This article originally appeared in BSR's Insight, and is reprinted with permission.

Sustainable consumption remains the next big challenge in sustainability. Without recounting impending resource scarcity and the population boom, the macro trends show that we're heading into a very different world.

While leading companies have focused on reducing the negative environmental and social impacts on the supply side for years, those efficiency gains will get us only part of the way to a sustainable society.

And so attention now swings to the demand side. Sustainable consumption, at its core, is trying to resolve the tension between limited resources and consumer demand.

Last year, BSR's research report illuminated opportunities for companies to pursue sustainable consumption by coupling radical efficiency gains in production with product design, consumer engagement, and end-of-use efforts.

But acting on sustainable consumption is hard for consumers and brands. It's a systems-level challenge, and truly sustainable production, usage, and end-of-use processes must look very different from our current approach -- likely requiring everything from the redesign of regulations that govern the lifecycle value of products, to a more enlightened definition of profit that incorporates environmental and social attributes in addition to financial ones.

It's a daunting prospect, which leaves even the most well-intentioned organizations paralyzed, while most others dismiss it outright. And consumers are no better off. Sustainable consumption is usually framed as a sacrifice for them, so it lacks resonance.

With sustainable consumption stuck between a push and a pull, there's no champion for taking action. So where will action take place?

We won't get to sustainable consumption in one jump. It will be a series of small hops that inform us along the way. Instead of trying to redesign the system, let's experiment to learn and to create and test solutions. These prototypes will help us refine the challenge and provide the building blocks for a systems redesign.

We need prototypes that address sustainable consumption challenges in the supply chain, in regulatory circles, in business models, and with consumers. How do we create regulatory systems and business models that support reduced consumption while not constraining returns? How and when do we engage consumers?