2019:Environmental sustainability/transparency of consumption

Environmental sustainability/transparency of consumption

Description

Transparency of consumption

Massive increase of global consumption rate is killing the planet. This problem has many elements and is fundamentally based on the mindset of western wealthy economies that have established the idea of "wasteful life worth living". However, even if people want to change their ecologic footprint, they usually lack the knowledge to do so. Lack of knowledge is problem that can be solved by platforms like Wikipedia. The main domains for this knowledge should be:

1. Impact of production. Very few people know today how one or other product is made. This knowledge is usually internal and not shared by the community. However, it is possible to make rough estimations. Good news is that these estimations will get more precise in time.

2. Impact of consumption. Precise knowledge about the impact of the consumption can help communities to come up with better strategies for mitigation.

3. Mitigation strategies. Best ways to lower the impact of our everyday consumption. These can vary from recycling centres to transition towns. Every solution has to be tailored around the local circumstances but the example pool can help a lot.

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:
Topic is directly related with Global Sustainable Development Goal "12. Responsible Consumption and Production" as it breaks down problems in our consumption and production practices and by this can help to address the most damaging links in the consumption chain with better solutions.

Topic is indirectly supporting goals 9, 11, 13, and 17 by creating better environment for sustainable businesses, decreasing the urban waste flows, reducing the climate change and opening up new cooperation models between the end-users, private sector and public institutions.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

Discussion will help to break down the problem of global overconsumption as a sum of specific problems that can be solved by public data collection and knowledge sharing. Outcome of the discussion should be better understanding how voluntary work on public platforms as Wikipedia can help to solve at least some of these problems and by this can mitigate the devastating effect of overconsumption.

Session leader(s)

My name is Marek Muiste (marek.muisteATemu.ee) and I'm working as an energy expert in regional energy agency in Estonia. I also teach a class of energy management in local university of applied sciences focusing on energy usage end environmental impact of contemporary production models.

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Workshop to identify and try to solve a problem
• Roundtable discussion forum

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

Small classroom up to 50 participants

• Audience:

Not more than 50 people. A good mix of experts of industrial production, data mining, ecosystems, citizen journalism, public policies and international corporations will work for the best.

• Recording:

Session should be filmed and streamed with two fixed cameras and two microphones on site.