Youth dialogue on consumption, lifestyles and sustainability

Partnership for the creation of an international communication and information platform on sustainable consumption (SC) for youth.

The partnership will consist of a platform for capacity building on sustainable consumption for schools, local authorities and consumer organisations. Capacity building will be facilitated through the provision of pedagogical materials as well as a of a space ( meetings and a electronic forum) for the exchange of experiences among youth. The project attaches importance to the language used: the concepts and issues related to sustainable consumption as well as sustainable development will be transmitted using visuals, text, youth icons, concrete examples in order to bring closer to the day to day reality of young people. The partners believe that to stimulate critical thinking in young consumers one has to talk to them a language understandable to them and icons they recognise as their own and provide critical material and reliable information rather than "already packaged dos and don'ts"and will operate with the following objectives:

The partnership is based on a awareness raising and training web-site www.yomag.net and will operate with the following objectives:

* Provide reliable and integrating information about the concept of sustainable consumption at global level. In particular, provide a critical insight in the global environmental and social impacts and challenges of the current consumption patterns of affluent societies.

* Offer an online platform" for the exchange of ideas, visions and projects to youth from all over the world.

* Provide youth, communicators, teachers and consumer organisations with the tools to efficiently communicate about sustainable consumption.

* Through teachers ans students workshops, allow youth from all over the world to meet, exchange perspectives and experiences on their different consumption patterns and to envision concrete solutions to the imbalances to goods and resources.

* Establish and link networks of education authorities and other relevant institutions in the field of education and consumer organisations to enable capacity building, awareness raising and mutual understanding of the problems and imbalances linked to current consumption patterns and the solutions to overcome them.