On 23-24 November last year, the Energy Centre at the Jacques Delors Institute hosted FULFILL’s very last “citizen science workshop” in Paris, France at the Maison de l’Europe.
The workshop saw 29 participants from eight countries come together to discuss how to adopt and implement lifestyle changes that would emphasise the idea of sufficiency.
During the first day, the participants partook in a world café style discussion focused on four key areas: Transport, Housing, Food and Items. They moved from table to table to answer the following questions in each area:
- Sufficiency habit (What can I do to reduce my footprint in this sector?)
- Barriers (What’s holding me back?)
- Enablers (What could help me to change?)
- Benefits (What are positive effects of this behaviour?)
During the second day, the invited citizens got to practice how to find consensus and agree on hypothetical scenarios containing various policy recommendations.
A last exercise was to put themselves in the shoes of an actor of their choice (private or public) and develop a communications plan/strategy that would promote a sufficient idea or concept to the broader masses.
At the end of the second day, participants were ready to distill their many ideas into tangible policy recommendations by voting on the most popular ones.
You may find their favourites on our Citizen Engagement page!
- Top voted transport policy: Financing rail transportation for people and goods at the EU level (e.g. public coordination for night trains across EU)
- Top voted food policy: Labelling and clearly showing overall carbon footprint of food products (origin chain, how/from where it was transported, list of pesticides/chemicals used) Label can be on a scale from 1-5 with colors.
- Top voted housing policy: A policy that aims at simplifying regulations (for energy efficient ways to build and renovate buildings) and compressing them into a document which would be distributed to citizens, architectural schools, businesses, etc.
- Top voted items policy: Implement a 5-year guarantee on items (tax more for 2-year guarantee, tax less for 5-year guarantee).
Overall, the workshop was a success! Participants enjoyed getting to connect with citizens from around Europe and have a say in the policies that affect them. Below, you can see some of their feedback!
“In an open and constructive spirit, we worked together and achieved inspiring results – without having met before. This wonderful experience was also possible through the excellent facilitation of the JDI team. Thank you all and all the best in your personal and professional life!”
“It was a lovely experience, constructive and inspiring! Thanks again for the skillful facilitation. Hopefully our recommendations will help policy makers in Europe. I wish there were more initiatives of this sort that include citizens in shaping the changes they want to see in the world.”
“It was great experience to attend this workshop. Everyone was very friendly despite that we were all strangers in the beginning
Below, you can find some of the most shared ideas for each area discussed during the world café style discussion.
