Future lifestyles and opportunities for the ICT sector

A workshop entitled "Future lifestyles and opportunities for the ICT sector" organised in Berlin

Imagine you lived a sustainable life this weekend, what would it be like? What role would ICT play in reducing your ecological footprint? And in what ways would ICT solutions support you in “one planet living”- living and working within a fair share of the earth’s resources? Finding answers to these questions and co-creating sustainable futures enabled by ICT was the aim of a workstudio organised by GeSI and the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production(CSCP) on 8 May 2012 in Berlin. Entitled “Future lifestyles and opportunities for the ICT industry- Envisioning pathways towards sustainable living in the year 2050”, the event brought together over fifty experts from the sustainability field, ICT sector and beyond to discuss how innovative technology can enable sustainable lifestyles in areas such as housing, health, mobility, communication and education. The GeSI and CSCP summary report sets out the key conclusions of the workstudio.

The workstudio brought together different stakeholders to discuss these and more issues, and provided a forum for dialogue, networking and action planning to truly deploy ICT for one planet living. It allowed participants to build a common understanding of the trends and opportunities for enhancing the capacity of the ICT sector and its positive impact on lifestyles; it also helped to explore potential collaboration areas and to cross-pollinate knowledge, expertise and expectations from different stakeholders aiming to encourage lifestyle pattern shifts. This document presents the outcomes of the workstudio discussions.

Based on the key question: how would be our lives in 20050: The workstudio participants were asked to put themselves in the shoes of a consumer in the year 2050 and identify opportunities for ICT to enable one planet living across different lifestyle areas- food and drink, leisure and culture, urban and rural development, employment, education, and communication.
Exploring real lifestyle needs and values helped to create an understanding of the challenges and opportunities the emerging future  presents. Participants were able to identify new policies, products, services and processes, and cocreate scenarios of a sustainable future enabled by ICT.

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