Complex Awareness Raising and Behaviour Change for the Mercury-Free City Environment
- Lodz University of Technology(líder)
- AGH University of Science and Technology - PL KRAKOW02(parceiro)
- Ivan Franko Lviv National University(parceiro)
- Universidade de Évora(parceiro)
- Università degli Studi di Camerino Ascoli Piceno(parceiro)
Summary
LIFE MERCURY-FREE project raises the issue of mercury environmental contamination, which come from traditionally underestimated sources related to use of mercury-containing goods in everyday life, mishandled by consumers because of the lack of information and consumer-friendly means of disposal. The General Objective of the project is to reduce the environmental contamination by mercury contained in household consumer goods, mishandled by consumers, through providing an informational support via a communication and cooperation platform, organizing the wide informational and educational campaign and behavioural change activities, applying Behavioural Insights approach, building a multi-stakeholder confidence by creation of Mercury-Free City Communities in the cities, participating in the project, and applying the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue methodology for their joint search for the problem solution. The project will pilot the complex of activities in four cities, having the similar characteristics: Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine – the state, which has not signed yet the Minamata Convention; Lodz and Cracow in Poland. Three more cities – Larissa (Greece), Evora (Portugal) and Camerino (Italy) – will be the control cities and the first project results' replicators. The main activities and deliverables: LIFE e-HUB - the electronic platform, combining the project website; electronic community of practice and a Moodle-based educational platform; the Methodical Recommendation “Advancement of the mercury-containing waste management with quadruple helix territorial advisory structures”; the international e-Conference “Mercury-Free City: Danger in our Homes”; the Multi-Stakeholder Roadmap for Mercury-Free City; the International Mercury-Free City Marathons; the Academy of Mercury Free LIFE; the Summer Schools for municipalities, NGOs and educational institutions; a Mutual Learning Exercise; the Mercury-Free City Communities.
Official project website: https://life-mercury-free.eu/
Goals, activities and expected/achieved results
The General Objective (GO) of the LIFE MERCURY-FREE project is to reduce the environment contaminations by mercury contained in household consumer goods, mishandled by consumers, through providing an informational support via a communication and cooperation platform, organizing the wide informational and educational campaign and behavioural change activities, applying Behavioural Insights approach, building a multi-stakeholder confidence by creation of Mercury-Free City Communities in the cities, participating in the project, and applying methodologies for their joint search for the problem solution.
The activities of the project will take place at the level of the wide public–consumers of goods, containingmercury. The locationof the project activities –fourEuropean cities: Lodz (Poland), Cracow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine), Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine) – is determined by several factors. First, all the locations are big cities, but not big industrial centers with a dominating specific type of industry which could make a crucial influence on the mercury pollution level. Nor are they capitals of their states, which also have their special features of contamination sources. The second reason is the long lasting cooperation of the institutions, situated in these cities.The results of the cooperation and common research interests create a strong background for the project (which is described in detail in the part 4.1 “Consortium set-up”). One more reason –the comparatively similar situation of the treatment of mercury-containing goods and public awareness in these locations, presented below.The control cities, in which there will be conducted the monitoring of the same indicators, as in the pilotingcities: Larissa (Greece), Camerino (Italy) and Evora (Portugal) - are selected because they have the alike characteristics concerning their size, administrative status and industrial development, as the pilotingcities. Last but not least –in these cities there are also the institutions –consortium members, which will participate in the implementation of all the project activities in the pilot cities and replicate the results obtained.
The project will implement the following Specific Objectives (SOs):
SO 1:To collect in one informational hub, communicate to respective target groups, organize dissemination and management of the information in the field of mercury contamination, reduction of mercury usage and implementation of the EU mercury legislation and Minamata Convention in the scope connected with the Hg contaminations caused by the household goods and activities.
SO2: To facilitate knowledge sharing on successful environmental solutions and practice in the field of mercury contamination by developing the cooperation network and the platform for collecting, processing and sharing information and conducting informational campaigns and training.
SO 3:To advancethe informational awareness about the rules and demand of mercury-containing household goods use, storage and disposalofconsumersby organizing the wide informational and educational campaign withpartstailoredto different target groups.
SO 4:To raise amutual confidence of different stakeholders in the life cycle of the mercury-containing household goods by multi-stakeholder confidence building and joint multi-stakeholder search for the problem solution -preparation of a Multi-Stakeholder Roadmap for Mercury-Free City, as well as creation of the Mercury-Free City Communities.
SO 5:To achieveconsumers’ of mercury-containing household goodsbehaviour change via behaviour change activities applying Behavioural Insights levers.
SO 6:To ensure credible replication and transfer of the project results by application of the MutualLearning Exercise methodologyand a dissemination campaign.
SO 7:To achieve sustainability and exploitation of the project results due to institutionalization of LIFE e-Hub and the Mercury-Free City Communities.
