Project

Project Aim

The project “The Sustainable Lifestyles Accelerator – Catalyzing Change (ACCELERATOR)“ mobilizes more than 70 000 private households in seven countries (Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Mexico, India) to analyse their material and carbon footprints, and to plan and implement footprint reductions by behavioural change. The project develops also the tools for further up-scaling the approach.

Based on experiences from Finland, we assume a footprint reduction potential of at least 25 % per participating household and a very high potential for scaling up these environmental effects. To guide and support such a transition, the ACCELERATOR will provide online and offline tools (and their combination) for footprint calculation, individual roadmapping and experimenting, and sharing experiences for up-scaling. During three rounds with an increasing number of households, the ACCELERATOR will be further developed in a way that allows its past-project application with a growing number of households.

Project Design


The ACCELERATOR consists of five tasks. Starting with first task of preparation we identify existing online and offline tools and household studies to gain a better understanding of the state of the art in partner countries. The knowledge gained in this way is incorporated in the following task of footprint calculation, individual roadmapping and experimenting, and sharing experiences for up-scaling. During three rounds with an increasing number of households, we develop a webtool and communication platform to accelerate sustainable lifestyles in the seven partner countries.