The CSCP – Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production – was established in 2005 as a not-for-profit think-tank and “do-tank” from the collaboration between two world-renowned institutions: the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Wuppertal Institute (WI).

The CSCP is supported by the Business and Employment Support Agency, Wuppertal, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry for Environment, Agriculture and Consumer Protection.

The CSCP is a member of the international family of UNEP collaborating centres i.e. the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), the Global Resource Information Database (GRID), the UNEP Collaborating Centre on Energy and Environment (UCCEE), the UNEP Collaborating Centre on Water and Environment (UCC-Water) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

The Centre's operation is not time-limited.