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iours. By the end of 2009 there were plans to post some 60 guidelines coving virtually
all aspects of life. Being privately financed and operated, the Utopia initiative
demonstrates that private organisations can play a role in public education for sustainable
lifestyles.
The Utopia website is constantly updated, providing users a rationale to visit regularly.
In addition to daily news items and information articles, Utopia regularly
launches new campaigns, mostly in cooperation with NGOs such as Greenpeace,
the World Wide Fund for Nature, or with other private firms. Each month one aspect
of sustainable living is treated in detail. By showing desirable sustainable
products or portraying interesting people as role models, Utopia inspires and motivates
users for sustainable living.
In addition to its website, Utopia offers a number of offline cross-media tools. There
are local meetings of Utopia members in nine German cities and an annual Utopia
conference that brings together important change-makers and hosts a Utopia
awards ceremony. Utopia is privately financed by Ms. Langer together with advertising
revenue, which thus far only covers operating expenses with future profits
being earmarked for a foundation established by Utopia.
Stakeholders involved
Utopia is acutely aware of the necessity to build strategic partnerships. Therefore,
they constantly enter into partnership with different stakeholders from a diversity of
fields, except political institutions. As they view their platform as having a strong
public education function, they do intend to make application for public funding for
products such as the development of consumer product guides. In order to base
these product guides on solid research, Utopia cooperates with experts such as
the Öko-Institut e.V., the Wuppertal Institute and the Potsdam-Institute. Utopia
also cooperates with different media stakeholders, including nature + kosmos,
Die Zeit oder Jetzt.de, with the purpose of (a) exchanging relevant content, (b)
mutually enhancing new editorial perspectives, (c) mutually enlarging sustainability
coverage/awareness.
From the private sector, partners involved include Otto, Hess Natur, GLS Bank
and Henkel, all active in promoting sustainable products and other programs.
These firms act as permanent sponsors, meaning that they financially support Utopia
and in exchange are entitled to use the platform for marketing communication,
including advertising, customer and community dialogue, and market research
purposes. As Utopia is a private profit driven company, they also cooperate under
temporary arrangements with other firms that use the site for marketing communication
purposes. Non-governmental stakeholders involved currently include
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