Ylikulutuksen ja kestämättömän tuotannon suitsiminen ovat keskeisessä roolissa globaalien ympäristö- ja ihmisoikeusongelmien selättämisessä ja oikeudenmukaisen siirtymän toteuttamisessa. Toimia tarvitaan kaikilla yhteiskunnan aloilla, ja sekä päättäjien, yritysten että kuluttajien toiminnalla on merkitystä. Kasvava joukko nuoria tuntee voimattomuutta ilmastokriisin ja luontokadon edetessä. Heille tarjotaan vastauksesi vastuullisten kulutusvalintojen tekemistä, mikä ainoana tekona asemoituu kuitenkin jatkuvan talouskasvun narratiiviin ja vie huomiota pois systeemisistä ongelmista. Kulutusvalintoihin keskittymisen rinnalla onkin tärkeää korostaa kollektiivisen toiminnan tarpeellisuutta muutoksen aikaansaamiseksi. Hanke lisää aktiivista kansalaisuutta, jotta yhä useampi ihminen näkisi itsensä osana laajempaa muutosrintamaa ja kokisi voivansa vaikuttaa. Se kannustaa ihmisiä edistämään kestävää tuotantoa ja kuluttamista paitsi muuttamalla omia kulutustottumuksiaan mutta myös vaikuttamalla poliittiseen päätöksentekoon ja vaatimalla yrityksiltä vastuullisuutta. Hankkeessa tuotetaan monikanavainen materiaalikokonaisuus, jossa popularisoidaan eri tieteenalojen tutkimusta ja tuodaan näkyväksi kulutuksen ja tuotannon taustalla olevia rakenteita, normeja ja asenteita. Kokonaisuuteen kuuluu verkkoartikkeleita, podcasteja, sosiaalisen median sisältöjä, tapahtumia sekä työpajoja nuorille. Ne käsittelevät kuluttamisen ja yritysvastuun roolia kestävyysmurroksessa monipuolisesti, kiinnostavasti ja tutkittuun tietoon pohjautuen. Hanke tuottaa uutta, yhteiskunnallisesti relevanttia tietoa vastapainoksi pirstaleiselle ja kaupalliselle vastuullisuuskeskustelulle. Hanke on kaksivuotinen, 2023–2024. Ensimmäisenä vuonna keskitytään tiedepohjaisten sisältökokonaisuuksien luomiseen ja toisena vuonna työpajojen, tapahtumien sekä viestinnän toteuttamiseen.

The project was formed in the context of civic activism taking on new forms, especially in terms of how young people commit to different causes and participate in civic action. Youth participation is increasingly one-off activism, for example, through signing online petitions, or self-organisatory activities. The project focused on involving young people in transformative civic participation around fair global trade - a topic that is shared among young people across Europe through global brands and consumer goods and commercial messages. The first objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of the organisations involved to allow them to engage youth in an inclusive manner in an era of new activism. The second objective of the project was to increase the capabilities of young people to a) critically evaluate the commercial messages they are confronted with and to decipher the production chain of their everyday consumer goods and b) to be empowered to influence the way global production takes place in the world today, both through policy reform and through influencing companies directly. In the project, a group of 24 young people aged 18-25 from Finland, Estonia and Latvia were chosen to learn civic participation skills and co-design the transnational meetings that were the key activity in the project. Three transnational meetings were planned and organised together with the youth. The youth experienced hands-on activities and learnt from external speakers on themes related to responsible consumption and fair global trade. In between national meetings, the partner organisations supported initiatives and activities planned and implemented by the youth to put into practice the skills they had acquired.

The project GeT responds to the need for innovative methods to discuss sustainable consumption and links between local actions and global impacts in youth work and global citizenship education. The project aims at increasing the awareness and action of youth on sustainable consumption. In addition, it will offer youth workers concrete tools for innovative and engaging activities to encourage sustainable consumption and active citizenship amongst youth.During the project, four partner organisations involved in youth work in Finland, Austria, Spain and Italy will collect, analyse and disseminate best practices in using games and gamifying in tackling complex issues related to sustainability in youth work. These will be published in a toolkit covering best practices that are easily adapted for use anywhere. The partners will also use their expertise to develop a board game that will enable young people to learn about sustainable consumption in a fun, engaging way. The game will be a simple tool for youth workers and teachers to tackle the complex issues. It will be accompanied by clear instructions for educators and can be used in various settings. Through the national and international networks of the partners it will reach European organisations working with youth, as well as schools and educators. The outputs of the project will remain free for use in the as part of the partners’ services to youth workers, volunteers and educators, hence offering long term benefits for the communities.During the project the partners will meet three times to learn from each other and share best practices. The board game will be co-created with youth and launched in national events.

<< Objectives >>The project ACT aims to develop high quality materials for young people, teachers and youth workers that respond to the need for innovative methods to discuss the themes of sustainability, circular economy and climate justice. The project aims to increase the awareness among young people and to encourage them to take steps towards active citizenship. In addition, it aims to offer youth workers and teachers tools for engaging activities to help young people create their own sustainability acts.<< Implementation >>Project partners are going to collect best practices by hosting focus groups and by doing desk research. The best practices are going to be utilised in the other activities. Partners will create a manual for sustainability acts for both young people and teachers & youth workers. Aso, partners will co-create with target groups a workshop model that will utilise gamification and host workshops in their country. All the activities are going to be disseminated in many different ways.<< Results >>At the end of the project period, partners have developed one initial report of the best practices and two manuals for different target groups. Partners have also created workshop models for different target groups. All these materials can be found from partners websites. In addition, partners have organised workshops for young people and for teachers & youth workers. Young people have gained knowledge of project topics and have a better ability to create sustainability acts.