Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Uncovered at a Stockholm Conference.

The Second meeting of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting (MAC) of the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production patterns (10YFP) for the Sustainable Lifestyles Programme and Education (SLE), took place in Stockholm (Sweden). The meeting was preceded by a half-day conference on 'Making Lifestyles Attractive' organized by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Swedish Ministry of Environment and Energy and attended by Swedish Private sector, youths, academia, NGOs and MAC members from the global North and South. 

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Sustainable Lifestyles are considered as ways of living, social behaviors and choices that minimize environmental degradation, while supporting equitable socioeconomic development and better quality of life for All.

Opening the 'Making lifestyles Attractive' Conference, Per Bolund - Swedish Deputy Minister of Finance and Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer affairs,  noted that consumption is a major issue for Sweden and the OECD. He highlighted the housing, food and transport sectors as priority areas for action. He added that Sweden will act in tandem with other EU and UN partner states to implement Agenda 2030. He called for promotion of consumption patterns that can reduce carbon footprint for Sweden and other rich countries.

Gunilla Blomquist, Director at Swedish Ministry of Energy and Environment noted that sharing experiences within participants across the globe and getting business entities on board is an important step to promote sustainable lifestyles and education.

Cecilia Lopez (Coordinator at UNEP) highlighted the mandate of UNEP on the 10YFP that comprise 6 programmes (Consumer information; Sustainable lifestyles and education; Sustainable public procurement;Sustainable buildings and construction; Sustainable tourism). She added that these programmes are also part of the 2 overarching Agenda 2030 Goals 12 and 8 (Target 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead.

On the topic whether 'It is cool to be sustainable', a panel of young people from Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Sellpy and UNGDOPAR shared their experiences in promoting sustainable lifestlyes. Sellpy as a growing startup for example, shared how they have already helped thousands of people in Sweden to sell the things they don’t use anymore, making it easy to sell things as it is to buy them.

IKEA that deals in furniture and house furnishing globally, shared their vision of a sustainable life that includes green, brown and recycled, solid and log-lasting, more from less, minimalistic, playful to create innovation, sharing through a circular economy for resource efficiency, repair and use to prolong lifespan, small-scale among others.

Overall, the Conference was enriching in terms of the exemplifying the concept of sustainable lifestyle and education in practice, while providing a forum for exchange of ideas among different actors as well as as participants from both the global North and South.