10/30/2023

Event of the MFFKI Rhineland-Palatinate
Invitation to the event: Consumer Protection at Noon – But that's my data! How a consumer-friendly data economy can succeed

The digital event series 'Consumer Protection' at Noon of the Ministry for Family, Women, Culture and Integration Rhineland-Palatinate taking place on November 13, 2023 from 12:00 to 13:00 is dedicated to the topic 'But that's my data!' How a consumer-friendly data economy can succeed.'
 
The event will explore the question of whether and, if so, how a self-determined approach to data in the digital world could look. On the one hand, the economic benefits of data are beyond question and there is enormous potential for new business models, more efficient processes, intelligent products and customer-friendly services. On the other hand, the data economy poses challenges and dangers for consumers, who rightly wonder whether they are still the 'sovereign' of their own data. How can data be protected while maintaining data security and privacy, if at the same time access to free knowledge and to data that is particularly useful to society is to remain guaranteed?
 
Consumer Protection Minister Katharina Binz invites you to an exciting exchange with the following guests:

• Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider (University of Bonn, Chair of Civil Law, Law of the Data Economy, Data Protection, Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence)
• Ingo Dachwitz (editor, netzpolitik.org)
• Maximilian Heitkämper (Head of the Digital and Consumer Law Department, Verbraucherzentrale Rheinland-Pfalz e.V.)
• Dr. Christian Humborg (Board of Directors, Wikimedia Deutschland)
• Dr. Ralf Scheibach (Head of the Legal Department, German Association of the Automotive Industry)

The event will be moderated by ConPolicy managing director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun.
If you would like to participate, please register via email at verbraucherschutz@mffki.rlp.de

10/27/2023

Stakeholder workshop of the FORUM WASCHEN
ConPolicy moderates dialogue on the impact of the Green Deal on washing and cleaning

At the FORUM WASCHEN stakeholders' workshop, about 60 representatives of industry, household associations, environmental and consumer organisations as well as public authorities discussed the impact of the EU Green Deal on washing and cleaning. The event on 7 and 8 September, 2023, was organized and moderated by ConPolicy. 

The event was opened by Christian Kühn MdB, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). 

Afterwards, Jutta Klasen, Ph.D., Head of Department at the Federal Environment Agency, Professor Andreas Luch, Head of Department at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Elke Salzmann from the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv), Matthias Opfinger, Ph.D., Head of Department at IGBCE and Christine Schneider from Henkel discussed how the measures announced by the EU in the context of the Green Deal will affect the washing and cleaning sector. 

The discussion was deepened in workshops on the topics of 'sustainable products', 'textiles', and 'chemicals'. The initiatives of the EU Commission, especially in the area of chemicals policy, were assessed controversially by the different groups of actors. However, especially in view of the divergent assessments, there was unanimous agreement that FORUM WASCHEN has an important task in providing differentiated information about sustainability aspects in the washing and cleaning sector. 

The FORUM WASCHEN is a sustainability initiative in the areas of washing, dishwashingand cleaning. Since 2002, experts from authorities, research, trade unions, manufacturers of detergents and household appliances, churches, environmental organisations and consumer associations have been working together in this dialogue forum. The strategies, actions and events of the FORUM WASCHEN are defined in stakeholder workshops. ConPolicy has supported the FORUM WASCHEN since 2013 with the organisation and moderation of the stakeholder workshops.

The presentations from this year's stakeholder workshop can be downloaded here.

10/25/2023

Almost 50 organizations support the initiative
The CDR Initiative's digital data cleaning was a full success in 2023

A joint digital data cleaning has been organized by various organizations as part of the CDR Initiative from September 11 to 22, 2023. The campaign was launched to engage employees to clean up their data on hard disks, network drives, in e-mail inboxes and in the cloud, and to support them in doing so.

A total of 49 organizations responded to the CDR Initiative's call for participation in the campaign. Start-ups, SMEs and large corporations from a wide range of sectors took part in the campaign. They were joined by public authorities, municipalities, educational and cultural institutions, and civil society organizations. This broad spectrum of participants shows that the topic is equally important for all types of organizations.

The campaign is currently being evaluated by the CDR Initiative’s office. In addition, an article (in German) has been published in the CSR MAGAZINE in which experiences from the practical implementation of participating organizations are shared.

A repetition of this campaign is already foreseen for 2024. If you would like to participate, please feel free to contact the CDR Initiative’s office.

Since January 2023, the CDR Initiative’s office is operated by the partners ConPolicy  (Institute for Consumer Policy) and Concern. Learn more about the CDR Initiative here.