SPREAD People Forum iFuture workshops January / February 2012, Finland, Spain, Germany, Hungary

The SPREAD People Forum, so called "iFuture" initiative is the occasion where we reach out to the normal citizens and connect their aspirations and ideas about good life to sustainable futures.

Here, the variety of motives and values that affect people’s everyday choices and behavior are identified – also when we strive for a sustainable society. More general groups of them are identified based on the motives and values perceived, and it will be analyzed what this means to radically decreasing material footprint of the Europeans.

Altogether 75 people from all over Europe  participate and different generations and situations of life are represented. We calculate their material footprints representing their current lifestyles and conduct an interview with each one of the participants. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data we produce a future profile for them. In the profile the personal material footprint is shown: how much resources are used to their life now and in year 2050 and what will happen in the particular part of their life that takes the biggest share of their footprint at the moment. Information is also given on how participants tend to make choices at the moment, what they value and how they act in everyday life.

At the end, four workshops are organised in different countries: in Finland, Spain, Germany and Hungary. In the workshops people’s aspirations about their material footprints and future profiles are gathered and future scenarios produced in another part of SPREAD project discussed. The collected material collected will help to identify the variety of motives and values that affect people’s everyday choices and behaviour – also when we strive for a sustainable society.