SPREAD

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SPREAD

Background:

The concept of sustainable lifestyles refers to patterns of behaviour shaped by personal and social interactions and conditioned by environmental and socio-economic contexts. It aims at improving well-being and health of present and future generations. Sustainable lifestyles are a relatively new idea in the sustainable consumption and production domain. A comprehensive research agenda and a policy strategy for promoting it is still missing in the EU.

The SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 project aims to fill this gap by consolidating the existing knowledge gained from research projects and experiences of stakeholder networks. The project comprises researchers, health and education experts, industry, services and civil society representatives. It will create scenarios of sustainable lifestyles in 2050, and develop a roadmap with a timeline on how to achieve sustainable lifestyles. Knowledge and information on sustainable lifestyles will be shared and transferred through an on-line platform for stakeholders that will host an ongoing dialogue open to the public.

Aims & Objectives:

The overall aim of SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 project is the formulation of a research agenda for the EU and its Member States on how to address the challenge of reducing current levels of energy, transport and resource use while at the same time improving health and quality of life of an ageing European society.

It will do this by reviewing the knowledge base and learning from existing best practice cases, in the area of sustainable living, moving, consuming and healthy lifestyles. The analysis of barriers and drivers to the mainstreaming of current initiatives will be used to create alternative future scenarios of sustainable lifestyles for 2050 which will imply social and behavioural innovation. The project will define a roadmap for different stakeholders on how the shift to sustainable lifestyles by 2050 can be facilitated and how new European social models can be established. Based on the findings and results of the project, a research agenda for EC policy makers on how to facilitate the shift towards more sustainable lifestyles will be developed.

Activities:

The project’s launch conference was organised in Cologne on 24-25 May, 2011. The findings and results from the analysis of the knowledge base and examples of good practices were presented, discussed and validated by a wide range of stakeholders. Four working groups were formed to address sustainable lifestyles in the areas of living, consuming and moving, and to ensure that health and well-being, demographic changes and equity are a cross-cutting issue within these areas.

EuroHealthNet is leading the working group on “sustainable society”, which is cross-cutting the areas of sustainable living, consuming and moving and ensures that the perspective of population health, well-being, and equity in an ageing society, are included.

A workshop on healthy and sustainable lifestyles was organised in early May (Brussels, the 5th) to identify existing knowledge, good practices and experience in the area of healthy lifestyles and sustainable development.

An on-line platform is established to engage stakeholders from policy, economics, academics and civil society in an ongoing dialogue and to provide feedback on project’s findings, visions and scenarios for the future. It includes a people’s forum to bring the voice of EU citizens in the project, while encouraging cultural and regional diversity, and current consumer segments with a balanced coverage of different age groups and nationalities.

New ideas for best practices, so called “emerging visions” supported by different visualisations will be developed following a second working group meeting. The results will be summarised in four future scenarios to offer a systemic view on different options for new European social models for sustainable lifestyles in 2050. A third workshop (Brussels, December 2011) will apply the back-casting tool and connect the end-states of the scenarios to the present day and develop a roadmap for sustainable lifestyles by 2050.

The knowledge and recommendations generated in the project will be included in a Comprehensive Research Agenda. The final project conference (Brussels, September 2012) will present the created scenarios with visualisations and the road map on how to achieve sustainable lifestyles by 2050, with the aim to prioritize steps and recommendations. The roles of different stakeholders will be discussed and a set of practical recommendations will be formulated as a policy brief presenting the roadmap for sustainable lifestyles in 2050.

Other Partners involved:

The SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050is a 24-month project (starting in January 2011), coordinated by the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production(CSCP, Germany). The project partners are EuroHealthNet, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED, Belgium), the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University (ULUND, Sweden), Demos Helsinki (Finland), Ecoinstitut Barcelona (ECOI, Spain) and Politecnico di Milano (Italy).