MAKE-IT at the 18th ERSCP-conference in Greece, 2017

The ERSCP conference in Greece is one of the most remarkable conferences worldwide, which focuses on environmental key issues like sustainable consumption and production. The conference supports the exchange of thoughts, knowledge and experiences within the community and has over the years established a worldwide dialogue between researchers from different countries and disciplines. Scientists from all over the world share their research and practices about consumption and production and discuss new possibilities and solutions in thematic workshops during the conference. Main themes of the conference are for instance Circular Economy, Zero waste management, Advances in Sustainable Consumption & Lifestyles, Sustainability in Production & Design and Eco-Efficiency, Sustainable/Smart Cities.

This year, the project MAKE-IT submitted a paper about “The Environmental Value of the Maker Movement” (Unterfrauner et al., 2017), which presents the environmental-related results from the project’s cross-case analysis in 2017. For this analysis the self-reporting sheets from ten maker initiatives (Maker spaces/initiatives) along with 39 interviews (managers/makers) were analysed within the framework of a qualitative approach. The results were clustered in five topics, namely “Repairing, Recycling and Upcycling”, “Environmental friendly materials”, “The environmental friendly production process”, “The impact of local production and supply chains” and the “Awareness on environmental issues among the Maker community”. Although the Maker Movement is growing constantly, its activities and efforts to produce sustainable and environmental valuable products are still unknown and were also a new topic for the conference attendees and organisers. Some examples like the Wadi-tool for water purification or the energy-harvesting flower-pot, which could be constructed by everyone with the help of an online-instruction should illustrate the makers’ efforts to produce environmental valuable products and consider environmental sensitive consumption.

Paper

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The environmental value of the Maker movement

Citation

Elisabeth Unterfrauner, Margit Hofer, Maria Schrammel: The environmental vaule of the Maker movement. In: Proceedings of the 18th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Towards a Greener Challenge & Evolution in the Framework of the Circular Economy, pp. 399–409, Grafima Publications, Skiathos, 2017, ISBN: 978-618-5271-24-4.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the environmental value of the Maker movement, which is driving digital fabrication into the mainstream. Makers are inspiring each other to create smart solutions for all types of individual needs, and address societal and environmental challenges at the same time. They share their creative ideas and solutions in collaborative workspaces and Maker fairs or on social media platforms. Is this grassroots innovation the beginning of the next industrial revolution? In the framework of a case study analysis based on ten different Maker initiatives across Europe, 39 interviews were conducted with Makers and Maker initiatives managers evaluating core questions such as possible environmental impact, value chains and energy efficient behaviours. The paper investigates if the Maker movement is to be considered a valuable resource in tackling most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, e.g. clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production.

BibTeX (Download)

@inproceedings{unterfrauner_environmental_2017,
title = {The environmental vaule of the Maker movement},
author = {Elisabeth Unterfrauner, Margit Hofer, Maria Schrammel},
url = {https://make-it.io/},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1183435},
isbn = {978-618-5271-24-4},
year  = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 18th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Towards a Greener Challenge & Evolution in the Framework of the Circular Economy},
pages = {399--409},
publisher = {Grafima Publications},
address = {Skiathos},
abstract = {The aim of this paper is to explore the environmental value of the Maker movement, which is driving digital fabrication into the mainstream. Makers are inspiring each other to create smart solutions for all types of individual needs, and address societal and environmental challenges at the same time. They share their creative ideas and solutions in collaborative workspaces and Maker fairs or on social media platforms. Is this grassroots innovation the beginning of the next industrial revolution? In the framework of a case study analysis based on ten different Maker initiatives across Europe, 39 interviews were conducted with Makers and Maker initiatives managers evaluating core questions such as possible environmental impact, value chains and energy efficient behaviours. The paper investigates if the Maker movement is to be considered a valuable resource in tackling most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, e.g. clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}

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MAKE-IT at the 18th ERSCP-conference in Greece, 2017

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