Project Approach

What we are doing

The overall approach of the SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 is to consolidate the existing theoretical knowledge and practical experiences and best practices on sustainable ways of living, identify barriers and drivers for more sustainable lifestyles, and to provide a roadmap towards scenarios of sustainable lifestyles in 2050 developed through back-casting methodology.

The main feature of the project is the stakeholder dialogue and close participation organized through a social platform, a number of thematic and cross-cutting working groups, a people’s forum and an on-line community facilitating a broad societal engagement of various stakeholders throughout the project. Thus the nature of this project is participatory and engaging, and is based on the interaction between a wide variety of stakeholders.

The following components are part of our work flow:

• Mobilisation and analysis of current knowledge, experiences, and promising practices for environmentally, socially and economically sustainable lifestyles - including issues related to health, welfare, equity and ageing;

• Visualisation of concepts, visions, ideas and actions for new models of sustainable ways of living;
  
  
• Development of scenarios for sustainable living in 2050
  
  
• Backcasting from our future vision of sustainable living in order to develop a roadmap of action strategies for individuals, businesses, civil society, research and policy makers that aims to mainstream/ or ’spread’ sustainable lifestyles across Europe now and into the future.
  
  
• Preparation of policy recommendations and a research agenda that addresses the main challenges society faces in the pursuit of  more sustainable lifestyles.