Economic and social progress over the last century has been accompanied by environmental degradation that is endangering the very systems on which our future development and very survival depend.

A successful transition will mean improvements in resource efficiency, consideration of the entire life-cycle of economic activities, and active engagement in multilateral environmental agreements.

There are many aspects of consumption that with simple changes can have a big impact on society as a whole. For example, the global material footprint - an indicator of the pressure put on the environment to support economic growth and to satisfy the material needs of people - grew by 17.4% to 85.9 billion metric tons in 2017 as compared to 2010.

Reducing food loss and waste can contribute to environmental sustainability by lowering production costs and increasing the efficiency of food systems. Currently, we lose 13.8% after harvesting and during transport, storage and processing alone, amounting to a cost of over $400 billion a year.

We are also polluting water faster than nature can recycle and purify water in rivers and lakes.