closing conference report [PDF] - SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles ...

SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050Current Lifestyles Impacts (Oksana Mont –University Lund)Ms. Mont seesmore and more apolarized worldgrowing: “There’stoo much work forone and none forothers, our homesare getting biggerand more heatingproducts areinstalled. We havethe same problemwith transport: it isgetting moreefficient but ownership is growing.” She concludesthat technological changes will not be enough. Butthere’s good news as well: all wellbeing factorsmentioned by Europeans are low energy actionslike reading and walking in nature. Small scaleinitiatives are important test beds for large scalesolutions. There is a need for governmental supportand facilitation. “At the local level we seesustainable neighbourhoods emerging through cocreationand participation.” But we need also moreinnovation in research to bridge the gap betweendisciplines, advance experimentation and toenvision alternative pathways. There is all theknowledge we need to create sustainable lifestyles.We are the first generation to design a whole newplanet and we may well be the last generation tohave that choice. Why is that not happening faster?Reactions from Lars Mortensen (EEA) andVictoria Thoresen (PERL)Lars Mortensen: “Unfortunately nowadays wespend a lot of money on very cheap things - inorder to have sustainable consumption andlifestyles we need to re-think new measures ofsuccess and models for growth. We don’t currentlyhave adequate policies to tackle this.Environmental labels like the EU flower is notenough. We need to look at where the Europeansubsidies go. The roadmap presents concreteideas in its policy pathways - we need to take theseideas forward to policy-makers as Europe currentlyoften supports and reinforces unsustainablelifestyles with unsustainable policies.”Victoria Thoresen: “As PERL we conducted visionexercises with young people and we noticed achange in the last 10 years. The SPREADscenarios shown today are colourful and showingthings that are already happening. So how do weallow young people to achieve the transition theyalready know?” Victoria also expressed theimportance of holistic and lifelong learning andsocial innovation. It is not only educating youngpeople, but also re-educating adults.Download the presentationhttp://www.sustainablelifestyles.eu/fileadmin/images/Conference_presentations/7_Oksana_SPREAD_Impacts_ToDos_v4.pdfDownload the SPREAD Baseline Reporthttp://www.sustainablelifestyles.eu/fileadmin/images/content/D1.1_Baseline_Report.pdfDownload the SPREAD Research Agendahttp://www.sustainablelifestyles.eu/fileadmin/images/content/D6.1_Research_Agenda.PDFFinal Conference Report 19