Sustainable Lifestyles

Website
Under construction
Leading Country
Sweden
Contact
Ms Gunilla Blomquist

:: GOAL ::

The aim of the Task Force is to promote sustainable lifestyles in which people live more in harmony with their natural environment and develop strong socially cohesive communities.

:: Activities

The Task Force explores means for changing lifestyles and behaviour with a focus on how sustainable lifestyles can be enabled by actors such as governments and business, and on how consumers can be encouraged to make sustainable choices. Projects are exploring actions that individuals can take to modify their lifestyles toward greater sustainability. The Task Force works with the concept of lifestyle as a series of 'social conversations', in which people signal their social position and psychological aspirations. Since many of the signals are related to consumer goods, lifestyles are closely linked to material and resource flows in the society.

:: Projects on Education and Communication

The Task Force is supporting projects that are supporting capacity building on education and communication for sustainable lifestyles:

  • CD-Rom Sustainability Communications - A Toolkit for Marketing and Advertising Courses
  • Sister classrooms, a pilot project between USA, Mexico and Costa Rica aiming to develop didactic materials based on a existing curricula, focused on life-cycle and global citizenship
  • Training sessions in China and Brazil to assist governments, local authorities as well as NGOs and consumer associations with development of communication strategies and sustainability awareness campaigns
  • Website expansion and regional workshops of the UNEP/UNESCO YouthXchange programme, which promotes sustainable consumption patterns among young consumers all around the world.
  • Creative Communities for Sustainable Lifestyles (CCSL)

:: Project on Creative Communities for Sustainable Lifestyles (CCSL)

The CCSL project deals with grass roots innovations in everyday life and their implications in terms of sustainable lifestyles promotion. In particular, it compares some European experiences with the ones that can be observed in the emerging economies like China, India and Brazil and, in particular, in their growing urban populations. These results were integrated in the Sustainable Everyday Project