There are many practical possibilities for moving towards a more sustainable consumption and production while promoting social cohesion. Closing breaches, energy/saving light bulbs, reflecting foil, water/saving showerheads, improvement in insulation and heating systems. Developing synergies between sustainable development, social cohesion and an important monitoring tool: SDI (Sustainable Development Indicator) is needed.

The conference Social Fairness in Sustainable Development - A Green and Social Europe 24-02-09 provided a complementary view on sustainable development and employment creation.

• the concept of environmental justice should be adopted as a guiding principle for policy development at the European level and across all Member States as a means of addressing social concerns within environmental policy

• environmental inequalities should be considered in the design and implementation of policy through the impact assessment process at the European, national and local levels

• the above recommendation requires good spatial data that can be accessed at reasonable cost, and guidance on methods to assess environmentakl inequalities. Investment at the European and national level must be increased to ensure that the current situation, where there is a local of good quality data, is improved

• Policies aimed at sustainable consumption need to recognise differences in consumption patterns across socio-economic groups so that they can be effectivily targeted. Delivery of such policies comes at a cost, particularly to low income groups, which should be recognised

• As the financial impacts of all types of environmental policy have the potential to be regressive, policy should be designed to reduce such impacts, balanced against the need for environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency

• the key to capturing synergies between environmental and social policies is well designed delivery at the local level. The identification of such synergies as well as potential conflicts in policy design and delivery requires local stakeholder engagement and participation

• who causes most of the environmental problems resulting from consumption of goods and services

• which groups in society suffer most from environmental pollution and hazards and other issues associated with unsustainable natural resource use

• are social policy and sustainable development goals in conflict with each other or are there synergies that can be developed.