"The project aims at increasing knowledge about the impact of sustainable consumption (SC) policies on consumption patterns and on sustainability. This objective will be achieved by the following steps: A conceptual model will be developed as a framework for the whole project. Embedded in a broader overview of general SC strategies and instruments, research will focus on the need areas of food and housing. For these areas, sustainability potentials will be quantified in order to identify the potential that SC policies may tap. Impacts will then be explored at macro and micro-level that food and housing related SC instruments throughout Europe have on consumption patterns (Impact Assessment). Instruments to be looked at encompass regulatory and economic instruments, including fiscal and procurement policies, as well as communicative instruments, procedural regulation and societal self-regulation. Conditions of success and failure of these instruments will be identified. The instrument impact assessment is based on the analysis of statistical data, expert interviews, focus groups with consumers and workshops with public procurers. Having explored the impact of SC instruments on consumption patterns, a material flow analysis will be carried out to assess their impact on sustainability, including at international level. Options to enhance sustainable consumption patterns will be explored, especially with regard to designing, implementing and transferring effective SC instruments. On the basis of the project results, policy recommendations will be developed to be fed into the Marrakech process. The project is relevant to the Work Programme by identifying the impact of different types of policy instruments at disaggregated level; by evaluating the conditions of success and failure of SC strategies in an interdisciplinary effort; by developing links between the economy, environment and society and presenting innovative policies to make consumption more sustainable."