We challenge the participants of this conference to live a day in the future more sustainably!
The marketplace will be participants‘ ticket to a day in their lives in the future. This interactive and future looking marketplace and demonstration centre seeks to stretch our thinking to the realm of possibility for what our lives could be like in a sustainable future. It seeks to translate what sustainability means for our everyday lives and the decisions and trade-offs that we make at every instant the way we live, move, consume, as well as our health and well-being. Sustainable Days of our Lives. Market Place & Demonstration Center. Marketplace Co-designers:
CSCP, Politecnico Milano, Sustainability Control Loop, Living Map, Borderstep
- How do we eat and what?
- How do we travel and where?
- How are we connected to other people?
- How will our houshold be organised?
- What devices and innovations will help us to live more sustainably?
- What are our needs based on where we live in Europe?
- What are we motivated by? (price, convenience, quality, relationships, trends?)
- What life improvements are important to us? (what is the life that we want?)
- Do we feel empowered to change our lifestyle?
- How do we work, how do we earn our living?
- What is our idea of sustainable living?
- What is easy? What is hard? Why?
- What are the system boundaries of our neighbourhood?
- (access to renewable energy? Infrastructure for recycling? Compost?
- Urban farming? Low-carbon mobility, employment, etc)
Why Sustainable Lifestyles & Entrepreneurship?
This conference marks the launch of a unique European social platform that envisions a world of sustainable living, moving, consuming and society. The project „SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050“, supported by the European Commissions 7th Framework Programme, brings together current knowledge, experience and stakeholders from across society (business, consumers, research, civil society, and policy) in a highly interactive process, that will develop a vision for sustainable lifestyles in 2050, and will deliver a roadmap for action: societal innovation, product, service & business model innovation opportunity spaces, and policy recommendations.
This conference puts innovation at the centre of its dialogue because we feel strongly that to achieve sustainable lifestyles we need to radically rethink current systems that are driving unsustainable trends of global ecological overshoot and vast inequities in human well-being. Technological innovation as well as societal innovation are here key: While technological innovations and efficiencies in industrial production must play a significant role, vast changes will also be required to individual consumption and lifestyles to make them more sustainable. The concept of sustainable lifestyles refers to patterns of behaviour shaped by personal needs, desires, motivations and social interactions, conditioned by environmental and socio-economic contexts that aim at improving well-being and health of present and future generations.
There is significant potential in the development of social innovations that will help people to adopt more sustainable lifestyles, and thus, bridge the gaps between current unsustainable business-as-usual trajectories and the visions for sustainable futures that recent research has mapped out.
Herein lies a vast opportunity space for the entrepreneurs, policy-makers, civil society organisations, innovators, inventors and intrapreneurs who dare to address these gaps in the market and in society with their creativity and ingenuity. There is also opportunity to enable and scale up these critical innovations and first-movers to help us achieve sustainable business practices and lifestyles.
How does this event link Sustainable Lifestyles, Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Policy?
This conference will provide a platform for participants to sample the latest and greatest thinking on SCP, sustainable lifestyles, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and innovators working on solutions addressing sustainable lifestyles will be invited to test and improve their concepts and business models with potential buyers and promoters. Roundtable and workshop discussions will provide the next agendas for research, policy and action to promote, incubate and enable sustainability-driven lifestyles and entrepreneurship. The marketplace, networking spaces, match-making, and workshops will help participants to identify and engage in activities with tangible impacts today and for future planning.
We aim to directly address the current urgency for fast progress and new solutions within new cultural and policy frameworks that will drive sustainable lifestyles and entrepreneurship into the future.
What can you expect to explore?
The un-conference elements will cover key topics and themes in the areas of sustainable lifestyles and entrepreneurship. Special attention will be paid to capitalizing on the linkages between these areas and uncovering the resulting opportunities for influencing future lifestyle patterns and business ventures for sustainability and bringing together the relevant actors. As part of the bridging activities, the conference will launch the EU SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyle 2050 project and will be the first event to link the existing knowledge on sustainable lifestyles, with the creativity and innovation needed to overcome current barriers to sustainable moving, consuming, living and the creation of a sustainable society. The EU SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyle 2050 project is consolidating existing knowledge about sustainable lifestyles and will create scenarios and roadmaps for how to move to sustainable lifestyles Europe-wide by 2050.
Who should attend?
* Sustainability Practitioners
* Healthcare Professionals
* Entrepreneurs
* Innovation Managers
* Impact Investors
* Marketers & Advertisors
* Communicators
* Sustainable Consumption Practitioners
* Civil Society Organisations
* Intrapreneurs
* New Venture Managers
* Venture Capitalists
* Designers
* Journalists
* Lifestyle Experts
* Policy-Makers
* Innovators
* Sustainable Business Models
* Philanthropic Foundations
* Film Producers
* Media Organisations
Opportunities that this conference will offer for the following sample groups of practitioners include:
* Micro-entrepreneurs will find in sustainable entrepreneurship the inspiration, tools and opportunities to leverage their activities and widen the impact their businesses have on societal growth, economical well-being and environmental preservation.
* Sustainable Intrapreneurs will find opportunities to explore means to boost employees‘ creativity and turn the potential of people into a competitive advantage.
* Organized Civil Society members will find means to improve the quality of performance of the not-for-profit sector, collaborating with social entrepreneurs, researchers and business managers to build the vision and plans to weave thriving and healthy structures that enhance a sustainable lifestyle.
* Policy-makers will find themselves in an environment that enables partnerships and collaboration for designing, developing and replicating visionary and ambitious institutional frameworks that enable local and international regulations to shape the way businesses operate and societies develop their lifestyles towards more sustainable forms of consumption and production. They will have the chance to take discussed and improved ideas for next agendas for policy back home.
* Venture Capitalists will see in Sustainable Entrepreneurship the possibilities for not only successfully launching new, profitable businesses but also finding new ways to lower risks and increase the value of their shares in existing micro-entrepreneurial initiatives.
* Venture Philanthropists will find more ways to mix traditional financing practices with entrepreneurial initiatives to promote, enable and/or develop sustainable businesses on various scales and improve the quality of micro-entrepreneurship.
* Researchers and Educators will find the space to turn their findings into practical applications and source from the experience of practitioners to strengthen their role as pillars for knowledge and innovation. Their involvement is what provides a common language to all actors and facilitates the dialogue and exchange of ideas and commitments. Researchers will have the chance to discuss and improve ideas for next agendas.
* Business Incubators will find practices and ideas for fostering favourable environments to start up new, sustainable enterprises, channelling the creativity of entrepreneurs to support societies towards living a sustainable lifestyle.
* Media Producers and Communicators will present themselves as the main vehicles for raising awareness about sustainable lifestyles, new policies and government and business initiatives for sustainability alike. Advertisers and Journalists will get inspiration for new ways of story-telling about current and future consumption and production patterns.
* Producers and Marketers will have the opportunity to tell about their steps towards sustainable products, services and business models.
* Community Representatives will be able to share their viewpoints, contribute to the development of research and policy agendas and engage a broad group of other stakeholders in their activities.
* Corporate Managers will be invited to test and improve their concepts and business models with potential buyers and promoters (businesses, investors and policy-makers).
