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About the Project
This project will inform 25 Million European citizens about sustainable production and consumption patterns (R1) and therefore run a pan-European awareness raising campaign in the EYD 2015 in all 28 EU member states
The project activities will encourage European citizens to take responsibility for the supply chain and to be active for inclusive and sustainable growth in an interdependent world by demanding Fair Trade regulations, sustainable and responsible corporate business practices and credible certification schemes. They will change their consumption pattern, which will lead to increased sales figures for Fair Trade and socially and environmentally responsible products by 5% in 2017. 3000 European journalists (TG2) will disseminate the action’s content accordingly and promote the EYD2015. The multiplier function and political power of journalists will help to achieve the SO.
Objective
The Specific objective of this project is to improve the sustainability of production and consumption patterns of supermarket store-brands in the context of the EYD2015 and beyond.
Making these widely consumed store brands more sustainable will have a huge positive impact on environmental, working and living conditions in developing countries. By increasing the accessibility for consumers to information about the impact of the life cycle of store brands will enable consumers to choose sustainable products.
The specific objective is broken down into four overall objectives: O1: Support and promote all the objectives of the EYD 2015; O2: Facilitate and contribute to pan-European debates on sustainable development in the post-MDG framework; O3: Contribute to the achievement of previous MDGs 1,2,3,7 and 8 (valid until 2015, then further elaborated in SDGs and post-MDGs); O4: Enhance the understanding of European citizens of the interdependencies between sustainable consumption and production patterns in Europe and global sustainable development.
Activities
Awareness Raising Engaging and informing citizens about the impact of their lifestyles and consumer choices with a variety of activities, among these the European Food Vision Photo Contest and Exhibition, as well as a European wide Day of Action.
Business Dialogue To develop and conduct capacity building programmes for businesses to provide solutions for hotspots of global supply chains, as well as inviting professionals from producing countries to give first hand information on working conditions and environmental issues.
Policy Advocacy To development of policy recommendations. These set the framework for more sustainable sourcing in European supermarkets.
Research To collect first hand data on the production patterns of European retail supply chains. By means of independent research we are tracing the sourcing practices of European companies to producing countries and provide recommendations on how to improve working conditions and mitigate environmental impact. Among others we have sent teams to investigate production examples of tuna, pineapple, orange juice, chocolate, as well as studies into the effectiveness of ecological and social certification schemes.
Results
In short, European citizens will develop a better understanding of the achievements of the EU with regard to the international development agenda. Furthermore, the interest of media and journalists (TG2) in issues of sustainable development will increase by the proposed project activities, so engaged European journalists will be more likely to write about related topics beyond the end of the project.
The increased awareness of European citizens (TG1) will lead to an active and bottom-up involvement into major development debates, particularly in the framework of the EYD 2015 (O1 & O2) and directly link R1 to R2. R2 – “2,5 million European citizens are sensitized to demand policy changes and to shift towards a more sustainable lifestyle.” Building on the knowledge base and information provided to the wide public through the activities linked to R1, the activities under R2 aim at translating this knowledge into action.
Additionally, social media activities will highlight and promote sustainable life styles and support an exchange between interested individuals, organisations, business and policies. To provide a possibility for citizens to take impact on EU policy, petitions will be issued to create pressure and to mobilize the citizens. To highlight and emphasize the activities under R2, a European action day in EYD 2015 will be developed and implemented. R2 will especially contribute to O3 and O4. It will also act as a push and pull factor for R3 and R4.
R3 – “Promote specific implementation plans for fairer supply chains of 3 European supermarket chains” will be achieved through activities aiming at decision makers in the supermarket supply chains (TG4) and by providing blueprints for sustainable supply chain management and business models that support a future sustainable trade in the EU.
Target groups
- TG1: The 25 Million European citizens are the first target group.
- TG2: The second target group is the media/journalists (3000 people)
- TG3: Civil Society Organisations - CSOs
- TG4: Decision makers in the supermarket supply chains