From best practices to bridges for a more sustainable future: advances and challenges in the transition to global sustainable production and consumption Introduction to the ERSCP stream of the Special volume

This stream of the special volume addresses advances being made towards, and challenges for sustainable production and consumption. The article presents a variety of papers that document leading examples of recent developments in understanding and knowledge, before assessing gaps within current progress and posing questions and challenges for future research and practice. An overview framework is constructed to categorise the papers, and to illustrate key actors and factors for sustainable production and consumption. The themes covered include specific examples of progress in areas such as sustainable production, covering topics such as eco-efficiency, waste management and the use of renewable resources, as well as sustainable consumption and the role of consumers. Supporting actions and themes are included, showing recent advances in design and innovation for sustainability and the role of assessment and benchmarking. Finally, contributions that consider how to connect production with consumption, and upscaling and bridging, are examined. The article concludes by proposing that continued progress is reliant on further connecting production and consumption, and ensuring that consumer and user perspectives are integrated into innovation and design processes so as to overcome hindering factors such as rebound effects. A call for further progress is issued on what needs to be done to go beyond 'good examples' and on what actions and strategies are able to share and spread success stories of sustainable production and consumptions to different contexts and settings. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.