The CARE Project Kicks-Off: Inspiring and Enabling Circular Lifestyles

From better meal planning and food storage to thoughtful shopping and the repairing of old garments, the sum of our individual actions can hold the key to greater sustainability on a systemic level. In our CARE project, we have joined hands with eleven partner organisations to inspire and enable 100 households across Europe to endorse and implement circularity on a daily basis.

The project, which kicked-off in January 2024 in Tampere, Finland will focus on how households can most easily and effectively use food and clothing in a circular way. Through close collaboration with individuals, families, and communities, the project aims to design, test, and refine inclusive and free recommendations (advisory services) and practical activities that can help households make sustainable consumption an integral part of everyday life. In addition to the co-creation element, these recommendations and activities will be supported by state-of-the art and data-driven scientific knowledge.

During its four years, the project aims to not only support households in the pilot countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Estonia) to transition toward more sustainable lifestyles, but also inspire and support other cities and regions to follow.

Rosalyn Old, who will manage the project on the CSCP side, shares: “At the heart of CARE is a co-creation approach with citizens. We want to give households the chance to share their experiences in order to shape the two project pilots, on the topics of food and clothing respectively, and the advisory services together with our experts. In my view, taking a co-creative approach that supports CARE partners to meaningfully involve citizens in their local areas is an exciting opportunity to develop a methodology which is accessible, inclusive, productive and fun”.

Eva Rudolf, senior designer at the CSCP explains how with CARE, the goal of the consortium partners is to develop a positive project identity and a strong narrative that households can identify with and feel inspired to act. “During the kick-off meeting in Finland, we laid the foundations with a storytelling workshop that helped partners chart the project path toward increased impact. In the next steps, we will use creative formats such as design thinking workshops or the development of circular heroes (persona approach) to engage individuals and communities toward circular lifestyles”, says Rudolf.

CARE, which stands for Circular consumption Activities to tRansform households toward material Efficience, is an innovative Horizon Europe project on a mission to transform 100 households across Europe by 2027. With a focus on reshaping daily habits around the topics of food and clothing, CARE will collaborate closely with citizens, co-creating personalised and free advisory services to foster sustainable consumption practices.

Join us in our journey toward a brighter and more sustainable future! To learn more about CARE, please check out the project page. To keep up with the latest updates, follow CARE on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter on the CARE website.

For further questions, please contact Katrin Hüttepohl.