Buying organic products, doing without a car - do individual consumption decisions save the climate? Or are stricter laws and green companies the levers for a sustainable lifestyle? The Think Factory Consumption (Denkwerkstatt Konsum) helps to better understand sustainable consumption. The educational tool is aimed primarily at interested consumers as well as environmental educators, environmental activists.

The Factory of the German Environment Agency (UBA) focuses on the social dimension of sustainable consumption. It takes the perspective from the "we to the I" and from the "I to the we" and thus makes it clear that sustainable consumption is not a purely individual matter, but that each individual can still make a difference.

In seven areas, the Factory explores the topic of how we can live sustainably and answers questions such as: Why is sustainable consumption a community task? What effect does my commitment have on the environment and the climate? What role do money and politics play? Why do we need eco-labels? How can each individual bring about social change? With the help of many examples from everyday life, connections become clear, research and empirical knowledge is illustrated, provocative theses are questioned, contradictions are uncovered, and information about possible actions is provided, sometimes in a playful way.

The educational tool is aimed at interested consumers, but also at multipliers who deal with sustainable consumption or want to include it more strongly in their work, for example climate protection managers, environmental activists, teachers and also journalists.

The Factory complements two successful UBA consumer tools

• In the consumer guide "Environmental Tips for Everyday Life" (German only), everyone receives concrete advice on specific, product-related questions. Which potting soil is environmentally friendly? What do I need to consider when buying a refrigerator? What should I think of car sharing?
• With the CO2 calculator (German only), users can calculate their personal CO2 footprint and find out what the big points are in sustainable consumption. At the same time, knowing one's own footprint is also a prerequisite for offsetting one's own emissions and thus being able to live climate-neutrally today.

Here (German only) you can get to the Think Factory Consumption.