Life-course

Two weeks had gone since the citizens’ forum. That evening had not resulted in any decisions yet. A month had gone since he had lost his job. The job applications he had sent hadn’t resulted into anything either. Lucas wasn’t worried about it – the compensation from his ex-employee would help him to get by for a while. But Lucas was bored. What would he do?

While scanning through the Sunday papers in the library he saw an announcement of adult education meant for people who would like to be entrepreneurs. Maybe there would be something for me, he thought, and wrote down the Internet address for more information. One of the courses especially sounded interesting. It would be something totally different to what he had done earlier. He felt excitement rising within him. Could this be for him? Could it help him to utilize all the new information he had recently found out with his new way of thinking?

His imagination run wild when thinking about the possibilities that lay ahead of him. Even some of the new ideas would be nice to accomplish. He knew that that would require a lot of hard work but he wasn’t afraid of that. Some luck would also help. But, first he must send in his application.
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Lucas was getting coffee ready for his wife who was due to come home any minute now. He had even bought some locally baked cakes as he felt like celebrating. He had just heard the news: he had passed the interview for getting on that course.

The real cup

Gathering hundreds of people together requires careful planning on catering. Well-organized coffee breaks and meals combined with in-between-refreshments are points that shouldn't be overlooked when planning a successful conference. But what is different when the catering should also be environmentally friendly - well, is it possible?

Real cups and glasses, not to mention the other necessary cutlery, napkins and tablecloths are the basic parts of catering for Solutions local, together - Conference. Locally produced food and drinks are also a must. The first contacts to local restaurants and other service providers were made already last year, and the latest one this week. They have all shown real enthusiasm towards the idea of a sustainably organized conference and have also expressed that "Nothing is impossible - just give me a bit of time to find out."

Cups and locally baked bread are the visible signs of environmental thinking. But where do the cups and napkins go after the coffee break is over? Or where was the flour or butter made used by the local bakery? We need to go to the origins when we think about the life-cycle of a product. Therefore the communication all the way through, from beginning to the end, is important for finding out the real carbon footprint. Very few have thought about it yet thoroughly. Are you one of the forerunners?

Disposable cup

On the way to the citizen forum on wind energy, Lucas meets his old friend that he has encouraged to attend the event.His friend lives next to the planned wind energy park and is very concerned about the value of his property if wind park is to be constructed next to it.

In the citizen forum, they meet several like-minded participants, but also many suspicious and even negatively orientated stakeholders. While zipping coffee from the disposable cups and eating imported cookies, the audience gets more and more emotional and starts to defend their own backyard, without thinking about the larger picture. The event finishes without reaching a shared consensus.

Lucas is surprised how little the organizers have thought about the small important elements of the event. As to him, the truth lies behind the details. Would the discussion have been different if fare trade coffee would have been served from real mugs?

From informing to involvement

During the resent years the focus from environmental awareness raising has changed more towards involvement of stakeholders. This means that the skills demanded from the employees of the local authorities are changing. Employees should be able to handle challenging communication, understand the dynamics of involvement and different methods of involvement.

A lot of cities have tested a number of stakeholder involvement methods and some have proven to be good practices in their local surroundings. A good number of these cases, can be found from a Good Practice Database in the Baltic Sea Region . The diversity of topics approached through active involvement is very wide. Nearly everyone of the practices evidence a more effective implementation of the topic developed through an involvement process. This is very important.

Solutions local, together - conference offers you a change to be involved as much as you would like to. Involvement requires an active approach from both sides. At the moment, we are trying to develop different ways for involvement. It will be challenging as the conference has tree languages to work with. If you have good ideas - let us know them.

Involve yourself

Lucas has decided that he will need to be well equipped to participate in the citizen forum on wind energy and sits by his computer. He goes through the search engines and find out that wind energy has been promoted quite widely, but it still has not spread all around the Baltic Sea Region. He wonders why it is so and decides to understand what it needs to get a decisions like this through.

What is the true aim with the citizen forum, is it to inform, influence or decide? Or all of this? Lucas is not sure anymore what kind of possibilities he has in order to enable a more sustainable change to take place. He would like to encourage his friends and relatives to join in, but is afraid that he would mislead them. He calls to the organizers of the forum and they tell him that the forum offers a possibility to discuss and share opinions. Lucas doubts that.

Lucas is convinced that he would have a lot to say and familiarizes himself with information on citizen forums. Luckily he found many good cases about it and feels that with the information gathered he is ready to take part and heads to the citizens forum on wind energy.

New synergy

Solutions local, together -conference has been speeded up by a workshop last week. In the workshop the content of the conference was further developed by representatives from different levels. It was fascinating to see how the interaction between the different representatives describes really well the state of the sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region. Common will with several approaches to reach it.

Baltic Sea Region can be described as a huge web with different networks that are interlined with each others. The amount of strategies that aim to guide the development is numerous and it is sometimes very hard to see the red line that would run through all of them. If we add to it also the plans of the local levels, we are definitely going to be exhausted and most likely also confused. If we limit the look at the Nordic countries, we are most likely to see some similarities and common challenges. These are the areas that the conference will focus on.

One important aspect to the sustainable development is the role of the media in relation to the citizens, decision makers and science. The common language is still in many cases missing and for this we are in need of tools that would enlighten the Baltic Sea web for all of us. It remains to be seen if we are able to find solutions for this too in one years time!

Balanced article?

In the kitchen, Lucas opens the local news paper where there is a long article about energy company that would like to locate wind mills near the city. The local residents are opposing the plans and claim that it would spoil their view and also damage the local attractive surrounding. The article also raises possible noise as one reason to oppose the project.

Only in couple of sentences the positive results of such investments are explained. Lucas is surprised, as this is exactly what would need to be highlighted. He would be willing to buy wind energy knowing that it is renewable and will not damage the environment. In the long run it would even be cheaper for the locals as they are not so dependent on external sources. Are the pros and cons in balance in the article?

Lucas would like to support the company and starts to think who actually has the power in matters like this. Is it really in the hands of consumers or actually does media have a bigger role to play? In the article all interested stakeholders are invited to take part in a citizens forum organized tonight in the city hall. Lucas decides to take part in it to find out more.