Environment strategy: global environmental impacts of consumption and production

9. Conclusions

The approach used in this report was informed by the work of SNIFFER, ZWS and the EU on the types of raw materials sourced from out with Scotland which are significant in the Scottish economy. Authoritative sources of assessment of origins of materials and types of environmental impacts indicate a broad geographic distribution across most continents, and thus climatic and ecological zones, with the most distributed environmental impacts associated with fish imports, and phosphorus and extracting phosphate rock. However, regulations and international agreements restrict the scope for environmental impacts of production within Scotland and to varying extents in numerous jurisdictions.

The types of environmental impacts which are likely to be associated with supply chains to Scotland will include most of those covered by the requirements of environmental impact assessments of population, human health, biodiversity, land use, soil, waste, air, climate, material assets, cultural heritage and landscapes. However, insufficient data exist, at least in the public domain, to quantify those impacts. In future there are new possible types, or places in which environmental impacts will arise, such as in space as a consequence of operationalisation of spaceports in Scotland, expected in 2024. There is also a lack of information on the processing of materials exported from Scotland for disposal, re-use or recycling, and thus also of the types of environmental impacts that can be linked to consumption and production in Scotland.

Minimising the environmental impacts of consumption and production in Scotland, beyond its borders, requires greater knowledge of the actual impacts realised by each stage of the lifecycle of each component of products. For example, for the high value Scottish businesses involved in producing chocolate, consideration is required of the potential environmental impacts of the production of cacao and sugar for its manufacture, materials for its wrapping, resources for product transportation, and possible recycling or re-use that involves packaging.

Collecting such information is likely to require the continued development, verification and uptake of schemes which enable businesses to understand the actual environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of their products. Guidance on best practice for responsible business conduct is provided by the OECD for what they consider as ‘high impact sectors’, which has also been adopted by the European Union in its Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (European Commission, 2022). In turn, a greater understanding of businesses of the potential environmental impacts of their products should inform consumers of the environmental impacts associated with the items they purchase and use, such as the product passports envisaged in the EU provisions establishing a framework for setting eco-design requirements for sustainable products (European Parliament and The Council of The European, 2022).