Forum on Eco-smart Consumption

The Forum on Eco-smart Consumption is an important national contributor in the work to reach the UN's global target for sustainable development. In addition to the global targets it has also been determined that the Forum on Eco-smart Consumption shall contribute to reaching the Swedish environmental targets including the generation target. The Forum focuses on private consumption and the areas where this has the greatest impact on the environment - the areas that have been identified are food, mobility, housing, textiles, electronics, holiday travel and fund saving. The Forum is especially focusing on behavioral change for an eco-smart consumption and gender equality regarding consumption. The Forum on Eco-smart Consumption contributes to reach the goals by providing a digital meeting place where you can • discuss challenges and suggestions with other persons working for an eco-smart consumption. • find information about behavioral change methods and tools. • be inspired by different projects related to sustainable consumption. But the Forum is not just a digital meeting place, but a real meeting-place as well. The Forum organize various types of physical events and meetings. The Forum gather those who work on sustainable consumption in the public, private or non-profit sector. Together we will achieve the Forum's vision that environmentally sustainable consumption shall become the standard for future generations. The Forum on Eco-smart Consumption together with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) organised in November 2018 the fourth annual workshop on sustainable Lifestyles (Nationell verkstad för hållbar livsstilar). The workshop is part of SEPA’s task of coordinating the national implementation of the global 10 Year Framework Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP). This time the workshop was held in Karlstad. The focus of the workshop was consumer behavior and how to motivate people to consume more sustainable. The aim of the workshop was also to identifying concrete measures for the way in which Sweden can translate words into action to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle. The workshop attracted more than 150 participants from different areas of society. Plenary sessions with speakers were combined with the opportunity to mingle, interactive art activities and parallel workshops. During the workshops the participant had the opportunity to try different tools and methods for behavioral change. During the workshops the participants could experience, for example, how communication can be used as a tool for behavioral change as well as how innovation and cooperation can be useful tools and methods. The fact that sustainable lifestyles are a complex and multifaceted area was reflected in all the discussions, stations and presentations. This was why many participants also emphasised the importance of representatives for the many different players and sectors meeting up to be able to tackle the challenges more efficiently. Many participants got the chance to meet people and get to know organisations that they had never come across before. The Forum on Eco-smart Consumption launched the digital meeting place (DMP) in the end of February 2018 and so far, we have over 300 members and you can find more than 40 projects on the DMP. The Forum is also a real meeting-place with 10 arranged events during the year with almost 500 persons attending the events. Almost 60 % of the attendees say that they think that the meeting set-up contributes to cooperation and collaboration. The goals of the Forum are spreading knowledge about consumer behavior and to provide tools for behavioral change as well as to provide a meeting place for persons working on sustainable consumption. The Forum will continue to work to achieve these goals. Visit the digital meeting place forummiljosmart.se and register yourself and your project. You can also attend our events where you can find other persons workning on eco-smart consumtion.