Consumer Futures 2020 - Resources for media

This page contains resources for journalists covering the Consumer Futures 2020 report.

Download the Consumer Futures executive summary.
Download the Consumer Futures full scenarios document here.
Download an image of the front cover here.
Additional quotes from Sainsbury's, Unilever and Forum for the Future are available here.

The above Consumer Futures documents, as well as the accompanying toolkit and other information will be available to the public from Monday 10th October at the following address: http://www.forumforthefuture.org/project/consumer-futures-2020/overview

Please find the embargoed press release below.

THE FUTURE IS GREEN: SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES TO BE MAINSTREAM BY 2020 SAYS NEW STUDY

Sustainable products and services will be mainstream by 2020, Forum for the Future claimed today, as they launched a study with Sainsbury’s and Unilever, designed to help the consumer goods industry meet the needs of the consumer of the future. Household brands and retailers will help make green living normal and easier for millions of people around the world, and progress towards sustainable consumption will not be knocked off course by a weak global economy, they said.

Sainsbury’s Chief Executive, Justin King, said: “Sustainability will continue to rise higher up the agenda over the coming years, so it is key that brands work to ensure they can respond to consumer demand. Being a sustainable company is not about box ticking, it’s about future-proofing your business and building trust and brand loyalty that will last for years to come.”

Amanda Sourry, Chairman, Unilever UK & Ireland, said: “The old model of ever greater consumption, with growth at any price, is broken. Companies that succeed in the future will be those that reduce their environmental impact whilst increasing their social and economic impacts.”

Consumer Futures 2020 contains four scenarios which explore how global trends may change our world, consumer behaviour and the consumer goods industry over the next decade. In each scenario social and environmental pressures drive sustainable goods and services into the mainstream, whether or not consumers actively demand them and regardless of whether the global economy is thriving or subdued.

It is designed as a practical tool to help retailers, brands and manufacturers throughout the global consumer goods industry plan for the future. Sainsbury’s and Unilever plan to use it as a platform for collaboration and innovation, jointly developing profitable and sustainable initiatives that will help them meet the ambitious commitments in Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and Sainsbury’s five corporate responsibility values.

Dr Sally Uren, Deputy CEO of Forum for the Future, said: “Smart brands and businesses will make money today by accelerating the transition to a sustainable future. They need to make it easy for consumers to go green by offering products and services which are not just better for the environment, but healthier, cheaper and longer-lasting.”

Sainsbury’s, Unilever and Forum for the Future pooled their knowledge to develop four very different but plausible possible worlds of 2020, focussing on consumers’ attitudes and behaviour. Each shows how different aspects of sustainable consumption have become mainstream.

In ‘My way’, mainstream consumers buy locally, strengthening their local economies.  Vertical farming is widespread, producing more food per unit of land.  Sustainable living is high-tech and easy; products such as the personal energy micro-manager help reduce energy consumption and build personal relationships via on-line competitions.

In ‘Sell it to me’, brands and businesses have taken a lot of the hard work out of being sustainable, driven by resource scarcity and a global deal on climate change.  Retailers have taken unsustainable products off the shelves and smart products and services are commonplace – all designed to reduce their in-use impacts.

In ‘From Me to You’, communities are again strengthened by local food and energy production. Resources are valued much more highly than today because they are scarce and expensive, and there is little or no waste.  Goods exchanges are mainstream, encouraging recycling and re-use of goods and resources, from fridges to grey water.

Finally, in ‘I’m in your hands’, the product to service shift has become mainstream.  Retailers and brands lease a lifetime’s supply of key goods, and now also provide heat, water and nutrition. Strict government legislation and economies of scale mean that these leasing models are highly sustainable. Consumers take a 'waste not, want not' attitude and expect government and business to take the lead on delivering sustainability.

In a joint foreword to Consumer Futures 2020 Mr King, Ms Sourry and Dr Uren say that global challenges such as climate change, scarcity of key resources and rapid population growth “make it essential for us to reorient our global economy around sustainable, low-carbon patterns of consumption.“

They add: “Successful brands will need to innovate to meet challenges like these, develop sustainable products, services and business models, and work with consumers to make them a success”.

The scenarios are the fruit of an 18-month collaboration between Sainsbury’s, Unilever, and Forum for the Future. They build on Forum’s 2007 Retail Futures scenarios, which explored the future of the UK retail industry, and draw on insights from senior executives from Sainsbury’s and Unilever in interviews and workshops.

The scenarios are robust and plausible portrayals of possible futures but are not designed to be predictions. They are a tool to understand how global challenges such as climate change, scarcity of key resources and rapid population growth may play out and affect the consumer attitudes and the consumer goods industry.

The ideas, fictional brands and stories in the Consumer Futures materials are designed to bring the scenarios to life, they are not predictions of what the future will hold nor do they represent what Sainsbury’s or Unilever plan to bring to market.

From Monday 10th October, the Consumer Futures 2020 toolkit and accompanying resources will be available to download free from http://www.forumforthefuture.org/project/consumer-futures-2020/overview.

ENDS

CONTACTS

Forum for the Future
Ulrike Stein, Communications Officer
u.stein@forumforthefuture.org
Tel: +44 207 324 3664
Mob: +44 7903581400

Sainsbury’s
Darragh Ooi, Senior Press Officer
Darragh.Ooi@sainsburys.co.uk
Tel: +44 207 695 4651 
Mob: +44 7881940331

Unilever
Paul Matthews, Corporate Media Relations Manager
Paul.Matthews@unilever.com
Tel: +44 207 822 6605
Mob: +44 7752768888

NOTES TO EDITORS

Forum for the Future

Forum for the Future is a non-profit organisation working globally with business and government to create a sustainable future. We aim to transform the critical systems that we all depend on, such as food, energy and finance, to make them fit for the challenges of the 21st century. We have 15 years’ experience inspiring new thinking, building creative partnerships and developing practical innovations to change our world. www.forumforthefuture.org

Sainsbury's

J Sainsbury plc was founded in the UK 1869 and today operates a total of 934 stores comprising 557 supermarkets and 377 convenience stores. The Sainsbury’s brand is built upon a heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. Quality and fair prices go hand-in-hand with a responsible approach to business. Sainsbury’s stores have a particular emphasis on fresh food and we strive to innovate continuously and improve products in line with our customer needs. We now serve over 22 million customers a week and have a market share of over 16 per cent. Our large stores offer around 30,000 products and we offer complementary non-food products and services in many of our stores. An internet-based home delivery shopping service is also available to nearly 93 per cent of UK households. We employ over 150,000 colleagues. www.sainsburys.co.uk

Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used over two billion times a day. Our portfolio includes some of the world’s most loved brands including Knorr, Hellmann’s, PG Tips, Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, Persil, Cif, Flora and Marmite. We have around 167,000 employees in over 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €44.3 billion in 2010. www.unilever.com

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

Our Sustainable Living Plan sets out a more sustainable business model for how we will grow our business whilst reducing our environmental impact and increasing our social impact. Visit www.sustainable-living.unilever.com for more information. 

The Forum for the Future is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Overseas House, 19-23 Ironmonger Row, London, EC1V 3QN, UK. Charity No. 1040519. Company No. 2959712. VAT Reg. No. 677 7475 70. All Forum-generated information is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Forum for the Future US is a project of Tides Center, the nation's largest fiscal sponsor.