It is huge challenge. Thank you Christophe for putting everything so passionately. Actually this was the thing that I wanted to say this morning as well. Uh because I have been working with communities in Estonia sabe from yourself. But what we in
The British Council have been trying to do is bringing communities together. To design new ideas, new projects and to implement them. We have had girls empowerment projects where the girls have come up with ideas very very creative, new ideas, and they
Have really implemented these ideas to make the world a better place to care for the climate, to care for the environment. Some of you Palestinians know about the social enterprise and the huge impact from France last year bringing together about a thousand social
Enterprises in their sternum. Actually, these people started four or five years ago. Who is a social enterprise was 40 young a gente vai explicar YouTube. Not giving up. Sometimes it’s very very difficult and thought I was worried about
Thank you, Ambassador. Ah, good morning everyone. Thank you all you for being present ah today here at the Green Habita Conference two thousand twenty-three. Focusing on team of civil society, ideas for sustainable green future of Europe. Being among such dedicated individuals working
Towards a sustainable and green future is a distinct honor and privilege In the two thousand nineteen, we founded the network of civil society organizations, Green Habitat. As a network for sustainable and green future. The network is based in Helsinki, Finland.
It has grown from a nordic Baltic region to the whole of Europe. It’s made up of 39 umbrella organizations and associations from seventeen European Union member states and the United Kingdom. Various foundations and national projects support the network. Ladies and gentlemen, topics we
Will discuss today called immerse importance for our planet and the region’s well being. Climate change and its impact on our environment, promoting a circular economy, developing new green technology reducing over consumption, and activating civil society organizations and community
Are key elements in building a sustainable future. It’s crucial to recognize that the challenges we face today require cooperation among three vital sectors. Civil society, government, and business. Each sector has a unique role in driving change and creating a sustainable future for Europe.
Buy, working together, we can leverage our collective strengths and expertise to address the pressing issues we face. In the face of numerous economic, political, environmental, security, security related or health related crisis. Our world is undergoing significant and possible radical changes. The
European region reaching in has been dramatically affected. We need to acknowledge the gravity of these challenges and take proactive measures to mitigate their impact. By embracing sustainable practices, implementing in innovative solutions and fostering strong partnership, we can create a more resilient
And prosperous future for Europe. We must try positive change and ensure that future generations inherit the thriving and system sustainable plight. In conclusion, I emphasize the importance of collaboration, shared responsibility, and decisive action. We harness our collective determination and
Work together towards a greener and more sustainable Europe. Thank you. Once again for being here and I look forward to engaging in insightful discussions and fruitful collaborations throughout this conference and in conclusion I would like to leave you with this segment
From a poem by Robert Frost who says, Two roles diverts in a yellow wood. And sorry I could not travel both. I shall be telling this with a sign. Whereas ages and ages hence. Two roles diverse in a boot and
I I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. Thank you. Uh thank you. Thank you very much and also thank you for the work that Green Habitor is doing and I’m sure that in years to come, the number of
Associations included in your network will grow as much as it is needed particularly to raise you raising the awareness about the the issue that we face concerning our environment And particularly also the need that we need to change our habits,
We need to change our basically pattern. Uh to to make it more environment friendly. Uh now it is my real pleasure to call on Maine Tito. Founder of and CEO of Loverism. Estonia. Hello. Hello. Okay. Hi. Um thank you for having me here.
And I will share my thoughts and ideas and perspectives on circular economy and also the civil society connection and what civil society has already done. Great. Uh for circular circular economy and what it can still do. May be at first
We start with a question what is circular economy? I guess all of you have heard that words, combination, and you maybe think could it be that it’s a circle like something is in a circle, right? So maybe you’re thinking that okay we
Have a planet that’s let’s say a sphere but it could also fit into that circle. So is this like our planet in some certain circle? like the atmosphere around us. Um another perspective that people often have around circular economies
That maybe it is just about putting your waste into the right bin and that is circular economy. That we just sort our waste and then we try to recycle things. We try to make something out of those coke bottles. Uh and that is
Circular economy Good news, bad news. Like part of it but not really circular economy. So if I go back to the to the planets, then it is obvious that actually our planet is in a circle. There are limits. There are limits how deep we
Can dig, how deep we can mine, in South Africa, for example, gold is being mined already in the depth of not one thousands meters. But two kilometres. So can you imagine going to work two kilometres underground? Uh so that’s how
Deep we have to mine already nowadays to get the resources we need. And obviously I think it’s like basic education geography lesson, nature lessons in school when we’re like twelve that we we this resources on the planet that are limited. So from circular
Economy point of view and thief have to put in a huge graph as well but this is the best craft that I have found to explain the essence of circular economy to really it really grasp grasps the the essence of it.
So we have two things we have to think about. So it’s not about sorting waste. Eh and it’s not about it’s not about the making things out of plastic bottles so they can become waste after that but first of all it’s about making
Sure that whatever circular solutions we create they reduce the demand for raw materials. So we somehow find ways how everything in this room, in this building, for example, the walls, the doors, the chairs, the tables, the curtains, how they can be in the circulation
Without us needing to go grow more cotton to mine more. You don’t mind concrete but you know gravel and and and things like that and cutting down more trees. And the other principle is that we then it reduce the things that end up actually in
Incinerators or landfills because if something is in a landfill, it’s a lost resource and this means that we have to go back to the beginning of my a new resource. And the worst, yes, we can burn waste to make energy. Yes, we can heat our
Rooms with that but that is not the sustainable solution because it still implies that we need somewhere the resources again. There are several methods for circular economy. Uh that we can talk about from sharing, economy, we talk about not owning things, not owning
The car, not owning the bicycle owning a washing machine and twenty thousand, buying gas stores that access. Because I don’t know about you but I personally do not need to own a washing machine. But I need to have access to the the function
Of a washing machine at the moment where my laundry basket is full. It’s the same with the with transport. I don’t need to own a car. None of us needs to own a car. But what we need is that at the moment when I need
To come to this conference for example this this morning I had an option of transportation. I had an option of walking, biking, taking a bus, not necessarily having to come by car. So, that’s what we need to have access to things rather
Than actually owning those things. We can talk about maintaining, repairing, reusing, refurbishing things. So, we try to really make things last longer. You might think can be like, hm but this sounds like you’re talking about things and stuff and
Materials but where is the aspect of humans like we’re not product designers, we’re just consumers. So if we look at the broads, oh, I had another circle there. So I wanted to say that also that there’s a element that actually all this
Methods are enabled by design that we design things to be long-lasting and durable and repairable. So, that’s also something that the that the regulation can do and that the businesses are responsible for. We, as consumers are not responsible for badly designed
Product and then feeling bad that it broke immediately. But about what humans can do. So I mean humans can do everything. But certainly we actually apply certain economy principles to our society, throughout different levels. Um and sectors. Then this is actually
Bringing also change to how we work and how we live our lives. And I claim that we will also increase our quality of life. Because if we get to it applies principles that also implies that we get to live a slower
Lifestyle. Because in order to or we should all live a slower lifestyle because in order to repair anything you need to have time to actually sit down and and sue the button back on your shirt. Um Forex example to
To be able to enjoy life also a little bit better and not just like be stressed all the time. You also have to have this space in your life where maybe you don’t have to worry about the repairing your washing machine because you are having
The subscription model where the service provider is taking care of that worry for you. So, there are a lot of there is a lot of research done in that aspect as well that the ways how we were are changing as we the develop more circular
Solutions and as we go also more into generally a sustainable society. The so I have a question to you. Uh in European Union, numerous countries have implemented their circular economy or they have made the soccer economy strategy or a road map and
European Union in itself was one the first one in 2015 who then proposed circular economy action plan. And my question to you is, what do you think, how many percent, like, what is the percentage of EU countries that have implemented, or I can’t
Say implemented, but I have a strategy for circular economy. So, grace of hands, who thinks that it’s 25% of EU countries, there are 27 countries in the Philippine Union, okay? Who thinks that it’s fifty? Alright, and who thinks it’s one hundred? Alright, I like
Pessimism. But I have great news. actually. The answer is 100percent. They’re each European Union country has their own national strategy or a road map. It it might be in some countries it’s even legally binding in some countries like the story
Unfortunately as we also heard. Uh earlier it’s a voluntary document but it exists. So that gives us hope but that gives us that serve their economy is not just the thing I am passionate here about and I know Andre is passionate about but it’s a
Thing that actually the states also in that sense are passionate about. So if we go into the civil society aspects of what this all the sustainable development circular economy has. How it has influenced the society then actually there have been so
Many grassroots initiatives that city society has been like carrying out and popularizing it. And it can go from repairing the repair cafe initiative that has been going on already for decades in the Netherlands. Uh there is the element of repair centers that
You can go and have access to different devices and tools that you might not have at home. There’s the element of community gardens that this is not like state regulated thing like hey citizens make community gardens but this is completely a civic society
Initiative on own. And we can look into also that the civil society has provided also kind of like a test bed for different solutions. Ah for example sustainability in events is at least in a stone and has been becoming like a
Bigger thing in the last couple of years. Where big events like state organized conferences and events also looked into sustainability aspects. I remember 10 years ago when I was a youth worker in a in a student organization We were 10
Years ago already doing like a vegetarian Saturday at our statutory events and really looking into the environment, mental impact encouraging people to travel by land instead of by plane. So that’s the place where you can really create and adjust and influence
The values of people and for them to realize that okay I do have some impact myself. And then in the last five years, climate activism, again, the state wasn’t like, let’s do climate activism or businesses were were still not really
There. But young people and civilian society supporting them on a broader scale. taking really this topic of hey we need to act now into mainstream media, into masses, making millions move and think about this topic and this is something that has not been
Provided by the state will never be provided by the state and will also never be provided by businesses. So it is extremely important that civil society is feeling that role. But there are some couple of challenges ahead but I do
Encourage you to draw this conference also. See maybe you can find solutions. Uh to those ones that What happened? We have a, okay. Oi. Yay. No. Yes. Alright. So, the challenge is ahead. Uh what we have is even though we have Fridays for
Future movement, young people are aware of climate change consequences, having climate anxiety due to that, etcetera. Um, there is still a lot of lack of awareness of that we need change, that we need to find sustainable ways in business, in our everyday life,
In legislation, so that is definitely one of the challenges like how do you get people educated? How do you get them to care about this topic? Because in a lot of countries still sustainability climate change still some sort of like
A far far topic that is not I don’t care, I’m not influenced by it, I don’t see the impacts of it on my everyday life. And the second challenge that is really really like burning now is the cost of living crisis. where people are really
Struggling to make ends meet, which means that if I have to choose, if to eat, or if to buy like a sustainable expensive shirt, I’m going to choose eating at any even time. And that is also the challenge why sustainability, living more
Sustainably, has become also a bit like, privileged people, chat, opportunity because they can afford that, because they don’t have to fight for their survival. So also it’s a matter of, how can we provide people fair and just living conditions, reduce inequality,
So then we can also, all of us worry about sustainability as well. And the last challenge, not the only, but these are not the only challenges. Out there. Um, but the, the last one I bring out to you is also the element of scaling, circular
Solutions that as I said, so civil society provides a really good test bed. So we can do small scale, we can get small success stories but how do you get that into the masses? How do you get the critical mass
Behind it that it would become a regular thing? For example, in Estonia, in the last couple of years, we use systems have been really like being implemented. That’s for example, at festivals, you have reusable cups that you don’t have single-use plastic and
Then you still have people like being completely freaking out if you tell them that hey you can’t sell your fries in a in a cone you have to put it in a reusable box and they’re just freaking out. And I’m like but
Why? Are you freaking out? Like it doesn’t change the taste of rice. Like like let’s get let’s get along. Let’s adapt to the changing times and that’s the challenge like how do you get solutions on a bigger scale and how you get the naysayers away
From the road. Um that’s what I wanted to tell you. Uh I’m happy to connect with you because I will not be here for the whole conference. Uh so if you want to share your thoughts, ask questions, just connect with me on LinkedIn and
Other places. Uh you’re happy to do so. I’m happy if you do so. Um and in general there’s a long way ahead and I’m really happy that this conference is happening here. Uh it that’s the sustainability, circular economy, topic sense, society
Are the core of it and I wish you a very pleasant day ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much Ivy. This was extremely interesting and as you might expect I’m sure that there are a lot of questions that probably would
Be put to you in connection with the presentation that you made. But personally I also do have a lot of questions but wait until the the panel or you will be sitting to ask those questions. But I I wanted to
Say that what really caught my attention is the issue of sustainability versus providing alternatives Which lead to acceptability and readiness to change. And I think those are the biggest challenges in when it comes to to consumption when it comes to pattern. Living
Pathways. Uh whether they are linked to the consumer as an individual or to the business community as producing. And I think those to probably be needs to be looked into more profoundly. But thank you very much. It was a very very interesting presentation. And
Do we have few minutes in the question or we conclude. Okay. Alright. So, with this, we conclude our opening segment. We move on to our first panel And I’m very very pleased to see Annali here and it is with great pleasure that I greet
Her. And also give her the floor to organize the panel. And Ellie. Thank you very much and thank you for for having me here. I’m really really happy. I’m glad to be here as well as as already said that I also
Cannot call you already friends because some of you have seen and see me many times. So, I’m really honored to open the first panel discussion about empowering social about investments of our attention, our passion and power and so on. So, it’s not
Only about money. But however, we are we are talking about the most pressuring issue of of a world. This is the climate change. Climate change, I believe that all of you already have experience the climate change. We have have experienced the the in the
Right of temperatures but also extreme extreme storms, extreme floodings and most of biodiversity and loss of ecosystems. I’m from let’s do it work. I’m a CEO of and every year we are organizing World Cleanup Day. World Cleanup Day has happened
Already in one hundred and ninety countries. Basically, all the countries and territories in the world So we already experienced the the climate change and we have to act really quickly. And therefore I’m really pretty happy to ask here our first
Panelist. Uh who is Kylie Dam. And she’s a sustainable development program senior expert at Stockholm Environment EC2third timing. And she’s full of knowledge about sustainable consumption, sustainable production sustainability assessment SGT in Germany but also in Estonia and I work with all sectors
With civil society, most of all but also with institutions and organizations like Europe and European Environmental Agency or or national or also municipal groups. And of course also consulting businesses and what if I just ask the big transitions and what needs to
Be done. So that’s why I’m saying that thoughts that I’m sharing with you come from the field. And my topic is how to empower societal transitions. And actually transform so let’s go ahead. And first of all, the topic was heard in the
Conference title, we had both sustainable and green group. So, maybe I just, you know, because of my background, I’m asking, what is the difference between sustainable and green? Why do we have both of these titles in the or or this native
Title? So, I’m a bit confused. And this is actually the developments that have been happening very often when we when I see like discourse on the different levels that we see green as the main. We have we have to have green
Governance. We have to have green transition. However, the aim of sustainability when the concept was created was to bring together different aspects that create sustainability. So, it’s not only about environment and when we talk about green, but actually we talk about
Environment. So is only one aspect, one part of sustainability. And I think it’s very important that we keep this in mind. Um because when we talk about transformation then actually we need more deep change than only change in one sector. Which
Would be, for example, the greens, like greening, like the society. So, let’s go on. And I’m sure that you’re aware, but because I was not sure what kind people we will have in the audience. I just wanted to briefly mention couple of key
Concepts like so does any of you want to say about Santra Kasim? Just face the inner own world, in your, in your own words, as you understand it. Is it, is it the, do you know what the concept means? Who does? So
Basically is a concept that was read by a system scientist. Uh a group of them. Basically this describes this new era that we are in. And this new era is an era where we as human beings have become so powerful that we
Are really changing and transforming that various systems that keep our life possible on this planet. And because we are so ignorant in the way that we do it. We are really distracting and destroying these systems that we need to have a good quality
Of life. So you have done Paul Brooksen was the name of this scientist. So let’s go to the next slide. And this is the yeah I will not talk about theory much. This I think is relevant. So the great acceleration is the is the
Process that started with But what what would you say? What has been like like 200, fifty, 300 years ago, this really important process that started. If you noticed call it out. Hm? 50 years? Two hundred two hundred fifty, 300 years ago. What started? Industrial
Evolution mark. So basically you can go on. So the great acceleration is a process which has two stages. The first study with industrial evolution and lastly until the 50s last in the last century. And this was the slower process. Because we
Started to use in fossil fuels more and more our impact became bigger and bigger. And also unfortunately the negative consequences of our actions. And then we have the second stage of the great acceleration. Which we are experiencing also today. And
Here we see actually as you see the 50s are here. A really exponential growth in impact of us as human beings. So that’s just to say that the need for transformation is really radical. It’s not just that we want to be greener or that we
Should adjust little bit. So transition alone are not sufficient in certain sectors. We really need a thorough transformation. Okay? And ah this is the last sort of like the scary slide Ah but basically a system scientists have bottled their future
Trajectories of our planet. And basically they see that we are facing towards earth. Which means that the temperatures are right raising really fast. And Earth will be inhabitable in many parts. And ehm a big part of humanity will not be able to
Survive. And of course that ideal is to bounce back towards the stabilized earth scenario but actually nobody knows how to do it exactly. And the strategies that we have they can push us maybe a little bit. But in order to really have a
Transformation we need more than that. Basic current and mainstream actions. So let’s go on. Um I’m a big fan of we talked about patterns which I really liked. I’m a big fan of Gregory Bateson who was one of the original systems makers.
And these quote is that the major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works. And how people think. So people tend to think very from H to B, very in a linear way but nature
Is so complex. It has so many assets. It has so many interconnections. That this is a very problematic. That we really simplify and say that though we don’t like some insects. So let’s put poison in the water so that they can if
They can be regenerated and then we have a silent spring if you know Rachel Carson. The the problems that we discovered back then also in the sixties. Uh I will not go anywhere. So let’s go on. So so I heard here
Earlier, we had mentioned some of the problems. So I also made my selection of some, some of the problems. So we really had a lack of capacity for comprehending and packing the challenges that are facing us. And I see it I work with
Ministries with the state, the municipalities, but also with European institutions. And there is the lack of also understanding but for example, in order to have transformation that these agencies and these different actors want to achieve, then, what is needed
Is also to change not only in the way that we do certain things but also in our attitude. And this is so important and for example, European institutions that use us researchers as consultants. Their relationship to us is Um equal. They often tend to
Have sort of like very talkative, down attitude. And this is just for us a really sad example of actually how transformation and change is still thought of in really silence. And then not really understood how this whole process is working. So let’s go
On. I will explain it further. The second problem is the focus is a distinct sexual transitions instead of systematic transformations. And the next one, the last one that I wanted to mention is that we are sidelining the cultural aspects. So, Estonia is very
Special among the world because you know, how many STGs do we have? We have 17 SDGs. Masonia, we also have eighteen. This is special. But basically, also in Estonia, the cultural aspects are not really thought of very worldly. They’re more
Inconnecting to to our national but also in connection to fine culture and arts. So here we talk about culture as more like this framework of worldview and understanding that we have of the world. And basically the tendency to sideline the
Cultural aspects in favor of changing the resource flows and reorganising the processes means that the process that needs to change is only going half way. And part of it is still hindered. And wider transformations haven’t been as successful. But we will go onto
It. So you know probably that there are three main strategies for achieving sustainable development. So this is the basic. Have the efficiency strategy. And we can say that the European Union this has been done quite well already. Everybody knows that we have to
Be more efficient in the way that we use the resources. So let’s go on. Um yeah, I focuses on improving the production, using less of the resources, producing the same way or amount but with lower resource consumption or CO 2 and
Actually and CO 2 emissions. And then also through technological innovation, this is achieved and also through decoupling or sort of like reducing the amount of resources that we need to have economic growth. Sure. Uh but still the idea is to have
Economic growth. Just using less sources for that. And this way we can continue on green economic growth path. So this is basically really mainstream understanding of achieving sustainability in European Union and the Sylvia as well. Next to it we have consistency
Strategy. So what does this mean? The focuses on using a different production model. Basically, we heard about circular economy. So, let’s say that circular economy is one of the best examples here because we had a linear economic model and now we are changing the
Design. We are bringing in the nature-based solutions which are which are more natural and basically we use in vanity for the technology and we in the design processes, we aim to minimize waste or reduce waste at all. For example and basically production and
Consumption as are seen as a circle. So this is consistency in addition to the sufficiency. So we don’t only start to use resources more efficiently, But we also change the way that the production of consumption are organised and designed. But
That’s not sufficient and this revolution or this change, Europe is only how how far would you say? I I saw this very optimistic Comment that 100% of you members have a strategy. But you know when you look at your own country’s example I don’t
Know where you all come from. But in Estonia the situation is not so good. Maybe strategies and in numbers it’s good. But actually I would say that it’s yeah. The numbers are rather 50% and lower than than higher. Anyway let’s go on. And then we
Had a third strategy that’s made for creating sustainability. And this is called sufficiency. So what does sufficiency mean? This is something that you also related to when you talked about circular economy. And basically this entails you can go on. Or consuming, using and
Meaningless. So, also producing less. So, this is about body sufficient. Having enough and reconsidering what do I need for good life. So, go on. It’s considering here we have sharing economy, post-growth economy And here actually it’s not sort of like sacrificing.
Very often and I did for a long time I decided to go to society initiatives who had a sustainable mindset. And very often they were the relatives and friends were seeing that they were sacrificing their quality of life. Because they
Were giving up so many things. But actually they were feeling really good. Because they felt they need the right thing. So this was actually the same point which was meant on at least this last. That they were doing living the life that was
In accordance to their sort of conscience or better understanding. Even though they were consuming abuse less, they were feeling better about it. So, what I want to say with these three surgeries is actually that the sufficiency we are, we haven’t
Really yeah, we are maybe about in 10% progress with sufficiency or maybe a two pessimistic. Of course, the good side is that for example, the eastern European countries like Estonia, we still have the legacy that we remember also from the Soviet Union. So some
People comes from it. We’ll still remember like the the the ways that we have been using things in you and and using things really very far. So anyway, let’s go on. Uh in whatever side we are at. So the point is that we need a
Combination. We don’t we need we need to change the flows of materials. We need to change the design and we also need to change the attitudes or the mindsets of the people. So we actually need all of the three and when we actually are very
Good on the way with efficiency and quite good with the consistency that here in the weight of changing the mindsets. We are really not well on the way. So let’s go on. And here is one model. This is again from a systems linker
Daniella Meadows. He worked he was actually one of the authors of the Limits Growth Report. That you have heard about from AT. And he worked for long time. Um after that it was published in seventy-two. So this was published in nineteen
Ninety-two or something a few years later. So he worked for decades. Consulting companies and organizations in how to change and how to transform to be more sustainable and fit into the planetary boundaries. And that that was her legacy or
Sort of like this drawing sums up her understanding of the transformation that needs to happen. And basically she described 12 points to intervene in a system. And can you put a leg slide? So here you see in a in a better
Organised way. That the higher leverage points that he talked about. They had to do with flows of materials. Actually which we could say are similar to the efficiency two, then we have the leverage points that have to do with design and
Defects and they are more in relation to what we know as consistency. And then we have the changes which actually have to do with the goal of the system, with the intention, with mindset paradigm of which the system arises and the power
To transcend the paradigm. And these are the strongest or the most powerful paradigms and these have to do with sufficiency. And basically her message was that ah the order of the leverage points starts from from actually here. And these are the most powerful
Factors of change. So if in the intent of the system. Then you really have a rapid transformation. If you change the ways that the parameters or the size of bumpers or stocks, what a structure this is, it creates a minor transformation
Or change. So that’s the one. And when we look at them like the different levels in the society then we could say that these changes had to do. They correspond to changes in the practical sphere. So that that that less effective leverage
Points. Then the changes in the political sphere. They have crater leverage but they are organizational. Points. And then we have changes associated with the personal sphere. Or individual sphere. Or the culture sphere. However, we wish to call it. And these are
The greatest leverage points for systems change. Exceeded only by the power to consent the paradigms. So let’s go on. And yeah I’ve really consulted with different people on different levels in the society and the civil society groups. They have no problem in also
Tackling these questions that have to do with world views and values. And their drive of change very much. And when we come to the political level or also the organization level whether in a national or or European Union level, then they
Say that oh but culture is such difficult thing. When we talk about sustainability or the need for change. If you take in the cultural dimension then we lack capacity for healing it. With it because different for example of a European Union
Member level member states have so different perceptions of what be needed then for sport exchange. But the people who are in charge of guiding certain processes say that we lack the capacity of including this dimension in our discussions. But the problem is
That the cultural aspect is anyway included in everything that we do as humans. So if you don’t include it explicitly or like openly then all the values and sort of like principles that underlie our actions. They are just not really openly
Reflected. They are like included in a hidden way. And right now we know that the main sort of like discourses that are driving the processes still have very much to do with Maybe you’re sort of a section between strong and weak
Sustainably. So they are very much inclined to meet sustainability. The drive for smaller changes, adjustments in the material flows in the organization. But what would be needed would also really to include the cultural aspect. So yeah. We will not go into this
Aspects but culture can different can have different role in sustainable development. It can be one of the factors next to the ecological, social and economic one. It can be the enabler for the change in these dimensions or it can be as a condition for
Sustainability or often in our case the condition wise, sustainable development is not really successful while we are not really achieving it. So, let’s go on. And now we have two, three more things to say. So, and it’s really needed for
Societal transition and what is really missing is the capacity co-creation. And again here’s the problem that when we talk about this is a ladder of participation adopted to to co-production. And co-production or co-creation. This is a matter of like like
The school of how it’s used. Co-production was the way that you know Ostrom and you know her. Um the first lady who won the Nobel Prize and talk about the comments. So use the co-production so that’s why I also chose it here. But
Basically the way that usually engagement of civil society for example in the decision making process is is taking place nowadays. It’s on the level of informing. Maybe consultation. Maybe in some form of engagement. But this is pretty much it. And the co-designing.
Takes place very in a limited capacity. And then we have coal production. Which is actually that the corporation with different groups does not only take place while the consultation also like negotiations take place. But also the processes are designed
Together and also they are implemented together. So this is actually what is needed to really create ownership. And which is really something that is lacking very much. Um because when we talk about transitions then of course we need cooperation between
Different societal actors and cyclists. And this is a really big roadblock that we have. So let’s go on. And yeah this is just relevant because there are certain steps that show that we really have the production and these principles are reorganizing people’s people as
Assets. As equal partners in the design and delivery of services. Then building the people’s existing capabilities Uh let’s just go on. I think we are lucky for time. The mutuality and reciprocity. Which is really that different groups come together as equals.
And it’s not like one group like scientists or the police policy makers have like the bigger understanding and more power. But this is the aim is to have really we call it transdisciplinary approach. Where actually the different actors are actually experts who
Have the same problem. They all have different knowledge and they all need it equally to achieve that change. Um and also peer support networks are relevant and the roles are blurred. The distinctive between professionals, users, yeah, family members that both
Co-production is most of all used nowadays in caregiving and so reforms so that’s maybe my fellow members are so emphasized and also professional as catalysts of change. But let’s go on. Let’s just finish off. And one thing which is navy also is the
Leadership for sustainability. So this is something that people at all levels need. And what is need for that is to really we have to start coming out of our sort of like small sectoral understanding that we need to develop systems, thinking, and understanding. We
Need to learn about transformative learning. So, this is like the learning where service learning actually which is also mentioned there. This is the learning where you engage with different groups and you reach new solutions. This is also the experimental
Approach because when you talk about transition transformation, we are facing uncertainty. So, we are always, we are always facing unknown. So, we have to be able to be open about it and say that this is an experiment that we’re doing with ourselves. Let’s
Hope that it goes well. Uh co-creating the ethics for atrophecy. We, the ethics that we have as humans. This comes back to the cultural aspect. It’s not sufficient for ensuring the well being of us as humans, of other living beings, of the continuation of
The life on earth. So, we really need to work on the ethnics and we also need to take co-creation and co-production seriously and last, just building up not only knowledge but also inner literacy and skills for remaining resilient in the face
Of ongoing certainty and we’re not going to talk about corporate leaders for rhyming, the transformation, then they are very facing burnout. Um they are very often facing like losing hope. Because the change needs to seems to be so slow or
Not really happening. So that’s why it’s important on each stage and especially for civil society leaders to really find what kind of methods and tools they can use for building up inner resilience. Because civil society actors are such drivers
Of change. And they are very have to say endangered from also burnout. So this is really relevant that we not only talk about the external transformation but also internal transformation in order to be really able to continue on our show. So that’s
It from my side. Thank you. Thank you very much about such interesting insight to that topic. And I also pick up the new concept of entrepreneurship. It’s very very interesting and thank you for throwing such a real and pretty picture of of our
Future. But also giving the the hope that if you’re a really doing together if we are changing together then there is a group and we need inner change for the outer change. That’s that Thank you very much. Ah and for also for the
Empathy for the civil society. Ah I I I felt really ah how important. One part ah from that. So the next ah panel ah ah panelist is Oxana Scardina. Eh Oxana is a boss doctor of researcher at University of Eastern Finland. Ecologist
Working on sustainable nature based real sustainable change of building the transformation in the society. So we need the proper infrastructure. Which will combine different skills and expertise. So we need the organizations which work with civil society. We need policy
Makers. We need representatives of real governments. We need universities. As a infrastructure points which build the future leaders and which help to raise the people with understanding and environmental consciousness. So at the moment we are working with urban ecology sustainable
Projects in Nordic countries and we are studying the current state of urban green infrastructure in different cities. And the our research says that it’s not that much sustainable and it really consist of different elements with private and public ownership And to make the
Change and to incorporate this into environmental education, we need a joint action. So it can’t be achieved. Only we are interacting with policy makers of the civil societies really needs to be the joint and combining action. And this kind of events they’re really
Important for building this capacity and showing artist level how we can together achieve the real change. Thank you very much. Thank you very much and stay with us. Thank you. The next panelist is already on the screen, Ian Nigopila, he’s
A advocacy officer at the UN Association of Finland, a shortly UNA. Uh which is non-governmental organization that promotes and supports action and principles of the United nations. And we really look forward to hearing your valuable perspectives and recommendation on empowering
Social transformation through investments in environment So can we hear you now? Yes. Okay. So thank you and first of somebody is accused. Um so we have nonprofit in twothousand and 19. And it’s printed out for reasons. Um that are hindering the
Progress. And they are rising waste production, especially plastic waste and electronic waste. And in addition to this obstacles. Uh the resin inequalities both within countries and between countries. And the report said that it is for good causes are
Not tackled that we will not achieve. Uh the other goals either. And of course not the this one they call them has also equals. Yeah, well, this is the the result of the current selenium economic model. So since the industrial revolution
As we heard, we have entered the scene. We have the ice cream curves everywhere, when it comes to CEO of two concentration, whether it’s the service temperatures, the methane water disasters, fully exploited in arsenic systems, coastal drone, nitrogen flux, loss of the tropical
Rainforest, domesticated blood, other species extinctions. Uh these are only up to two thousand but in same way. Yeah. The economy, Obviously it doesn’t work. Uh we can’t just take a funerals, produce use and waste. So we have tried moving to circular infinitely
But mostly we are somewhere in the economic with feedback votes. So we still forgiveness residual waste based on raw materials. In order to walk to fully surface that would be closed. Um When we look at the conception and production code, the goal
Number 12 in SDGs. It is closely connect the amount of other HSDGs as we can see in this one. I will show you the the slides afterwards. So, there’s no need to arrange through this but you can just look at the items and see that
From one to 17 most of the other girls are related to to this one. Um what is really key to making the the transition to circular economy is that we do sort of big transitions in the most of production. Uh we may
Lead technology, science, and capacity building as that enables enablers of the implementation of the goals. We need research developments and the keys of research technologies. Innovation. Opportunities and development is caused also by by this transition. So and then it was
Mentioned by the previously. So education and research is very important. Also we need regulation. And she is amazing. Thank you results. Um let’s say better industry, you know, through wastewater regulation for that. Uh another industry like for example, greenhouse
Gas, greenhouse trying to to to waste effective integration. Um site. Um and then for example seal for your skin production in Finland. Uh it would be a huge solution. Um the the company SSE is trying to move too much debt. Uh that got away
Almost 7% of And then again it we talk about the construction business that it produces I think it’s 74 seventy-five remember correctly. Um transformation Um and the states as a regulator has a big role in that. But as I was told
To focus on the citizens. Um we can influence these issues mainly by doing advocacy and during voting. So I mostly focus on on the businesses that are closer to your consumer and and the role of CBS and possibilities. Uh so to
Introduce you the academy. It was done by etcetera. Uh Felicia Independence Fund for this and innovations and and and you can have a look these companies. So we have done quite well in achieving this this awesome goals. Um
On the right side in the picture. And then when we look the emotional impact and also the secular economic responsible We have produced at the expense of the environment. And this needs to chase into the future. Very soon. Policy paper. It’s produced by
All with the support of the history of environments the ministry of training and also the several research institutions and have a look from the link if you want to to translate it with but these are in the eh
Is. Could be one things to to direct the chairs of Chinese new products into some of the existing products. Uh the report refers to Austria by the practice has already been tested and it has been successful. Uh the second proposal is that rent service
Providers and second-time service. We give reduction in the value of any taxes Um that would sort of help them to be going through dementia and the the the sickly had so there’s services pretty easily because they are acceptable citizens
Are not. Uh then also for companies to donate to use instead of just tapping them. Uh it’s more expensive. So the value added that should be reward for donations. Um If they love has a system of home service tax production that can
Be used for cleaning services or or House and some new services or even like if you buy furnitures and they need to be put together. You can use it for that but it’s currently for relationship services of course
Say. Um it is the furnitures or your bicycle or whatever. So, just extending this tax reductions possibility for those services would be and it’s a insight for the and putting And also then the waste that seeds from circular economic actors. One case from
City of Dunbar which is my home city. Um this this has been given some awards as well as the circuit. Uh economic success. So when when I decided to carry out the renovation of one of these main streets at university street garden. Uh
Used to be public circulated with the criteria as part of the model. So it was done to give a range of stakeholders. Um using the recession university. Um I was still in this. And it was the first time with circular economy public
Criteria were applied. There are some examples of the red used in in the plan. So instead of just looking at the costs especially the case public procurement has a huge potential in in scaling our circular economy practices. And then culture was mentioned in
Previous presentations as well. The the niche to us to sit towards new visions of the future. Where is is not but it’s it’s more to us having a good life. Um and that can be also ecologically. Let’s let’s continue. Um so this picture is
From university of and it was the the night of the the soft toys. So this will bring the toys for the library for the nights and the staff was then organising program for the toys. So they were reading books, playing chess, playing
Music and all that. So so the next day then the families go back to the pictures. It was a nice way to introduce what what are the opportunities in the library. So what a bank we do. A lot of things. And for all
This to happen we need everybody and on sixth on seventeen is the the participation and partnerships. And submitted to you look at our impact globally not just within the national partners. Thank you. Thank you very much Yemi. As you also mentioned that we’re
Really looking looking on to Finland’s Finland is in the many aspects of why they are in terms of STGs and but even you have have challenges and thank you for for showing us a practical practical activities of making tasty cheese and
Sustainability. Uh really like a real and that’s standard for people as well. So, but not least our our last panelist is and she’s a project manager at the IFK in in Sweden and IFK is a place the inclusion of foreign born
Women Swedish Swedish society. Can kindly ask you to stand up. One on the chest. And I will explain a little bit why we did that. Beside the fact that we are here in the room for quite so long. We didn’t have a bridge. It’s
About connecting. Really important. How we give the message. And how we connect with the others. We have all this information here. But it’s quite hard to deliver the message. How to package the message. We have great marketers that are trying to do
That. And we are finding different psychological ways. But the most important are the connections. Connecting among between ourselves. And then we can develop feeling of respecting the environment and everything that is around us. Nature, animals, everything. And I would a little bit
Continue your presentation. How important is the leadership for social change? How we start with the leadership? We start by first leading our own lives. We start by being a good leader of our own body. Of our own mind. The the things that we
Are taking in. The thoughts and and the feelings that we give to the others. Then the second step would be how we are connecting with friends, with groups, with teams. And in the end, we go to the cooperation of building communities,
Building societies. Yes, it starts from ourselves, from our own values, and it can go to the higher level. With all the concept and the principles that were presented here. But how we are doing this? In practice, we are working with migrant women,
With the social integration of migrant women. In Sweden, coming all over the and what we are doing there firstly, is the person to feel seen and heard. And then you are gaining the the trust, the capital of trust, you are
Building this capital of trust with the people. Once you have that, people starts to care. If we want to develop a better world and to fight for for the climate change and everything We need to invest in the caring feeling for ourselves, for the
Others, and for the environment. Thank you so much. Wow. Ah thank you very much. It was really touching touching our hearts, right? Uh but we have a still one more panelist. Uh Christian Hanson. Are you here? He’s from Copenhagen Business
Academy and he says in French to hear advocate for sustainable development. Can I say so? Ross is yours. So, I want to say a thank you I can’t do that much yet. Yeah, I wanted to talk about how to
Make awareness and and I I was thinking through all these presentations about the the social medias because we had some other youngsters who like to use mobile phones and share what you see. Uh that could be a key point and also we could
Have more campaigns ehm and also yet eh we have a globalism eh we trade with each other and help so much technology ah we are getting better at the helping our earth and being sustainable eh so I I can share ah some of
The things I Euh to ehm eh recycle and eh Yeah so eh we have euh when we do the cycle and we have certain 45 degrees. So, it’s like a game where we throw a 20 into the pins. Uh also, I
Think the main you notice two weeks ago. It’s a a very innovative app and we reduce waste. And Thank you. Um and yeah and so all ideas could be from a firm in Denmark called they use mobile green oasis. So when we
Just write a road so have new asphalt. For example, we produce oasis and under roads with eh belonging wild plants that’s in the country. Ehm to have some biodiversity eh while eh the workers eh are working on the road for example. Uh and I
Don’t know if this if this is implemented in the other countries but in Denmark we now have to look at the solving bins even more because we have eight calories where we now also must solve our food waste. So they send us a an organic
Trash bin with the trash bags. The the that’s pretty new with daylight. Ah you know eh we have eight categories but for now they send us eh the trash bin also. Eh that was we have eh more focus on that now and we have
Instructions and we just evolving all the time. Let’s open. Thank you very much and watching is my really favorite thing and this is really printed joy and and games into that place. We really really need. Uh we are a bit already
Over time. So, we keep our conversation and discussion short. But the first question I will ask by myself but with your question also already, if you want to ask something from our panelist. So, the first question, you all actually emphasize in fundamental idea
That the the transformation to sustainability is not the project. It’s not a technical project. You talked about the culture and about the inner change and that there is so is more much more complex. Um and this is kind of like let’s
Let’s have this transformation done by by by the end of this year, right? Uh so how we how we start or how we speed it up or or who should lead the change. What are your thoughts about it? Who should be? The
Guy who is leading the change. It’s leading the culture. I have I think that regardless of gender, we need people. So, that’s the first thing. But in order to really have successful transformation, we have to have a different levels of society
Or different actors acting together. That’s why I emphasize co-creation so much. Because right now we have groups that have more power and groups who have less power. And they actually don’t really cooperate and that’s why also the problems are not really
Like solved. They’re only halfway sold. So I think that we have to say that also in order to achieve co-creation we have to have a shifting mindset. Which is from this really hierarchical system towards more how to say We can
Call it in different ways but horizontal or cooperated, let’s call it, co-creative form of of solving the problems and yeah. I think that’s one of the really important things. And then yes, ah very interesting ah question, and while I was listening to all the
Presentations, actually I was going to, how do we really put this in practice? What would be needed for the people to really take these values? And I think, I, I, I went in my childhood and I tried to remember what
Determined you to, to think in this way. And I, I, I don’t know. The is quite young. Did you remember those characters kept on planet? Yeah with all the signs combined, water, fire, and now we have the avatar that all the elements of
The earth. So I think it’s really important to have role models. We we don’t really have role models. And how to fight for just really briefly. First, I think that we cannot fight climate change. This is just not the right way of of
Phrasing it. We have to mitigate or like find ways to deal with the negative impacts that are coming anyway and then we have to adapt and and change the ways that we behave as a society. But I think that yeah
We don’t have time to live. What was the question again? Who should lead the change very shortly? Uh all those who have passion for safety Earth, I think has been, I don’t want to prove it into boxes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Very good
Answer. So, audience. Yep. Hello. I have a short opinion. Before we we should outlet and before we develop, we should at least taboos that prevent us from developing such as or economic system shifting to data economy to reputation,
Economy that is one key point that we should discuss but many don’t. Yeah, I completely agree that, you know, to have change, we need to grow the capacity to be self-reflexive, to really understand what is happening, and if we really start to
Understand more broadly, what are the consequences of the current practices, patterns, and systems. Only then, we can really transcend the system and change the system. I agree. Okay? Uh thank you very much. Uh more questions. Yes. I don’t know if it’s a question
But for me to give me the the statement that like, okay, we cannot stop global warming or we cannot do anything about it. So, I think. Yeah. The whole world is trying to do it. It’s a question if we will succeed
Or not but I think that’s what we are all trying to do. We are all trying to work towards that to really give it under 2° that like hopefully we could make the less damages but I feel two yeah give them such a
Statement. It’s also a bit demotivating to be on at least for me. Okay, sorry. No, no, no, I like Graham to be just like like we’re hearing a lot of like really inspiring presentation about people really doing their best, trying
To think about, okay, how can we really make this impact, how can we really give a positive example, knowing like, oh, no matter what we do, and maybe I have to just rephrase because the train has gone for 2° under 2 degrees. This is not
Realistic So we have to be I think we have to remain positive because otherwise we are not motivated to go on. But we also have to be really realistic. So there are really negative changes. And you know the maybe you know from Earth
System Science you have the planetary boundaries framework. With nine different factors. And climate change is only one of them. One of the very important ones. The biodiversity is as important. So there are actually more factors. And in terms of climate change. I just
Commented the fighting as a wording, you know? Because if this does not help, we have to be really like smart and find ways to deal with it. And of course, we have to act. Even if there is little hope in chip or
Stopping some of the real negative trends, we still have to act and be smart and because we are as the smartest people, we have done lots of bad things but we also can come up with good solutions. So, I didn’t mean to be negative or
Demotivating anyway. Um I guess the message was more like facilitating the process. Uh it’s not that it’s impossible but more facilitating the process. Because fighting is like your coming with a big force against some other force and then the conflict happens.
So in order to avoid the conflict it’s just facilitation of the process. Uh Okay, we can also talk about zero ways. I can go to the shop and I can’t buy the something because it’s quite, I can say expensive. Because they don’t
Think only about big bottle. And zero ways. But they also think about nature, environment, animals. Uh so rice is big. But second choice is going to the shop. And okay we have this little bigger bottles. But problem is still same. Not in
Every shop. Um at least Latte. I saw only one shop. Uh place where I can put bottles. And I think that maybe environment is also thinking that I can have my own and I can fill it with Coca-Cola. And we need to
Change shops. Not just thinking of people. Who we can’t change this nickname of 60 years old woman. We need to change. All this stuff also. But you know the good thing is that if you go and ask you put the pressure on
The shops and not the bad pressure but positive pressure. You create a demand and more of us go and ask for such services in the shops. The more the market will grow. So this is one of the ways that we put
Pressure for positive change on the on the economy around us. And also actually yeah. The change happens from different levels. So this is what we as individuals can do and we as groups can do. Because at when we grow up we have a louder
Voice more impact. But it’s also good that on the European Union level because of the greenwashing, there is so much greenwashing going on. So the European Union actually they are now like creating content that the taxonomies and so on
To really create rules so that we greenwashing is not so easy anymore. And yeah. So this would be longer discussion so I would just Okay. Thank you very much. Uh wait wait, I’m also talked some some time ago CEO of one of the
Biggest food producer in Estonia and also asking why you are not making the transformation to sustainability and circular economy and so on. And he replied that there is no demand. That’s it. So we we all actually can have worked with our
I think here you mentioned also the social media, how young people can influence very, very easily, just creating like campaigns like grassroot campaigns. Yeah, I also wanted to comment about this pudding actually pressure on on us. Like we need to ask and we need
To demand and vote with our money. But actually the owner of this food shop or the owner of this hotel is also individual who is making a decision and I think I just thought with with one owner of a big hotel chain. and and she
Also said that people are not deciding where to go or what to buy because of the environmental stuff. They they say that they decide about that but actually they don’t. So and in the end she’s just said that we are changing only because we
Feel bad now. Like we as a owner of this wholesale I I feel responsible but this is nothing to deal with like demanding. Nobody’s demanding it. I actually don’t agree with it. Because I I I appreciate the comment and I understand
Where you’re coming from. But actually I would say that there is public pressure already. 10 years ago could have said there is no demand or no public pressure but now actually the segment of conscious consumers is really growing. Um and
Europe is really sort of like see the boom in this conscious consumers. And this is more about the reputation of being on the positive side. And this is something that people want to be like on the food side. And this is also pure
Fresher in a way. So if that sense it’s not a it’s not the real fear for you know that hot house scenario which is quite realistic. It’s not that it’s rather that I want to do the right thing and we are more
Perceived as pioneers or some positive group when we do the right thing. So I think that there is the peer pressure still worse. Yeah thank you very much. Uh unfortunately demands need to stop now. So, so we we just had to have to
Close here. Uh so sorry because I really really eager to continue the discussion. It’s it’s so interesting. But however, thank you much ah brother I’m very happy to call our panelists to join the panelists. We have Michael Sidar. Jurgensen. He’s online.
He will join us from distance. Uh we have Christa Campus. Head of Italian European Green Capital twenty twenty-three. City of Stalin. To Veloon. Strategy Manager for Sustainable Living. the City of Gutter we have Mary, Tigo, founder and CEO of Lomarism. Going to ask
You to expand over the sea. I kind of have an idea but I want you to explain it. And also my good friend Nicholas Kabuklis, president of the House of Europe in Romes, Greece. So please and I think we’re going to
Start with our friend Sugar Jurgen. Um he’s from the Albert University, Denmark. Uh is he online Oh, okay. Alright. Can you hear us? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Okay, the floor is yours, sir. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for the invitation to share
Some of my experiences from my unfortunately master What were the norms from what how to dress yourself or what I’m on values? We’re different maybe five years ago. Uh we see constantly new mobile phones coming off of the sea. Uh
Something that houses that look like they are worn out. But I’m just like going out and know they’re very very popular. So the social norms is is changing and at the same time. Third thing is that speed of light is is accelerating. We we are
Despite we have all these transportation possibilities communication possibilities. We are all of all of us. All the time we experience some kind of constant lack of time. So that’s one city we we need to understand when we are trying to the society of sustainable
Society At the same time, we we also have to say, well, we, we are, we are, today, have to acknowledge that there are inequalities in our society. Some are economically more poor than others and some that have less influence than
Others. And whereby we also have to acknowledge that that initiatives will also be shaped within or by these existing inequalities. Electrical cars in many countries are are very popular. But you need to be quite wealthy in order to be
Able to benefit from a certain funding. I’m a funding of tax from the government for Biden. It’s going to be illegal. We can also see that So it’s quite important when we talk about sustainable transition that we are avoiding to actually reinforce the
Existing And what could be some of those inequalities that we need to be aware about. There can be certain certain groups, low-income groups that I just talked about. They can also be professions, people employment, what you can call black sectors, whether that’s for
And increase the production of of plant-based food that could put the the workers in pressure or if we want to that can also imply that certain corporate areas which are the city in the has had a lot of common within
Be placed on the sea or exports of other countries. So they are matched arguably at least to to to keep employment. Um and then internationally of the type of products Uh how will that actually have an influence on the weight conditions in the textile
Industry in Bangladesh. Um We don’t know how production is going on there so also internationally, there can be some and also more internationally. So, talking about that we should try to reduce our resource consumption. Uh very often we will see these stripes
Being discussed. Uh I will then should try to have our crops last longer sinner and leading and operated. Maybe we can reduce or narrow our resource resource flows by being more efficient when we produce products and and maybe also by sharing products
Whether it’s in sky sharing, tool sharing, or or whatever. So that means that we can reduce on now the resource growth and then ways to to querem um só uma entrevista behalf was not prepared. And if you see that break down the
Government 2 years old despite a lot of them are required. It’s actually quite young for us to bring down. If you look at refrigerators and freezers, it’s not that ultimately breakdown. Uh there are not that many of them that are
Repaired or in one out of four that breakdown. But they are compared to mobile phones. Uh they are out of a breakdown. So maybe the troubles will migos is not as big as it. It’s not as big as lion experience. And
Uh red wine here and and kitchen machines. Uh because that’s where we have another big problem. You can see around 10% of the households they experience that gives machine blend toast or something like that. Breaks down. And it’s
Only one out of eight or one out of seven of those in the seas that dripping down that are actually getting repaired. And they are also doing Why do people get saying to repent? Uh it’s not so much because chemical for the
Environment. People are forced to really sink in an economic way. So it is she was a great thing to repent and they get the promise repent and when que surgeons carry on this. At the same time, we are also working
Together with the civil society initiative that is called Repair the Face. Uh so this is where you sound from. One of the first things we got to fix at the missile went out of Copenhagen. And they gave information with the other
People gathered to help each other Try to find out how to prepare different types of public electronic Why is that interesting Well, you can say maybe it’s not new but it’s not new to to repair products but it’s new that modern citizens
Or citizens and so called model societies. They have to organize their own repair. It’s because we that they have to set up their own activities to repair that toast or that lamb or or whatever Last 5 years, we have seen
Increase in in the number of local compared to around eighty-five as a cell networks are compared to more than one thousand People also now see that civil society have organised themselves in what they call the rightful but there’s a I find going on
Between business organisations and in the environment part of the Imam movement holding themselves right to the air. Um how is it in such a society that there’s still an acceleration society? How is done well? Very open to see that the state is quite an
Opportunity to railway. They say believe that the market four years ago, three or four the amount of waste consumed raging. So they were, for many years doing nothing, and then suddenly they, they want to change the whole waste sector
In the industry in what we would call the tower of claiming that liberalizing things then insinuation because Another area where you can see there’s both and the back story. Tell Renewable energy. Denmark has for sure had a confusing pain most recent companies were
Programmed from the community with each garment. So, on the one hand, they want to make the precision forward for your energy and transition away from two, four, four, four, easy, as fast as possible. So they want to see how they can have a higher,
Higher pace in the development review of density loss plan They want that they should take place on on market public actors. On the other hand, they also know that protests to in terms of set up new wind turbines or solar parks in some
Areas. So they have also described well in order to have a more coherent environment. We need to find out how many labors and the local communities have a better benefits when they kind of overlap or having wind turbines or maybe they will give more
Bones to those communities where you allow winter impacts to come up. So you can see here’s the kind of protection between the fast transition market-based transition and then you know you can get doing any protest if you just carry
Down that. So that’s a huge challenge at the moment for the expansion of renewal the last thing is you can say returning to social just that people hope, reconciliation can improve made to find emergency. Maybe we can become more conscious about benefits
One. Six. Or biogas So what did National Trade Union Association of Conspiration have said and they have this website also green from CC Together. com. They say, well, they’re not sure that we’re leaving countries transition with analyzing but also home
Rating within the different type of stakeholders about the circular economy and and and Thank you. Thank you very much professor for all those inputs and the presentation of what is being done in Denmark and I think it’s it’s very interesting to
To see the the way that Denmark has preceded to to put in place this strategy. Your explan ation about the issue concerning the society and the speed of change that is today in place but also the social inequalities that seem
To be a very important element to bear in mind when we talk about changes and also the sustainability policies that need to be put in place. Um I also I also I mean I’ve been inspired by the way that you looked
And I think it’s a very important element when we look at sustainability. Um but also you mentioned all the all the stakeholders that need to be involved Uh and also the last part concerning the trade unions. And I think it’s clear here
That it is a joint effort. It is not something that can be put or left to a single component of the society but it is a collective ah effort that needs to be done. You even went further to ah include the international community and the
Importance of the international cooperation when it comes to dealing with the issue of climate change. And I think it is something that really needs to be repeated to be emphasized because no matter how good policy, a single country or a
Group of countries can put in place if there is no the counterpart or similar initiatives throughout the world ah inspiring and very clear presentation ah and ah we hope to hear your comments later on if you know in response to certain questions.
Um so with now we move on to our second panelist. Uh Christa Campos, head of the Italian European Green Capital twenty twenty-three. Uh first of all, let me congratulate you and Tali for earning this certainly in my own opinion highly
Deserved recognition. Uh so, we would like to hear your comments on the issue. Thank you. Hello. Uh good afternoon. I’m Christina I’m executive director of capital twenty twenty-three. Before I’m starting with my presentation, I just want to give you a piece
Of information about the initiative mainly actually this title and the word was for back then of the city of Terlin. And then luckily we we we managed to to engage all other cities around Europe and and males around Europe to sell
That idea, European Commission picked it up and then since two thousand and 10, European Green Capital Awards has been given to to different European cities who have been fulfilled or who are having very concrete plans on how they are fulfilling 12
Criteria as related to environment, water management, circular economy, governance and other areas related to to bring up objectives. And for us that title gives an excellent opportunity to really fasten the processes interval in the city but also when it comes to
Improving maybe the dialogue with the citizens at different stakeholders and engaging them to different activities. So I see green capital as an opportunity which should be used. Because we all will benefit from it. Uh when it comes to our priorities and objectives then
Of course, they are coming from from Thailand 2030 strategy which was actually elaborated in parallel with the National Sustainability Strategies doing the twenty-third six strategic objectives say the strategy and I think one of the thing itself we have quite big residential
Buildings, our areas and improving their energy efficiency is is quite the challenging let’s say it is not able to do it within very limited time frame. So that’s why we have been taking that that kind of goal when it comes to climate neutrality objective
And the tiling is plan Islamic to become a climate neutral. By 2050, according to European climate and energy mayors packed objectives. Differently and also to integrate new thinking, new ways of collaboration in our ecosystem. Ah priorities. We have three priorities when it
Comes to our green capital RN a year. And these are related to biodiversity. It is very important for the city of Chalin aunties. Maybe unique. that is something, maybe that other cities at least when it comes to green capital program
Haven’t been focusing that much. Darling has been working with sustainable development is about smart city Uh then we have program on sustainable city, a learning city, and inclusive city. And of course inclusive cities very much related to collaboration and cooperation with different
Stakeholders in the city. Learning the is about improving and or green auras. So, in that sense, we have really kept that for the nature, for the animals. Uh in order to really keep and protect biodiversity, on this photo, you can see they
Are actually in the city payroll. So, I can call them my my colleague. When it comes to biodiversity and also I am not going to provide a full overview of what we are doing. It will take all burdens. And this is actually
Very unique. In other cities, for example, in Northern Europe, they have quite a lot allotment Which means that there is a land and then you’re arguing and then you can maybe get you know, the lot that then you’re paying annual event. You
Know, it’s community called that’s all the concept is completely different. In our case it means that if some community group or groups, they are interested in setting up community garden, then they are contacting with two community 32 community
Gardens at the moment and this number is increasing. In all city districts across the city. Actually is it this week? This tomorrow I think. Tomorrow we are going to open a new community garden. In district. At this garden is a
On what it is? Containers. So it it is container garden. We have also 100 and thirty-one learning gardens and these learning gardens are related to schools, kindergartens, but also elderly facilities, universities, those gardens are in their territory. And maybe
When it comes to to the gardens and learning gardens. One aspect, of course, is environment and biodiversity and creating new green areas or improving urban green nationalities. We have experts who are very active in some of the but it also improves cross
Generational interaction because there are children and and senior or older people working together. So it is not only important and also when we are talking about sustainable development, it is not only about nature and biodiversity but it is also about the health
Of the people but also cooperation and and and and working together. Second flagship that is is very important. You’re kind of really to create very strong concept that then start kind of fulfilling and and according to that. Different cities, scientists in
Order to create the concept how we are going to to do it and that what kind of different plants we need to to use in order to to have kind of of very diverse possibilities for for different pollinators. Uh we also actually collaborated
With the with the garage owners. And also schools like the art school. We engage them. And we asked the children to kind of of of create the ah the images or what what they would like to see in this pollinator
Highway. Ah actually ah let me see if I have all those here. Uh last year we had a competition for getting this kind of news, installations we elaborate this concept. It was very kind of broad engagement of very different stakeholders. Like people who
Are living both sides of this corridor, what kind of companies there are and also schools and and as I mentioned other groups and and universities. Then we are actually next week we will have our official kick-off of of this cleanup campaign. Uh for
Us. As you know we have quite long sea sea border in and of course the condition of the politics is very important organise it. Um and the body we we wanted to do it. It is because that we know that at
The end of August there cleanup day which is also an initiative. And we thought that instead of having those kind of Jew separate random events, we would like to have like, like bigger and longer campaign with bigger impact and longer impact
And our our aim is to engage all or a lot of cities around the Baltic Sea. So, it will it will be not only for us at Health India but it is also for for other cities. We have already cities who have already
Registered. I think we have around 40 cities already and and actually from all the politics region other countries. And of course during these these two two weeks we would like to engage as many different groups, civil society organizations and people to
Join with this campaign and coming up with their own activities and that that maybe kind of of cleaning actions. Second priority is climate. Climate and under climate We have also actually focusing on on innovation, green innovation, green solution flower or if you’re a
Professional or if you are urban urban greener expert then you can use this tool. And it is basically that you can pick up different flowers and then you can see what what type of flowers are providing poor living condition of different
Types of pollinators. So it’s about also kind of diversifying the pollinators in the city. Diabetes greenery. And what does it do is that the by using this tool you can kind of model for example tree. Uh during the year and during the season. You
Can see how the how fast one another tree is growing. And when when there will be heatwaves during the summer which is of course one of the negative outcomes of the of the global warming. You can see trees providing. So in in that
Sense it is very important tool when it comes to adapting to the changing climate. And actually together with with these two in the city. We also this is also ongoing project. We also have project we call a green track. And it
Is about urban interventions project. We would like to show that with small actions and small activities we can make quite big difference when it comes to improving the quality of urban space. So we are going to grade 14 flower meadows. Uh
Actually we are going to open park in in the square old town square. Uh and also there are also other. We have around 70 different interventions. Uh we are going to to install in in different places. And we also have actually competition on that
And you can see one of those those solutions admins of of the of the solution. And we are also with you and so on. Public sauna next to the city hall. And it it will be the first we have community gardens but then
We will have the first community zone as well. And of course while another big project is testing roadshows have has been selected. Uh but these forty-9 projects are the ones who are also contributing to those four priority like Fukusauras and
Programs of the Green Capital. There are some of the examples for example to refinance that one world that took took place also in photography weeks ago and we are also financing different community activities and projects as well. When it comes
To auto flagship stating, I mentioned participation hub but also Darling is quite unique that we have now since two thousand eighteen, I think, or two thousand nineteen. First time, we had this participatory pageant. Which means that, that they they can vote the best
Ideas and then those best ideas will be implemented by the city participate the budget this participate their budget is dedicated to green activities related to environment, circular economy, green transition, and and the new participating budget call will be opened August or all
September this year before 20 twenty-four. There we started with single package and that dishes. So organized by the city of Tal and it is prohibited to everyone has to use what it is? Reusable, yes. Or or or ah recycle reusable.
Yeah. And also ah related to dance and song festival. We also actually had the ninth of May big campaign together with children, together with collective, so we participate in song and dance festival. We planned ah 150 trees in different places of the city of
Thailand because ah holy is the land. And Danish colleague provided some examples or the kind of community coordinator there who is kind of helping to organize different events. Uh they actually opened the first communal APRA in Germany. So we
Have community gardens. We have community and we have community zone. We will have and it’s alright darling. And and this is very interesting project in the sense that the idea is to boost them up. Uh kind of creative economy development based on circular economy
Principles. So they got funding from the government but those around the city of Charlie they have a reno No. We can’t do this because our needs and interests are different. So we would like to avoid that and together with
Them we would like to kind of rethink the function of this this kind of building and then starting renovations of office. And the last at least I mentioned that Thailand is working with sustainable development very actively. One of our big capital let’s say
Flagship projects is a creation of of September organised by Prime Minister’s Office and we would like to focus on how cities can contribute to the global goals. And what kind of governance let’s say principles we have to, to use
And implement in order to better, better achieve, sustainability goals. And yes, very technical reasons. Why Finland and Lithuania actually I think is Yeah. But the is not equal news but but luckily I’m not participating. It is because of how
Their applications. Maybe they didn’t put that information. I don’t know. And I once the cities were selected then actually Dalin was offered the lead partner a position and of course we we agreed. But yeah I mean how how different it is
Very involved that wasn’t in Ireland. We we didn’t lead that process. But actually this is my Uh now we move on and thank you for all the details and again congratulations. Now, we move to another city Guthberg with and maybe Guderberg will be the
The city for 20twenty-four. Some of the people already bought that actually. Okay. Okay, thank you. I have a very inspiring presentation by Talin. I can see that we have a lot of similarities. Could I be more or less the same story
About today in my presentation, I will not give the overview of but more focus on the sharing economy. Eastern was asked to. My name is and I work at the city of Gothenburg an administration called democracy at Citizen Service. Gotham Bay
Is, as you probably know, situated on the Swedish West Coast. Uh it’s the second largest city in Sweden with just a little bit more than 600, 000 people. So, just like the rest of the cities and around Europe and
The world, we are in the middle of navigating this very complex sustainable transformation. Real realizing that we have to do things very differently than before and making entirely new kinds of things possible. Two years ago, we adopted our new environment and climate
Program. And you can see similarities with as well. We have three main goals in this program. So by 2030, we want to have a high level of diversity in Gothenburg. A footprint a close to zero, already by 2030, which is very ambitious. And
That we should also have a healthy living environment. Government Bay was also selected as one of the hundred EU mission cities. I was supposed to runners, forerunners, becoming climate neutral by 2030. And in order to reach these ambitious goals, we have seven transversal
Strategies in our program that are supposed to foster these transformation faster and two of them are relevant for my talk today. Um the one is that we are supposed to create conditions to live sustainable for the citizens in Gothenburg. Also reducing the consumption
Based emissions from private consumption. And to drive the development of the circular economy. And as you probably know, the circular and sharing economy has been going on for the last ten, 15 years in a very high pace. In Sweden, we had a
National program for the sharing economy running during 2018 to 2021. Where gotten by together with Stockholm, Emilio and Malme, cooperated with Lone University and we were running and developing a so-called test beds in each city where we were exploring with the sharing
Economy as a tool to reach the sustainability goals. So, sharing in a city, as we see it, it has to do both with how we build the infrastructure of the city. It has to be offer of circular sharing initiatives. But we also have
To work with the culture so that people want to share resources, products, space, information, data, knowledge and so on with each other. It’s also important to remember that we need to have a critical view on the sharing economy. Many cities have had to face
Many destructive, innovative examples of the sharing economy such as the Airbnb, Bike Coast, and Sharpical Mobility. So it’s a lot of things happening that affects the cities. So, it can also be how we need strategies for working with that. The role
Of the city government can be therefore both to regulate the shared economy but also to provide space, space, collabor it. Um in an amazing for for it in a way that needs to stay sustainable. So a test bed, it’s a concept
Matching already this morning. Uh it’s a physical or virtual environment that is driving innovation. By testing, developing new products, services or processes. So in our test bed in we developed and tested how we can share different products and services. But also space. Both
When it comes to sharing premises and land. I don’t know how familiar you are with the innovation process but it looks more or less the same. Uh you work with understanding the needs or the problem and then you develop ideas, you test them, you
Evaluate them, and then if they are successful, you implement them and try to scale them up. So what we did in the Sharon City Pesper is also trying to generate knowledge. What is the role of the sharing economy that the city government should
Take? What are the benefits to the society? What how do we need to develop a business models that make these sharing initiatives sustainable over time? And what is the use of perspective? Because we know that it requires behavioral change. We’re going to have
Citizens to start share more products. To to a things, to learn, to learn things instead of buying and owning everything. The sharing economy, it started to bubbling in already some ten, 15 years ago. We had one NGO coming to us at the city
Government called and they wanted to start to map the sharing economy and everything that was going on in Costamo in order to try to see what is happening. So, what we did, we tried to help them, support them in order to build the first
Version in a partnership between the city government and this NDO, which became the smart map. And we organized so-called map jams in different parts of our city, together with citizens. Because who knows the city better than the citizens themselves. So the
Smart map, we have mapped out, all the sharing initiatives, both from the civil society, but also the business sector, as long as they are not big global platforms that don’t have a local presence in our city, then we don’t have them.
This has become a social innovation spreading to other cities such as Stockholm, Costa and so on. Uh the map is open source. So, it’s free for other cities to take. We can cooperate. We are still waiting. Who will be the first
International city to have the smart pack? We are very curious to see that happen. And yes, that’s basically a little bit about a smart map. I will give you some more examples on the smart map. So, the toy library,
It was the first toy library in Sweden, developed through the sharing city test bed opened in two thousand nineteen. Yes, before the pandemic was very difficult time to start a new business. Um by the way, does anyone know how many toys a
Swedish child have on average? Any guess? Fifty? Fifty? Up? Fifty? Oh, much more. It’s a terrible number. Five hundred thirty-six. Some researchers calculated. It shows a little bit how big consumption starts already in very young age. So a toy
Library can be a good example of how to start to maybe foster new behaviour at an early age. So it works basically that they have a membership fee and you that you can pay to get access to the toys or you can become a
Volunteer. So if you don’t have money you can also work as a volunteer in the library and get access to toys. So there are different ways of how to use them. Library. And then we also have the platform for sharing land. I really like
Your idea with community gardens. I don’t think we have so many in Golden Bay. But we have the problem that more people want to do urban farming than we have. So this platform can match. Maybe you have a big
Garden but you are too old or too tired or not interested and you can put a land on the platform. Someone else will live in a flat without land. It can be match made. And you know you start to to to match people
Who can do urban gardening in someone else’s garden. Or so. Kitchen who can teach you how to repair your bike. Or you don’t have a bike, you come there because they also get a lot of bikes when estate owners, they have a lot of
Bikes that people just leave when they move away and so on and then they donate the bikes to the bike Kitchen and there’s a movement of renovating those bikes. So, it’s one example where maybe it started to be initiative for the ecological
Dimension. You you say resources by saving the bikes but it also becomes a social meeting place. We have a lot of international students and and people from other countries especially coming to these bike kitchens and finding a Yes.
You don’t have, I’m sure you have some. No, no, no, no, my kitchen, okay? But it’s free to copy the idea. Food from supermarkets that the food is nearly out of date and they give it out. And people are queuing now in Sweden
Because the food prices are horrible and so it’s a very from an economic perspective people with less money can come and collect the food and as we all know food has a big climate impact so we should not throw it away. Another example, more
Into mobility, is the core riding app it’s founded already in 2007 with 80, 000 members but now they are they can reach out to adios and they can reach out to their members. And and the basic idea is that people can ask for a
Ride or offer a seat in the car and the building trust is key. Because you go with us reindeer. Next show that you show that you sit there and talk maybe between the right gotten by Stockholm. You have four hours in a car with
Someone you don’t so I like this idea as well If I plan a trip from you have to go to Stockholm and I go alone. It’s better like you put the my car and and my trip on this platform and someone else
Can find it and maybe go with me and we share the petrol. It’s a it’s on our website but it’s very difficult for NDOs develop apps so I think at the moment it’s on the website. But there are other examples in
Europe I think like blah blah car and so on with similar. But this is really we’ve done we share the petrol of you. It’s not like I sell. I I don’t have money on my friend in the car. So this is their idea. That
Should be equal And these are other things that you can find on the map. We have our public sauna some days ago and and this is in one area of the city where we know we are not going to build houses
For the next ten, 15 years. So we can use these areas for placemaking, testing things, and if people like it, we will keep it. Well, and actually this summer, they like it so much but it wasn’t good to be there forever. So, we had to
Take it down and rebuild it. But now it’s going to be permanent. Like we are celebrating 400 year anniversary in Gotham Bay DC. Summer actually. So there’s going to be a festival starting there next weekend. But I will talk maybe more tomorrow about
That. This the swimming pool is behind. You can’t see it but it was one of the idea for the anniversary that people want to bath closer in the city centre not just going outside to the beach. Opportunity to have a swim in
The city. And then we also see new innovations coming. This is not an audio. It’s a commercial company. Uh it’s called also boxes, digital boxes are coming more and more into the cities. Their idea is to put boxes in the park where they provide
Different kind of sport equipment to activate people basically in this ocean. But eh if we don’t want to have the same situation like with the digital escoopters of the city, maybe a city start to think about the strategy. Where do we
Want these boxes on our public land? If you’re a private estate owner, of course you take the your decision if you want a box. But as a city we need to take a strategic view on how we want to see the development. So your customer
Has just joined an EU project to serve together with some other European cities where we will explore these a little bit more. Ehm in my final picture was just to sum up previous speakers have already talked about this. I just want to
Emphasise that I personally ah am very passionate about the sharing economy basically because it integrates or has a mixed potential to integrate both ecological, social and economic sustainability. So even if the pack kitchen is saving 800 bikes a year in one
Bike kitchen. The main benefit is maybe that they get social capital and resilience in the city. And in the library and soy library that you can change the norms and behaviors over time that children can bring a new consumption patterns and so on.
But can I also Kitchen. Yes. Uh what if you have a rusty some bits of rusty and they’re going to fall off. So how are they going to stay with that bread? Are they going to sow it off or are they going to leave
It? They just put something over it. They try to also keep very broken bikes, take the spare parts and see if they can use it in another bike. Yes. Public wise like okay, you’re, you can put your leg both by there and then we fix
It but they are selling the new like the new old bikes or what they’re doing with them. Kitchen, your pay by counter chromo membership and then you get the bike. Oh, okay. So, it’s very good way to make people with not so much money,
Both to learn, how to repair the bike and then to use the bike. So, it’s not about the commercial and in any way. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you. I would also to say that one of our big challenges is is that to find
Premises for all these initiatives in our city. We are really struggling to give out house premises for the bike kitchens and toy library for free and and I feel very bad in my heart that they should pay a rent to the city when they
Provide so much good values. So we have tried with this one challenge and we’re trying to work with in our city now. How we can provide premises to our realistic and reasonable price for them. I’m sorry. Thank you very much
For this presentation and for this new concept of sharing the economy. I’ve found it quite interesting. And I think it’s another way or another possibility that we can look into. Um but as you know you all know every possibility comes with some challenges. And
You mentioned the of finding premises for all these initiatives. They’re good, they’re very interesting but you know, there is always a little challenge that comes with it. So, thank you very much again and from what we have seen, I think
We need to go and visit Gutterberg. Yes. So, thank you very much again. Okay. Now, we move on to my Nitigo. And I’m waiting for the explanation. Alright, so the question has been, what is lawmarism, right? Uh, and I think that’s actually
A really good introduction to my intervention as well, though there have been very impressive examples before, so I hope to give couple of points from my side. As well, but the story is that around seven, 2017, so that’s what, six years ago. I
Started analyzing my own personal lifestyle because as six years younger, I was very worried for the environment and then I did all the steps to make my lifestyle very sustainable. And then I felt that I want to have a name for
This lifestyle but I don’t think that it’s just like sustainable lifestyle. I think that what we need is to kind of be more content with what we already have. Uh also been talks about that we have to reduce our consumption. We
Should reduce production et cetera. So I thought that it should be somehow like low consumerism and then I invented my word of low merism. And actually at that time also I was extremely passionate about this topic and I was providing
Also trainings to other people who were like eager to reduce their footprints and learn about the sustainable lifestyle And I even went that far. You don’t have to go that far but I even went that far that I didn’t buy myself any new
Clothes for one and a half years because I was like I have like 100 pieces of clothes in my closet. Let’s wear them. Let’s wear them out. Like why do I need to buy new clothes? But from that actually if you
Go really far extremes with your own personal lifestyle choices then you are going to discover that what I also discovered that it’s You can only go like couple of metres further with your personal lifestyle choices and then actually the system comes into
Play and then you want to influence the systems. And that’s where I also have come with my own career and things that I do that I work with municipalities, organizations, regions in Estonia to really look into on a systemic change level. What type of
Opportunities we have to provide without without putting all the pressure on the on the citizens of making the right choices. Have you heard that from economic terms, all of us are called homoeconomicos. The wise rational decision maker always makes the rational and
The best decision. And that’s also what the what the economy, that sense, has its basis is that our decision are rational and we always make the best decisions. There’s the demand at the market and then there’s going to be supply and this is
Kind of like the general understanding of economics, right? That’s general people have. And that I must tell you, I challenge that thinking. And I would even go that far and tell you, we’ve been lied to. How many of you are making
Rational decisions at any given time? We’re going to go to lunch and there’s going to be a choice of probably eating a lot of salad and then eating a more yummier things. How many of us are going to like fill our
Plates with salads? If even though we all know that’s the rational thing to do, one person, that’s okay. Okay, so all of you suddenly want salad, so much, so much. Uh, so but that’s the thing that’s, it’s not necessarily true, and
That’s also the, the thing why in this circular economy implementation, sustainability implementation, counting on people making the demand is not sufficient. For example, back in the day, in the European Union, I’m giving a European Union example. Uh, Because in some non-European countries it
Is still legal to smoke indoors. It was also very allowed in EU countries. You could smoke here now during the conference, in restaurants, when babies sleeping next to you. Everywhere you could smoke. Can we imagine that we just naturally by people
Wanting that would have somehow you know as citizens change the situation. Not that happen. It would have never happened if EU would not have made a law that it’s illegal to smoke indoors or and all this restaurants and places. And then yes the
Smokers were angry because they were uncomfortable for a moment. But now if you ask any smoker they don’t imagine anymore eating in the smell of smokes. So that was the crucial role of regulation. So you the undesirable behaviour in that
Sense illegal. And I’m a true fan of in that sense regulation that also at this very moment that the free market the market is never going to regulate itself against existing exploitive cheap ways that have been established over decades over last couple of centuries
So we need regulation to actually push the innovation towards circular economy. We need cities like municipalities to be giving money, funds, governments giving money to the rights behavior and making it uncomfortable to pollute, making it uncomfortable to use single-use plastics to be very
Consuming in resources and materials and all that. So that’s kind of like how we can push actually towards the transition and we can do our part as citizens of course like go take part in community gardens. I have experienced
That as well in telling it was super fun to pick my own letters and make my own salad out of it. Um so there but also if you have a position where you can influence current decision makers into reducing working hours for example.
Research shows that if people work less they become more sustainable. Because you have more time to plan your meals. To work out, to spend time with your family and friends and that makes us more sustainable in that sense. Question? Yeah, that, the, those, yeah,
That sounds You want the salad? Alright, but with that, I will actually finish my intervention. In that sense that do your part but also we do need systems to change and I think regulation is the way to go. My question. Uh I would ask
Just you know we’re telling the free market will not solve the problem. So you were referring that the free market will not solve the problem but when we are seeing that people are like more and more wanting to be more green. So isn’t it like
Also like the free market is the people. So we are saying that the people will not fix it. Of course we can make it faster using all this laws and stuff. But isn’t like also the way that when like when we are
Seeing people like us here or like taking care of the were like feeling that this as a state of sustainable world, let’s say is a very very important than when there is enough people like us and the free market, there should also
Fix the problem because we are the free market in this example or what do we mean that the free market is not fixing the problem. Thank you. Um so, what do I mean is that for example, if we vote now here, collectively design product and
We come up with like the 3D like the however it’s called like the drawings of the product and then we send it to random Chinese website to produce. And then we can produce it. It doesn’t have to be repairable. It can be made
Out of the most polluting plastic that’s not recyclable. We don’t know if the people who make it are actually adults or if they get a fair salary and then the product is at the market. And nobody has asked for this product. We just kind
Of came up with this. So can sell it because it’s a free market. Um the thing with the demand and supply is that the businesses of course they’re going to play the drum of consumers, you demand these products, you are not demanding
Better, but that’s what I also said in the morning, it’s like, if I have a choice of, do I buy myself food? Or do I buy myself like organic food? I’m going to choose the cheapest food and the maximum quantity. And
That’s the element that I don’t necessarily have that strength to fight for the better choice. Uh and then secondly the like because there are so many layers before we get to the layer of business actually changing the business model or
A product. For example again let’s say this hotel is going to offer us food in the single use packaging and single use cups. We go to the restaurants in a while. I don’t know. See you said he changed the gender. So I don’t know
When you get your salad. So so then we go to the restaurant and they give a single packages. And we go to the to the waitress or waiter and be like Lily like why is it like that? We want reusable things
And then maybe all of us know that. And then the waiter is like okay maybe okay I don’t know. And then maybe he or she mentions it to their boss but the boss is like it’s cheaper. Who cares? And then it never
Gets to the offer level. So that’s the challenge of like We are the people. We are the force. But at the same time there are so many barriers to go through. And that’s why I’m saying that the free I’m not
Against free market but I think we just have to agree on the on the borders of the free market and we’re like this material polluting not recyclable this but hey here are like 100 other options for you. Do your free market in those options. So
That’s kind of like my idea of like that the market is not going to regulate itself because businesses are going to want to continue doing business as usual until as long as possible, until literally there’s a law that says that
It’s illegal. That’s what the reality unfortunately is. Thank you Marie. I think we have to decide whether it is going to be salad or we continue the discussion. Uh okay, we have I understand in 10 minutes for presentation, 2 minutes. Okay,
You have 2 minutes. The longest. Uh okay. Uh now I am very pleased to give the floor to Mikalis Cavoclis, president of the House of Europe in roads Greece who’s going to give us his views on the same issue and maybe on the
Salad as well. Sure. For me it’s good to be Japanese for sure. I have to take care of that. Uh actually my the very nice passage for me. It’s so I’ve got most of my things sorted. Uh I would like to say
That don’t judge me wrong from the start. When you need to go full circles, we’re talking about certain economy, judge me at the end. Uh all these discussions was really arrogant. You, that’s the beauty. It’s arrogant because we are always used to talk to
Take us out of the graduate. We’re doing this in the equivalent of the planet where humanity is just like a thief. It comes goes. The planet has another four billions to years nothing on the history of the planet, of the life of the
Planet. What is at risk is humanity? And we start, we need to start to talk about humanity at risk. Not the planet, not the tigers, not the crocodiles, not the dinosaurs. It’s the people that such race. Our home, our landlihood. And this
Thesis. And the thing is that people eh we know from history and mythology that the planet was warmer before. If you have heard about the mythology about Hercules, once he kills the ingredients, lions. It means that the temperature was much
Warmer, the climate is much warmer, and there were lights in Greece. Now we are Sahara. So you can see the goal. We have the histories of the the floods, of Noah or we know that we have water rising. The mythology says that
He did emerge from the sea. And even now, when you go up to the mountains, 1000 meters above the sea, you can see, you can find sea cells and star feces on the ground. So, the planet changes but changes and adapt
Social humanity and the thing is that whether we can be able to reverse climate change or delay the destruction that we have caused, we need to adapt. People will be dying, will But this is the course of humanity. All those people die.
It’s a bit cynical. But the things that we adapted. We adapted before. We will adapt. And hopefully we stop destroying our place of living. So this is my first comment on that part. And I go direct to the small paradigm. Uh we have
A a European project called Gira green initiatives for in rural areas. For it’s a between 6 countries. Uh we as Greeks involve we want to promote that part not just the rural areas but also the islands. How it’s supposed to live in an island.
And so we have a small island near roads, Harkey. Hockey is competent for the past 6000 years at least. Now it has only 250 permanent During summer it goes double. Plus the tourism. Okay and there are the model there were picked from the
Great government and the European Commission to be a GRECO island. Great Echo Islands which we spent so many millions of dollars of euros for 200 people. Can we just relocate If we are a reasonable restaurant, she’s right. All these people,
We can, we should abandon this island. And just people where it’s more financially efficient for them to live. For the state, for themselves. Versus own the land. Not in China or here in Estonia. I don’t have So as Nicos is very prominent
Writer, Greek writer said, if you cannot change the world, change the eyes that see the world. We have to change how we see the world and understand our place in it. So, in order to reverse actually the climate change, it’s about protecting
Our way of life. But what we’re going to protect? The core values of our life or devices and divinity of this kind of life I’ve seen this for me. 3 minutes guys, I will conclude the word. So, as we, as climate
Changes, also the solutions have to change, to adapt, because solutions are not important to contain from Sweden with this amazing things they do more from here in Dali and apply them to Greeks or Greta before Junis or more difficulty to the public but
Congo or China. Mention the conditions which ready to make to push the European Union because it’s a very good paradigm to the smoking. To make a fair trade more close to all the trade agreements with other countries. To ensure that every
Product imported in European Union and then participated in the we have established in local organization. It’s fair grade, fairly produced, environmentally awareness and all these nice things we say. Are we ready to make all the sacrifices ourselves? We are
Going there. And ah the north will close down because they get more things changed. A lot of hope to inspire you a bit for exchange during the lands. Eh we have been previously been ah successful with the environment. When I was growing
Up the main duration was the ozone layer. Now you hear about the ozone layer? No. Because all the governments of the world tried eh agreed and fight to counter up. Effect the elevator program. And now it’s restored. And now is the
Protectiveness still. And for the building also minimizing the effects of climate change. So we can work together, we can do it together, but our significance is to press our politicians and stays to do the difference themselves, the global scale and we do the best
We can in the local. Yes. Thank you very much Thank you This is really a very interesting vintage point. Uh a way of thinking of the issue and I think it it is going to to stimulate our thinking whether we are eating salad or
Something else. And I think it’s it’s something that we need to come back to. To think about this particularly the the change of narrative that you mentioned Uh the the rationality is the sacrifices that needs to be accepted and and implemented
On the individual, the, the, the, the society level as well. Uh, the, I think the fourth point that you made was the fact that we need to have both politicians or the political decision makers, to really to their act together, and on the
Side of the citizens, there is also something that needs to be done. Uh, to compliment that those decisions and to implement that. So unfortunately we do not have any more time for questions even though I personally would have liked to continue this one
Question okay. Who is going to give me the who is going to be the lucky winner? Lucky lucky question no questions So it’s the real question. Okay questions. Do we have one? No, I guess. There is one. Eh for me like eh comment about
We need everyone need to be this so like we really need to change the whole lifestyle. But I think what we also need to keep in mind the negative impact that like us having a corn from the US, a Bugata from Brazil,
This from there so to transport all these goods to where we are, to go to the supermarket, even the biological supermarket and have it there. To, to get it from A to B, it’s also caused of course, a lot of
Damages. So, I think this is also, you know, the case has been ignored, because oh yeah, it’s a green, it’s like a green wash basically, like, oh, it’s it’s biological, it’s proved. So, it’s okay to do it, so I
Think this is also a bit of, yeah, going to highlight, I would say. Thank you for your comments. Um I mean yeah like how can it be a free market if you’re going to book orders to it, right? But I mean, I think
The main point that I think we need to realize is that as it was pointed out, it’s not about saving the planet but it’s about saving humankind and that’s the question of like what type of decisions we have to make and if we look at
Currently the commitments the countries have made the From the Paris Agreement, we are like, we’re like still here but we should be here and it’s like nothing, and that’s why I’m thinking that we do need to change in a way, What do we
Define as like, you know, like, why are we here as people, like, are we here to work until our, our, we get like health issues, and then we’re depressed, and we’re sad, and we’re violent, and angry, like, what’s the, what’s the meaning
Of life I that’s also a question we don’t ask ourselves as a society often enough. And I think that’s why I also said that we should reduce working hours and we should kind of agree that hey we want to have nice living environments and
For that we have to agree that some things are not okay anymore. And then like we have agreed that it’s not okay that kids have to work in most of the countries and they get to actually go to school. And
That’s I think the main main understanding we need to have and then the thing about food coming from other countries than ourselves, our own country, that’s also the like the beauty and the paradox of nowadays world that is very global, it’s very connected. Um
In Estonia for example, if I would want to eat locally in January, I would need to eat carrots, potatoes and beets. Uh that would diet mostly. Um but from the if you look into data about environmental impact of food.
Then the biggest choice you can make actually is eating less meat. And even if my avocado even when all year around comes from Peru. Then the environmental impact of transportation in food sector is 6% of the whole like 6% of
The missions of food come from transport. Uh around comes from packaging but majority of it comes from how the food is grown, what choices are made in the farms, and that’s the thing Uh shockingly, for me, a choice between for example, a tomato
From Spain which we have in Estonia or Estonian pork. The environmentally friendly choice is the tomato. Even from Spain. So, that’s also something to like be more aware of like where are the huge impacts and I would say eating less meat is definitely
One of them as well. I love pizza. I just was searching about this topic and I know that we have one place where we are rolling something. So, every three years, we need to give this place sleep. And so, we need
Cows who can go there and just make oops and so on. So, and we also need to change every year. In this place, different plants. And if we are doing it, if we are thinking about ten thousand, it’s eco farming. And
It’s okay to eat meat. Just we need to think how it can work together. Absolutely. Because I did not say do not eat meat. I said reduce eating meat. Because because most of the animals that we are eating garlic farms. They’re not in
Meadows. They’re not like the city oxes on eating grass. They’re in farms. That’s the thing I’m saying. Eat less meat. Not I didn’t say go or vegan. Let’s not go into that. So I agree that there is this ecosystems but that’s the thing
If we eat less meat maybe for the existing animals. We can also give better living conditions and give them the fresh grass in the fields. It’s not all about consuming, it’s about wasting lots of food. Because we waste one
Third of the food that we produce. And that’s equivalent to three times the food that we need as adults, European standard adults. We waste this kind of food for population. It’s really bad. Thank you very much. Uh I think with this we
Conclude our panel and so now it’s lunches with. Make a blouse. Thank you very much. Thank you for Michael from Denmark for being with us. Uh it’s it was a pleasure. Now guys, we are little bit out of schedule but
It’s fine. We will make it the second third session. We will be here back at 3thirty. 330 guys, okay? Uh so, we have around 45 minutes for lunch. Lunch is served in the first floor straight away where is the breakfast. So, you just
Turn left. Go downstairs. See you later. Eh 45 minutes. Uh. Yes. Or we squeeze. You just gotta put the chair close over here. At the of Zumba. As Miss Now we are moving to the third to to give up the the management responsibility back
To the our friends, ambassador. Okay, if you hold, there’s no problem for me. So, this role of civil society organization for tackling green transition and sustainable development. Yeah, usually when we talk about civil society, the big, the big people from the
Government already gone. Yes. So, let’s make applause for a long fail in Dal first year from Pep. Iceland, the farest country. adult ah other ah other Baghdadi we organization from Netherlands, Amsterdam. Laura, Maria, I love manager of from Finland. Ikf youth worker.
And from if the hating will be running, you will not here. So the role of civil society of tackling green transition. Why do you think, what is the the role of retinal society organizations in your country? And the second from your
Perspective. And the second question, have you ever been engaged or supported any sustainable development projects or initiatives at your local or regional level? And what was the result? We could start from Adam. Uh thank you so much and thank you also for being
Here. So I think after lunch a lot of energy needed to get people to be here and join. Uh to answer your question, I think what we do at this I think it’s also difference between the civil society, organizations, and the governmental organization, the
Governmental, those capable change policy or change rules or change laws. Well, Pacific organization, they will try to reach the people themselves to make the real change and we do it from reorganization in a different way. We target the
Youth between age 15 to 25, 30 years old. Uh we give them the training and let them create the impact that they want to see. So like give them the the tools, give them the methods that they need to make the
Impact in the society and not only tackling the sustainability challenge but also like discrimination, inclusion, as well as greenery because I think what we need to to include the sustainability discussion as well as all the other challenges in the society
And there because I cannot solve one issue and leave the other. So like we really need to have a holistic approach for all the challenges that facing society and humanity. And I understand that okay it’s a yeah sustainable environmental.
It’s also important but I think all the other challenges as important Right. Um yeah. To answer first your question about what we have been doing. The world. Yeah, the role. Uh I mean the role is obviously I mean, I
Have to yeah I mean our role as a society as a whole is to you know do something, do what we can, and that’s both governments, it’s business, it’s like bracket. Um many of them may be working but they are low
Weight so they are struggling and I mean this is not the people that can bear any responsibility about the the transition. But the government kind of solution is always to kind of reward the the more richer parts of the population like
Reducing tax on electric cars. I mean poor people could never afford to buy electric cars. They have to drive around in 20 year old cars. You know that go for petrol. And then they raise the petrol prices. So you know.
Was just one example. Um but I mean we as a society we need to encourage each other to be more responsible on a personal level. I mean obviously every little thing matters. Um so they’re going to what we have
Been doing or yeah. I mean the path is actually an organization that started as a grassroot movement. Of an organization called the EAPN, the European and the Poverty Network which is a European network of like organization that are fighting poverty and
Assisting people from poverty. We have now founded as an independent organization and before we actually became independent, we were working within the EFN on a project that was was welcome to come into and just come and eat without to
Pay. Uh I mean we had the contribution jar where people could you know if they were able to pay they could, you know, make a contribution and though people generally could just sit their their by themselves or sit with others. you know, communicate with
Other people and eat. Uh we had like food coming from companies that were you know, so it was a part of like a food waste. Project to reduce food waste. Uh so we would receive food from companies that was almost
Out of date. Uh and our first intention was to like cope with it and give away the rest to everyone who use it. Uh the problem was that this was at the same time as COVID hit. So we ended up at at a certain
Period. We ended up with a lot of food that we couldn’t. We were to cook because we won’t be able to get contact with So what we did was just to put all the food outside to for people to take
Is the this this, you know, people with disability especially. Uh but I mean, in our experience, these people can sit together and become best of friends. So, I I thought that was quite beautiful coming there and seeing seeing that. Uh the the
Program was very successful but unfortunately, we had some kickback from the other help organizations who thought that we were doing the same thing that they were doing and you know, interfering with their work which obviously we weren’t because we were all who have
Experienced poverty over themselves. We are not professionals. We’re not social workers or people with that need. Authority, so we were, it was kind of like up here project. So, the, the people, one of our volunteers were people in those service circumstances themselves. Uh,
Assisting other people. So, and this was very successful, but unfortunately My name is and I’m born and raised in Sweden in Malmo, the city in the south, the third biggest city. So you have to, they have talking about Gothenburg today, but I think
One was better. We have some multicultural city that we have people from all over the world. We have so many refugees that we work with. Eh, and I have a background like entrepreneur, but I work with everything in the city to hold the city, to
The level of the best to this youth. I have my own youth centre for 10 years ago. Uh I have build it with youth in the city. And we work with Denmark and Copenhagen from the other side because we have you know
That we have just 20 minutes to attend our from our city. So you know there is so many things which have been over this bridge all the time that uses youth life to celebrate things. The committee moment over the to Denmark. So we have
Like much youth and the city is one of the youngest city in the in Sweden because more than 50% are under 30. So you see that we have so many youth to work with. And I want to show a video. Can you help me? Because
You know the video. How I started when I was 18. Uh to work with this. So you’re going to see a video how we started to project. What we have done. So I would show more video and talk about it, you
Can say, it’s a little bit in Sweden, but you can’t understand the video. I think you’re going to understand it. We can do this. And we always have this open place that you can do every whatever you want. And now it’s
Not the parking place. It’s a bicycle place that you can bicycle and have fun with your friends. Place. Uh so that is my first project to say what I have done. And you can see how much I have done after that. So
So this is the first thing. I hope you enjoyed the video. So it was it was some question you can talk to me later. Okay. When are you going to have your white kitchen? Pike kitchen. I I I can see that I have done
More yeah it’s a good thing. We have it in Marvel. We have like kitchen. Yes sir. In the in this in this place we have it right now. A small business not mine. But yeah it’s recycling bicycle place. We have it. Uh
In this place. But we have so many thing. I have I have for five years ago I had my own gymnasium school. I own my own school and build it with this thing this ideas that I want to build the entrepreneurship
Program to youth in our city. Uh so it’s very from this to have like a school and then have a a youth centre. So I’m very happy with the the job we do. Uh I want more people to come and work with this USB
Because we need all workers help. So yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I totally agree with my colleagues and thank you for that we are also can grow up and share a experience for each other. And what about Finland?
Uh Finland also government understood that role of civilian society is very important. And support that. And I’m very happy that all people can like run on NGO with their ideas. And many enjoy their life work together. For make better future. That’s our
Ideas. But for me always how I like imagination. What I want and how I feel this into work. Uh for me in it’s like a bridge. Bridge between people and government. Uh bridge. What like help both way understood each other. And for my opinion
Civil society do you like a strong when people really understood their rights. And for my opinion one of the way like explain to people their right. That commuting and education is key. Uh what really open for us many doors.
And we’ve talked about like our project, what we did. Uh talk about last one but just we finalise. Uh it was project when we important topics through the culture way. Uh through the our how you get but our students
And we think that it’s maybe not correct. They really need to know youngsters what they want, what they need. And also we hope that when these projects, our youngsters learn much more, not only about like myth, about history of their place, but
Also about sustainability, about green growth and what important for me, they not only educated, they get their own ideas own vision, and I hope so that these small steps really help all of us communicate and make our world much more better for our kids.
Hello, everyone. I’m German. I’m from and it’s such a great pleasure to be in that place. We’ve had people who are really interested in it. And know that we are not alone. We are all from a different countries, different culture. But now
We’re together. And for me the smallest is a young sport. Because if you want to solve the problem, you need to examine yourself in different angles, angles. So, firstly, we’re taking a part of that are what they want. They won’t have
To be and have more and more money. What money is? First, there’s opportunities and for us is just to one of the most important to give an opportunity, an opportunity to express yourself in, use them opportunities, and to be heard.
Be heard yourself and it’s a really nice one, the yabs can be like a new France whereas experts teachers. Because you know school system is there with that experts but not only or for biology lessons but going for green energy and
Other bodies connected with other languages like English language, Estonian language, with literature, it’s really nice to be a part of it. And firstly, it’s really hard when we get that footprint on our nature. Because we know what have zero only our nature. It
Works by yourself. We agree getting the road when we change that point. That organism. And now we footprint. And now we need to trade it highway. That moving forward with our nature. To being like friends with them. And it’s it’s not so
Easy. It’s a hard, long, temporary way. But it’s one of the most important. Because yeah, politics and other stuff is times and just to be in a mental time. It’s hard to stay. Um just to be in much with the
Nature is one of the great time when you can be myself. Our point. Just to give for more and more experience and understanding what is important. Thank you government. Thank you ah all of you If I, if you would allow me, I
I would like to maybe kick off this question segment. Uh, by asking you all a question We have since this morning, even in this panel, we discussed or we presented the importance of a the the joint work between government and civil society
They need to go hand in hand together. Now, the challenge would be You know, in democracy, there is always the possibility of change of government, change of policy, change of orientation, change of vision. So, what would be the role of civil society if
There is a change of government that does not believe in the same vision or the same ideals of you know, the sustainability issues, the environment protection issues, the green policy pattern. How should civil society in general CSOs or NGOs or whatever or
Associations. How would they or you I mean how do you see the role, their role that they should embody faced with this new challenge. Particularly given the fact that they have already started working on certain projects, on certain
Ideas. So what would be the the I mean how would they react to this? They have to adapt to the new situation or do they have to challenge? Do they have how do you see the role? And it’s the same question to all of
You. So let’s start in reverse with yoga. So that in Martin and one of the most important is pertuition. And if you only have motivation with getting ideas, you will set it up. We’re setting what is a problem? What is issue? Um how
To examine the problem? We just need to our politics and civil society will pushing forward not so hard, but pushing forward itself. And being a community, one community that advocates is I’ve been in a dungeon. What you want to do?
And the troll is very it’s not a strange because when the new green companies went to the market and that is great key to base always. Because what is great oil company see that company that’s on the market and just eat them. It’s really
Hard to be able to want a whole game. And why? That’s how civil society, our politics does to be like one game, one one community. To be push forward And give that understanding what they want to do and why it’s important. Because if
We’re not going to wait in it, we don’t see the point, why should we do it? But we know what should we know and what is need to do. A very special country but it’s really important to being like one family that is motivated and
Minerals have to say one to want to do something. Yeah, for me, I actually prepared some recommendations so I’ll just read it because I, like, when you ask the questions, like, it just basically, fitting, fitting these recommendations that I took aside from, like,
All the work that CEO like, say, C, CSOs, working, this could be something, so like, one of them is like a promote policy forms, advocate for policies that aligns with sustainability principles, engage with policy maker to provide inputs and recommendation and enhance the
Public awareness and education because I think this is exactly the role that NGOs or like civil organizations the role that they should play. They’re raising awareness with the public. So even if the government would change the work of civic organizations is
To directly with the people, directly with them with the with the streets basically. With that, we can get the push, we can get really the, the, the, the against force to whatever the government, if the government could or would change other policies when it
Comes to sustainability. Uh, conduct awareness campaign to raise public awareness about sustainability, challenges, provide access a cure information and this I think is really key to a cure information and resources for informed decision makers as well as the public because I
Think what we hear a lot like oh whatever you Google you will find an answer for like if you want to say like oh let’s become everyone vegan then you’ve got thousand articles about why should we all become vegan and if you want to say
Like oh why we all have to be on the eat meat you if you Google it you will also have thousands of articles about that I think to look for really really information that will help the policy makers to make and create policies but also
The public opinion with with the with yeah data basically like really I think this is the eight that we are living in. It’s all about data and information. This is the the the the time that we are living
In. Uh as well as I think that the governments are like like yeah big international organization could also play an a role. So like for example in the the government now started to put money to bring back the plastic
Cent or 20 cents. They started to see the impact on the streets like everyone would bring it back because it’s worth money. And then like in an indirect way they said like oh some people say, yeah, but they created jobs for the
Homeless people, so that they can earn money. I mean, whatever the resolve what’s what’s the end result is that like there is less plastic. Plastic on in nature, less cans now in nature. So like with this I think it’s really mobilising and motivating
People and the public to take part in this as well in a different way. So some people financial could be the motivation. Other ones will be the information is the motivation Yeah, this is a very good question. Um I mean, we are
Partly in that situation In my country, I’m and I’m saying that because yeah, as as a person, you know, in the in the lowest weights bracket and working within within a community that is experiencing poverty. Um I kind of see how
The well, the current situation isn’t doing much for the population that I abhor it for. I don’t know what other restaurant you you want. Then the the things that we see around us. Um I mean what we can do I mean what
We were doing like with with the food reducing food waste and we were also having like a ray of cloth for people could come and leave clothing and take clothing as they wanted. So it’s not just food and water clothing and different items
For like household items and stuff that people could come and and I’m not going to say that the our government does nothing because they are doing something but they think they are doing a lot more than they actually are doing. So
Yeah so I’m just talking from our experience. Um but I’m I mean I I think this is what we can do. We can connect directly with companies and especially companies that want to make a change. They want to be a part
Of the solution. And have things to give that others can use. Uh we can be the mediators for for those kind of you know exchanges. So yeah. It’s like that answers the question. Okay very nice, thank you. We are working with the local
Political. It’s very important. People is always talking about the biggest government that you have to talk like in Stockholm. But we are in down and going up. That’s my they are very nice and we have built a network with the
Political that we can just knock the door if we want something. So it’s very nice that we have this network. And the media, I always talking about the television and talk there, the youth I have worked with, the Swedish television
Before and it’s very important that the youth have voice there too. So, always like working with the media a newspaper that the youth can talk there but there because there is the local politician. There is the government who are
Looking at it and we have been so many times in the newspaper that the government always calling us now. So that’s very nice to push it there. And say to people to knock the door because we did it. We just knocked the door.
And the other thing with the CEO and the companies we have a big networking with the companies who working with the CA eh CSR. It’s very important to research about that and see what they what the the company do in Sweden. They either have
The policy or not to help them. For some of the company don’t understand that they need to do that. They like to budget this economic, they want to be rich. Somehow we have the older companies in Sweden Sweden to do this together
Because they need people outside to understand something is happening outside. Because this business people are busy. They are going forward and they need to build something to their self and to Sweden and I don’t see what’s happening in the
Streets and the youth what the youth thinking. So we are knocking the door and have this big networking now. So we build build it together. We we will build Sweden together. I always say that we need to be all sorts of persons in this. So
Yeah. This is what we do. Thank you. And I totally agree with that that really you need to knock the door. But I think at first you need to be ready that changes. It’s never happened so fast. And you need
To be rated that it’s a road. And maybe you really you didn’t you will not find end of this road. Maybe only our grandchild really realized their ideas what we talk now. Uh but if you never do any steps then nothing
Happened. And of course in my opinion also you need to think in that to be a good example. How you said that you know just sit and for somebody you need to do like that. You do it by yourself. And I thought that if
We are be more active by ourselves and educate Educate youngsters. Educates also adults. Educates migrants. That I mean they for example provided us with our last location for the free cafe and hopefully happen again. So yeah. I think that really the local
Governments are the key Thank you very much, okay? So, now So, we have one, two, Thank you. I studied intermediate communications and I know how amazing and interesting can be just making photos, videos, podcasts and so on. And how
Such way of making something and discussing different topics and Do you use it Did you direct your questions of anyone who wants to answer? Because I know that some people communication. Um and I mean for us I mean the path under
The when it was under the we organised the like journalism workshops. Um and the journalism media price that we had like once a year we would gather all the the covers of the media. I know it’s not quite what you were talking
About but it’s kind of connected. Uh where we would collect all the media like stories about poverty and things related to poverty. Um and we would like award somebody with the best coverage of of poverty. So I mean we have like
Partly done this but I I would very much be interested in making it more like like so people themselves can make documentaries and stuff about their circumstance services so I think that’s very interesting. Don’t know if it answers your question but
And for me I think the power of social media I think noone can question that. And I think to reach people you need and to reach youth. We need it these days. Like you see biggest politicians now on TikTok are in on Instagram because like
It’s the only way. Correct. It’s illegal now. Yeah like to have it on your on your work phone not on your private phone. So like you still can have it on the private phone. So yeah like the US they said
Only like even now in the Netherlands you are not allowed to download TikTok on your work form but you can still have it on your private phone. So, you know, so like this is also something, but for me, like, all this, it’s
Another discussion, like, okay, why Google is allowed to collect our data in China, not, but I mean, you know, so like, this is also big question mark. But yeah, to reach you, we need to use social media. To reach youth, we need to use different
Channels to use social media. So, like if you want to use Facebook, you will reach another people or another target group that if you will use TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat even. Or YouTube. As well as the newspapers because
I think like as people who are working on the field, we need to talk with different with the society basically with with also the language that the society will understand and not be like the journalist that they will speak only for
Intellectual minds. We need to talk a language that everyone could understand and make it yeah understandable where where the people are not invite the people like, oh you need to be a certain level to understand what we are talking about
If I could with this shortly out about the the different types of social media. But as a volunteer network, it’s kind of hard to like expect volunteers who don’t have limits of those media. Like I mean most of us are of the Facebook journalism
So we only know how to operate Facebook. So if we were supposed to be active on on places like TikTok and Instagram and other media that then we would have to have volunteer that we’re familiar with those. You don’t need volunteers. Yeah. You need
Youngsters who are studying. Mhm. Yeah. You need communication. They can be some volunteers. Yeah yeah yeah. Uh and have and the gift of practice. Yeah. The the students. I just made the podcast. What is volunteering? And I and the main why I was
Doing is this idea that we have lack of communication between universities and youth organizations. Yeah Uh I mean I also work for a podcast medium so and I do technical work there. So yeah we are very lucky to implicate that within the
I love social media. I have working for so long time for the Swedish television. So I know the social media is like we said in we say in Sweden or to it’s very like you do it like you have to do it. We have
All things from Twitter journal, TikTok, and the thing is I’m not a volunteer but I’m sitting on TikTok like twelve to four o’clock in the morning just to see life send this. What is the youth talking about? Every day. Because the
Youth are there. Because our youth centre is open for five afternoon to five in the morning. So I’m sitting and just listening to see what is happening and everyday is having something new with the youth. So you have to be
Upgrade all the time to see what’s happening there. Uh and the biggest platform is yeah TikTok, Instagram for the youth and I have like Snapchat too because of the youth. So it’s like everything. I have to be there everywhere to see what’s
Happening. Uh and the newspaper like I’ve talked about on the television and the podcast is very important to to reach these people working with the companies, with the government. So we have the all reaches from all the the places. And we have
Youth who who use this and help me with that. So it’s not me or myself. Uh yes, I think so like social media is very important for us. It’s part of our life and we can play this game but oh no,
Yes, it’s part of our life and civil society also I mean to work with our new dimension of our world. And of course, youngsters now, they mostly use TikTok, Instagram, and and I does not understood this Facebook. And I already late. Yes.
Rather than switching. If nowadays, Facebook was one of the most important thing in our lives. And that then switched to the Instagram. And for yours, whatever, what is it? Snapchat, Twitter, or something else. For example, it’s like like new newspaper. The black
Agenda for say, they were delighted. Whatever. And it’s maybe roughly a person but media was playing a huge role in all times. If you arrest problem with Tesla and Edison that ACNDC. When Edison just killed an elephant to show that
Tesla electricity, like I said, dust, not so good skin. It just is like a plane on it and if you want to stay in a moment, the be popular, you need to use media, just to second a time, and what is, does the rebel is
Wishing? If just getting new platform, a small important for the, for the years, for other people, it probably and not only for all if you if you compare like Facebook it’s more official and Instagram. You’re scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Oh, I just want to
Hear. And nowadays, if it’s impossible and watch virus videos. Maybe that video was made by 2 minutes. Just collect, order, 1 million views. Um something new televisions that take it for hours. With professionals. And being for 100thousand. And there is very inconvenient to
Compare them in our lives and nowadays. Because really reckless wishing. Is ah so from my side I don’t have a question but more ah suggestion or method but ah we can everybody use it or the government can implement it ah
Because we have been lucky ah ah that kind of system about the free cafe, you have it but we don’t has a specific place. We have some places but in some cities, we have cabins where people live the food or spreading out the country. And
Like if you’ve put the food then somebody can take it. It’s working now like take one product and leave one product but you can liking like basically use less food like put your food there and somebody else was can take it
Because it was implemented for to help more who has lower incomes. But now it’s basically the helps with the I think like what you said it’s really highlight the importance of civic initiatives and like like citizens initiatives which
Is I think not waiting like oh the company or the policy or the policy makers or the government. No like people community based, grassroot initiatives can really make a huge difference on a national level. And here I think would also like to highlight the
Importance of the social entrepreneurship. Because like a lot of these examples that we share. It’s happening as a social where like the income or like the benefits can stop or goes into the project itself and then it will keep it
Running. It will help the people who are working there as well as having so not only positive impact on the people who are working there but also on the society as well. So like in the Netherlands there’s an example of a supermarket. Like
Really supermarket that got donations from like the victim for markets. Uh for the product that they are almost So like you still have one, two days maybe. Before they expire but then you can buy it for like 50 cents or one euro or even like
Something that was five euro. You can get it for one or two euros. So like with this you are still giving the pride for the people who are in need to pay for their food which is I feel it’s always nice to give
The pride for the people. So like no matter how much the person has in their like wallet. But once you pay for something you feel that okay I bought it. Not like I got it. Donation. So this is as like
Helping the people who are in need but also definitely creating positive impact on the food waste in general. The same thing with clothing. Like there’s this social entrepreneurship place where like they start to recycle all the materials or the the
Fabrics of the jeans and now they make collaboration with the big jeans company in the Netherlands to recycle all the genes as well. So like not only once but you can I don’t know how many times you and we want
The same fabric of jeans to create a new product and new yeah, jeans basically. So, this is I think is also something very important. Yeah, the in Latin is I created just this kind of method because to reach more people because there is
One specific point, somebody can’t reach it and that’s why they cannot taking out of through the whole country. It will help reach more people. Yeah, I I think what you’re talking about it has been also going in on in but that’s also
Like a like initiative of of civil society. Uh but we had something called freed. F R E D E. It’s kind of the same concept of like somebody putting on the fridge in a certain place. And then social media is used to kind of you
Know they say I don’t just put this in there. Somebody wants it and you know some people even soap and putting darts and put it there. Because I think in some some places some cities or this is needable because we
You know have food waste a lot and and yeah it kind of good method what you can use it. Yeah. We we have also discussed the the thing like you were talking about about the free supermarket or you know free or
Low area. You know whatever it is and we have actually discussed it with several other organizations and I know there is interest in Iceland to open such an initiative but obviously it has to be kind of this. It’s also, I mean,
Another thing that we have that, for example, the organizations don’t have. Is that we don’t ask for anything. We don’t have to prove your poorness. To come and eat with us or you know it’s just like on your conscience that you
Want to pay for it or can’t pay for it. You you you can. But I mean the whole program says that you have to come and bring your tax return and you know bank statements and you know kind of it’s the great thing. I
I know many people who need to go there but they don’t want to do that. So what we were doing was obviously not the same thing that they were doing. It was more like an open space where people could Make
Friends, you know, and so on and so forth. So, yeah, I think that’s very important. We have it too in Sweden like you said in Netherland. We have it like the Iceland. But the the thing is I I am on the
Board for the Red Cross too. So there we have like a big places in Volvo that we have. There’s you can just come and eat all day. Twenty-four hours. So to have it. You have a budget. Because we have a the same
Organization. Yeah but I know. I know. The Red Cross is like yeah. Uh it’s different. But you have to go in the board and just like like I did and we like working a lot and one more about that and we have 13
Places in just a little bit, a little city like Paolo. So, now, they can come and eat and buy clothes. We have everything like a community in the Red Cross and you can come and do everything. You can have a
Shower if you want. You have everything there. So, that’s very nice but you have to do action. That’s the only thing I always say. I was there knocking the door of the Red Cross and I said, what are you doing? Like, I want to help
You. I have IDs and I know that you have a budget. So, put it on the right things. So, it’s like that I’m doing. So, yeah. I don’t need a microphone. Oh. Uplifting two realities. So, I’m really, I’m coming from Belgium. I’m living two
Realities. I’m living a reality which is a Belgian one and at the same time, I’m living a reality which is the African one. So, for two, three months in the year in Africa, I should be very, very, very careful about the kind of absolute
Statements. What I discovered and what I see that is functioning is working with core responsibility Very often in Belgium we say the real poor people we don’t see them. Because they are really ashamed or they they hide themselves or
They don’t want to show up with their situations. That’s first thing. Therefore we we thought more also in the sense of I think you’re from Iceland. As far as I understood to see it as a core responsibility. For instance what we can furnish is
The goods, the products. What you can do is the cooking and making together as community food. And there is a centre. We we try to be as open as possible. We are not going to ask for papers or you’re not
Going to ask for an IT or whatever it might be. We are supposed that when somebody is giving an effort and coming at the same time to the place, this is two efforts already. In Africa, the situation is even a
Little bit worse. I’m not going to speak again in absolute statements but I have seen if you give things automatically to people that their engagement and their own responsibility is getting and Lord and just emphasizing their situation of poverty. So there once again I
Should like to invite that struggling against poverty. Uh it might be around a lack of food or whatever. That it is always a community. Who has to strive and work for it. And that each member whom it might be has a responsibility in that
Community. The one is the other is bringing food, one other is surfing, and what it might be. And as we already co-responsible, I think we get out of the vicious the vicious circle of poverty and what we are giving here, if it is a
Lack of food or whatever it might be, it just signal, it’s just, it just, I call this an item, I just call this one one example, but you can manage it on many examples. I think even what heard this morning. We can
Talk and we can talk and we can talk. But as long as there is no community taking a responsibility and each one of these responsible is really taking his lots of responsibility in everything never will change something. Um I heard very beautiful things
This morning about different countries. I was a little bit later. Because I came from Portugal. Out through Belgium to here. But I say once again everything for me is culture. As long as is not a culture and a mentality which is changing,
You might have the most beautiful actions you ever think, but it is not a cultural event, when it is not a cultural thinking, when it is not a mental one, you just lose time. I’m sorry to say that.
Ehm, if I, if I may, ah, thank you Rudy for the, this comment because actually, I had the opportunity this morning to talk ah, ah, on the side, with ah, ah, with ah, one of our experts this morning, ah, Katie, and we touched upon the
Issue of culture. And I think for me, this dimension is really central. Uh, you cannot. Take out culture from this social activity. And I agree with you with what with what you said about Africa. And I even go further. Because the
Organization if in most of the African countries particularly in the northern part of the country of the of the continent is based the the I mean the social organization is based on the group, on the family. Not only individual Initiatives
Like what we heard this morning and this afternoon work perfectly when you have a community where the individual is a is an entity. In in in the in other communities particularly as I said in in the northern part of Africa but
Also in several other Sub Saharan Africa. Uh African countries the community is based on the group. So the real poor as you said are the ones that you don’t see. And usually you don’t see them because they are taken care of by the
Family. Exactly. You don’t see them go outside and ah they are being taken care of by the family. And the reason why the family takes that responsibility. It’s because when you see somebody in a dire situation on the street. The
Quote unquote the shame goes on the family as well, not on the person. So there is a very strong sense of responsibility. There is a consciousness about the need that the family gets involved. And beyond the family comes the group. And that ah
That sense of ah shame as well is also felt by the entire group. So the another totally another approach in in those countries that then what you ah ah see in in in countries like you know in in Northern Europe
Or elsewhere in Europe. So what I’m trying to say and I thank you again Rudy for bringing up this issue of culture. It is extremely, it’s vital, it’s central, it’s the core issue here. If you don’t do not it into account
It may work here, fine. But you see, let me just give you an example. When there is a, a, a, a, a natural disaster or something, in, in, in a European country. And you see people getting together, it makes headlines. In countries
In the south, it doesn’t. Because it’s natural. It’s natural. It’s normal. Another example is when ah ah Libya had its civil war. And about a million and a half Libyans crossed the border to come to Tunisia. They were hosted by families. And the families
Never asked for a single dollar. They hosted them because they felt the responsibility for that. Uh so issues like this. Thank you. Uh I just wanted to I I absolutely agree with you and that like for us we need to
Have the culture of that region as well but I mean, for example, for what we were doing, we were you know, having all kinds of guests come, you know, from all parts of the world, who had different cultures, cultural backgrounds.
Um, I think the, the most important thing, because you were also talking about that everybody needs to do something in return for what they’re receiving. Um, I, I don’t disagree with you, but I think some say. Yeah. Oh, sorry.
Maybe I missed. Say that they have to do something in return Okay. Because then we were in in the facts of compensation. I said if you are in a culture of community life. Yeah. Contributing. Each one has its contribution. Okay. Sorry.
Sorry. Uh misunderstood but this is a very common critic. Yeah. Uh but I think it’s important that you give people room to come in and be become a part of the community. Uh sometimes they may come everyday for a year and they
Just sit by themselves and have something to eat and then they leave. And then 1 day something happens and they kind of you know bring the ice. Speak to somebody and then they become an active member. So I think it’s very important to receive
People on the terms that you don’t know where they’re coming from. You don’t know their story. So you kind of have to show compassion but also just to be open. So yeah. Um that’s that’s very interesting discussion and I want to
Blamelessly. But what culture. Culture is behaviours and habits. And once a person is is moving from one place to another we need to be open. We need to give the place. But the famine that is happening actually is that we are
Building a new culture. And it’s it’s really really important. So it’s not that we are giving or we’re not giving it. We we we grew together. We we are growing together. Maybe just one thing to unbox those. We’d like to also work with
Like the migrants and refugees as well in the Netherlands and for a lot of people who think like, oh, integration. Integration means that, oh, I have to throw everything away and then adapt to the new culture while it should not be
The case. Like, that culture has something good and bad as well as the other cultures as well. So, I would always say to the, to the our participants like, being migrants or being a refugee, you got like a reborn opportunity to choose the best
Of cultures and then like make it your own culture. So like adaptive but to make it your own. To make it your own. Uh yeah. Version of of your culture basically. And I think this is also what everyone need to understand. The hosting
Society or the like the the people who live in that country and the new commerce. That like culture is not status quo. It’s not like yeah but also like not something like written on stone. It it’s like flexible. It it has to be like dynamic.
Otherwise it will break and that’s I think if we all believe that okay what you do, what you have in your culture is something nice, I could adapt or know what I have in my culture, I can give it to you,
So like we exchange, and then we create our own culture rather than like more the polarization that we see, like, oh, you are not integrating, you are not doing this, you are not doing that. Yeah, but what are you doing then?
Thank you so much. Okay, well, thank you very much. This was a very interesting discussion and debate. Again, like the other panels, I wish we have the opportunity to go much further and have the time to discuss in more details all this these
Issues but you know, time is of the essence. So, and the clock is running us. So, thank you very much. Thank you to all of you. Big hand up. And thank you for the audience, for the participation, the questions and simply for being
Here, being part of this initiative. So I turn back to you. Yes. We have probably 15 years for coffee break 1650s by we are coming back here, okay? We will have a very great workshop Thank you.