The 3-CO project hold on 21 October 2025 an online event showcasing how consumer perspectives and attitudes can drive impactful communication for sustainability. Noemi De Santes (Junker App), Florian Birk (SIGU Platform) and Zoritza Kiresiewa (Ecologic Institute) discussed in the second session of the event the role of social innovation in fostering sustainable consumption and production. The discussion also drew on insights from the policy paper "Enabling Change from the Ground up. Policy recommendations to foster social innovation in Europe" developed by Ecologic Institute, which calls for stronger policy support and funding frameworks to empower community-led innovation across Europe.

Key Takeaways

• Social innovation holds vast potential to accelerate the transition toward sustainable production and consumption. Regional development agencies can play a decisive role by supporting bottom-up, community-based initiatives and helping them scale to reach broader impact.
• The current geopolitical developments and evolving funding priorities pose serious challenges for social innovation initiatives. Yet, these challenges also call for creative and collaborative responses across sectors.
• The EU Bioeconomy Strategy Review offers an important opportunity to strengthen the role of social innovation in Europe’s sustainability agenda. Social innovation can make concrete contributions to the following key pillars of the strategy:
  • Pillar II – Increasing resource-efficient and circular use of biological resources: by fostering community-led bio-based cooperatives that create local value chains and stimulate demand for sustainable, locally sourced products.
  • Pillar III – Securing competitive and sustainable biomass supply: by enabling networks of primary producers to adopt sustainable harvesting methods, coordinate logistics, and leverage digital tools for more efficient resource management.

More information about the event can be found on the 3CO project website.