**Preface to "Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns: Policy Design and Evaluation"**

From 2016 to 2021, a five-year research project on sustainable consumption and production titled "S-16 Project on Policy Design and Evaluation to Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns in Asian Region (PECoP-Asia)" was conducted as a collaborative research project among 11 leading research universities and institutes in Japan: University of Tokyo, National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES), Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Keio University, Osaka University, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Ritsumeikan University, Kobe University, Kyushu University, Nanzan University, United Nations University/Institute for the Advanced Study for Sustainability. This collaborative project (JPMEERF16S11600) was funded by Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund of Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA) of Japan. As core members of this research project, the gues<sup>t</sup> editors decided to publish a Special Issue in Sustainability (MDPI journal), contributing to the research and knowledge development on policy design and evaluation for sustainable consumption and production. This book is a reprint of the Special Issue Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns: Policy Design and Evaluation.

Under the era of the Paris Agreement and SDGs, the agenda for sustainability has shifted from regulation to designing fundamental changes in the socio-technical system towards a decarbonized and circular society. This shift would largely depend on taking advantage of emerging forces in the socio-technical system. This includes new business models, drivers of wealth, wellbeing and human development, urbanization, disruptive technologies, and digitization. Socio-technical innovations are crucial to ensure that these forces do not divert our society away from sustainability. Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) policy design and evaluation encounter a fundamental shift in its focuses. Firstly, SCP policies are expanding from the environmental policy domain to socio-technology policy domain. Secondly, strengthening linkages between consumption and production is a key emerging trend. Thirdly, the transition to SCP is a socio-technical regime shift requiring successive changes in social practices, technology use in daily life, and associated infrastructure. Fourth, bottom-up approaches are necessary to enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of SCP policies as well as to enable new business models and lifestyles for SCP.

Based on this recognition, this book is intended to highlight why SCP policy design and evaluation needs to overcome conventional environmental policy framework. Emerging SCP policy design and evaluation do not focus on individual products or behaviors/or improving efficiency in managemen<sup>t</sup> system in relation to environmental sustainability; instead, they address a more socio-economic system and target collective efforts for the transition. This is fundamentally different from environmental policy design responding to pollution. It is vital to identify and develop communication tools for sharing visions among stakeholders to facilitate collective actions towards sustainable lifestyles. Emerging SCP policy design under the era of SDGs include communication/planning tools as well as those expecting multiple effect/unintended effect contributing to social well-being. At the same time, for sustainability transition and to achieve global targets for sustainability such as SDGs, it is vital to identify gaps and opportunities for sustainable consumption in the specific context of rapidly emerging economies such as China, India, Vietnam, and Thailand, as presented in this book. Effort has been made for this book/Special Issue to feature studies contributing to policy design and evaluation in this direction. The papers in this book sugges<sup>t</sup> that SCP policy design and evaluation needs to pay more attention to social aspects of sustainability such as social infrastructure and well-being and socio-technical systems and societal empowerment to ensure an effective and just transition to sustainability. Thus, we are very pleased to compile this book based on the Special Issue together. The gues<sup>t</sup> editors would like to express their sincere appreciation to the authors for their contributions as well as all collaborators of the PECoP-Asia project for their support.

> **Yasuhiko Hotta, Tomohiro Tasaki, and Shunsuke Managi** *Editors*
