interpreting the data to design effective solutions and understand the wider context, and
- communicating the evidence to ensure it can be used by decision makers in the real world.
To keep up to date on our sustainable consumption work, sign up to our mailing list.
Outputs
JNCC has a long history of work within the field of sustainable consumption dating back to 2007, where the Global Biodiversity Database Protocol Development was undertaken by Scott Wilson. Since then, the number of projects and outputs has grown significantly, and we now have a small sub-team working on various aspects of sustainable consumption.
What we measure
It's hard to manage what you don't measure. Our goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the nature and extent of the impacts caused by consumption. We seek to identify where and how these effects are occurring so that we can understand the case for action, monitor our progress, and use this information to effectively target solutions. Our work includes the following:
The Global Environmental Impacts of consumption (GEIC) indicator development (2018 – ongoing)
The GEIC indicator is a long-term project, developed in collaboration with Route2 (2018-19) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (since 2020). It provides data on the biodiversity loss, water use and deforestation associated with a country/territory’s consumption. Since October 2021, the indicator is released annually as a UK Official Statistic and a globally relevant dashboard. Updates for the indicator occur annually, and development work is planned to continue until at least 2030.
JNCC Report 807: Understanding the international displacement of impacts of consumption (2025)
This report scopes how we could understand the unintended consequences of land use change due to production being imported from overseas. This is increasingly important with growing pressure on domestic land. It explores the assumptions involved in modelling this displacement and provides recommendations on how to approach this.
JNCC Report 806: Methods and initial results for a metals and minerals footprint estimate for the UK (2025)
This report presents a proposed method for including mined commodities within the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) dataset, and an initial, prototype dataset of material footprint (tonnes of consumption) using the Input-Output Trade Analysis (IOTA) framework that underpins GEIC. Data from mined commodities are currently out of GEIC’s scope. This report aims to begin filling this data gap and acts as the basis for further potential methodological improvement.
This report scopes out the potential for including aquaculture data in the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator. Aquaculture is a rapidly growing sector with increasingly significant environmental impacts. Understanding the impacts of aquaculture production and trade is essential for informing policy relating to the sustainable consumption of commodities.
JNCC Report 743: Understanding the Global Environmental Footprint and Impacts of Welsh Consumption (2023)
This report aims to improve understanding of the global environmental footprint and impacts of commodities that are consumed in Wales, but that may be produced anywhere in the world.
Earlier work
A time-limited study scoping out whether reliable figures are available on the percentage of global GHG emissions that would be reduced per year if the UK, Europe or the world shifted towards consumption of palm oil, beef and soy that did not lead to conversion of natural habitats during production.
A joint study investigating physical trade flows within the narrower context of Scottish biomass consumption.
The biodiversity footprint of UK Foreign Direct Investment (2009)
How we interpret
Data aren't useful, evidence is. We use our increased understanding of the impacts of consumption to design effective solutions and understand the wider context. Recent work includes:
This report aims to understand the drivers of consumption patterns, then discusses methods that may help to encourage more sustainable consumption in the general public. Individual consumers were identified by the policy interventions report below (No. 747) as key actors to target with sustainable consumption policy interventions. The report is accompanied by two Annexes, which apply the report’s recommendations in factsheets that encourage and educate individuals to consume more sustainably in the contexts of fruit and chocolate.
JNCC Report 797: A Consultation on the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption Indicator (2025)
This report provides results from a consultation of the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator, which assesses how the indicator is being used, how user-friendly the dashboard is, how the outputs are being interpreted, and the value the indicator is perceived as having. The GEIC indicator is an Official Statistic and a key data source to support evidence-based action and national reporting. It is therefore important to ensure it is useable, accessible and being interpreted correctly.
JNCC Report 796: Defining limits: What is 'sustainable' consumption? (2025)
This review assesses whether it is possible to set global consumption limits based on impartial scientific evidence, or whether limits have to be subjective. While there are defined limits for carbon emissions (i.e. the upper limit of 1.5°C warming), there are much less clear limits for other consumption-related impacts. The report is based on a time-limited review of global limits that are defined and discussed within the scientific literature.
This report aims to explain what a circular economy is, and to provide examples of policy interventions governments could take to increase the circularity of their economies. It breaks down the current take-make-dispose economic model, and its drawbacks, and how a circular economy could solve many of the problems our economy faces.
JNCC Report 783: Exploring the links between the sustainability of consumption and resource security (2024)
This review aims to identify the effects that current consumption is having on future resource security, and how to consume in a way that will be most likely to allow us to continue production while conserving and supporting ecosystem services. It does this by focusing on three ecosystem services (soil health, clean air and freshwater supply) as examples.
JNCC Report 747: Policy interventions to encourage sustainable consumption (2023)
This report aims to summarise policy interventions that could be used by governments to influence the sustainability of consumption – examples are shown below:
Which policy interventions can be used by governments to improve the sustainability of consumption?
How we communicate
A good idea means nothing if it doesn't reach the right people. Integral to this is identifying the key players in the area of sustainable consumption, and engaging with them to establish their evidence needs. Since the topic of sustainable consumption is complex, we also work on removing any barriers that may exist by translating evidence into digestible communication tools.
We communicate our work to multiple audiences in various ways, including through webinars, guidance documents and summaries, and blog posts.
Guidance documents and summaries
Factsheets: Environmental impacts of fruit consumption and the case for eating seasonally (2026) and The environmental impact of cocoa beans (2026)
These annexes use findings from behavioural change literature in the report above “Guidance for promoting and encouraging sustainable consumption in individual consumers” to present data relevant to individual consumers and encourage more sustainable consumption of fruit and chocolate.
An introduction to consumption-based metrics (2023)
This Annex, produced by JNCC for Welsh Government, provides a succinct summary of the report “Understanding the global environmental footprint and impacts of Welsh Consumption”.
The Linking Environment to Trade (LET) Guide (2020)
An entry-level guide to the area of sustainable production and consumption was produced, based on knowledge acquired from a review of over 250 initiatives aiming to link consumption to environmental impact.
Webinars
In December 2023, we ran three webinars aimed at different audiences to promote the use of the webinar.
A policy introduction to the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator
Find out what the indicator is, how to navigate the online dashboard, and how to use the data as an evidence source for UK policy makers.
A technical introduction to the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator
Find out what the indicator can do, and about the methods and modelling underpinning it.
Find out why the indicator was included as an indicator in the GBF, how to use it in national reporting, and why you might wish to do so.
If you would like to be notified about upcoming webinars, sign up to our mailing list.
Blog posts
Read some of our recent blog posts about development of the GEIC indicator and our other sustainable consumption work
Potential applications
Sustainability of consumption is influenced by many stakeholders, each requiring reliable information to make informed decisions:
- Guidance in our reports can be used by policymakers, businesses, and the public to shift consumption to more sustainable patterns through changes in policy, business practice, and behaviour.
- Data from the GEIC indicator can be used by governments to understand the environmental impact of their trade and consumption, and create a baseline from which to design policy. Governments can use the headline results from the dashboard as a national indicator, allowing the success of policies and progress towards targets to be monitored.
- The GEIC indicator can also be used by businesses to highlight the highest impact areas of their supply chains and those that are associated with high levels of environmental risk. These can then be prioritised for further investigation and mitigation.
- JNCC supports the governments of the UK in their mission towards sustainable consumption through long-term projects and reactive advice. Contact us using the email below to discuss this with us.
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