European Cities unite to combat overconsumption and social isolation with innovative sharing economy project, financed by European Development Fund  

Millions of underused consumer goods, such as leisure equipment, tools, and home appliances, are found in European households, contributing to waste and environmental issues. Despite their significant impact—accounting for up to 21% of EU citizens' consumption-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—this pattern of overconsumption receives low political priority. The sharing economy of goods offers a solution to overconsumption, promoting social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

To address this issue, eight European partners from Estonia, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Greece, Austria and Hungary have launched the GOOD CITIES project - Cities stimulating new shared economy services for consumer goods in urban environments. The partnership is led by the Association of Municipalities of Tartu County (Tartumaa). The four-year project (April 2024 – June 2028) was approved within the Interreg Europe programme, financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The Interreg Europe programme helps regional and local governments across Europe to develop and deliver better policies.

The aim of the project is to help cities structure the local sharing economy of goods to develop local sharing ecosystems, promote more sustainable consumption and improve social cohesion. Additionally, it seeks to increase the visibility of sharing and proactive leadership, achieve consumer behaviour changes, creating a resource-conscious future within planetary boundaries, and supporting EU and local environmental policies. Partners do this through international knowledge transfer as well as working with local stakeholder groups, leveraging policy instruments and engaging citizens and local communities.  

Through the project, Tartumaa hopes to gain knowledge about sharing economy solutions that work in practice elsewhere in Europe, and to implement at least one working solution in Tartu County in the coming years.

The GOOD CITIES project is made possible by financial support from the European Union through the Interreg Europe programme and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

For more information:

https://www.interregeurope.eu/good-cities 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-cities 

For more information contact:

Villem Lõbu (villem.lobu@tartumaa.ee)  

or

Sophie Bod (sophie.bod@eutropian.org)