12/02/2020

Study for the German Federal Environment Agency
New ConPolicy project on youth participation and sustainable consumption

In recent years, sustainability policy issues have become increasingly relevant in social and political discourse. The commitment of young people is a major driver of this development. However, the behavior of many young people is simultaneously characterized by ambivalence: They understand that everyone must make a contribution to greater sustainability. However, this conviction is not always sufficiently reflected in their own consumer behavior.

Against this background, the Federal Environment Agency commissioned ConPolicy together with IKU_Die Dialoggestalter and Tippingpoints to conduct this research project. The project aims to create a scientific basis for further activities in the field of participation-oriented and transformative research, participation, information offers or campaigns for young people in the area of sustainable consumption.

Further information on the project can be found here.  

12/01/2020

Impulses for consumer protection and empowerment in the digital world
ConPolicy at the 15th International Workshop of the Colombian Telecommunications Commission

For the 15th time, the Colombian Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) invited to an international regulatory workshop on December 01 and 02, 2020. This year's topic was "Rethinking connectivity: the role of networks in our digital lives". Due to the corona pandemic, the workshop was held purely virtually.

The consumer perspective was also not neglected at this workshop. ConPolicy Managing Director, Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun, explained in his presentation why digitalization can only succeed if the consumer perspective is also taken into account, and he outlined what is important in terms of consumer protection and consumer empowerment.

11/30/2020

Anchoring values with CDR
ConPolicy moderates forum at the Digital Summit 2020

On November 30, 2020, the first day of the Federal Government's Digital Summit 2020 took place, which focused on the topic of "improving sustainability through digitization".

One forum was organized by the "Consumer Policy in the Digital World"-platform group and dealt with the topic of corporate digital responsibility. ConPolicy managing director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun moderated the panel discussion with members of the CDR-initiative of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. Participants were Christine Lambrecht (Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection), Birgit Klesper (Senior Vice President Group Corporate Responsibility, Deutsche Telekom AG), Kate Heiny (Director of Sustainability, Zalando) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Alexander Brink (University Professor for Business and Business Ethics, University of Bayreuth).

The discussion showed that digitization must be shaped actively to actually serve the common good. In this context, companies have a special responsibility. They need to take into account the positive as well as the negative effects of digitization early on in their development of new digital business models, products and services. The company examples from Deutsche Telekom and Zalando showed how this is already implemented today. The legislator needs to take on a double role in this context: creating legal requirements where necessary and at the same time promoting responsible corporate management that goes beyond what is legally required. It was emphasized that this is exactly what the BMJV's CDR initiative is about.

Further information on the CDR initiative of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection can be found here (German).

11/27/2020

The Christmas donation for climate
ConPolicy supports the climate bet

The climate bet is a project initiated in 2020 with the aim of saving an additional 1 million tons of CO2 by the next climate conference in Glasgow in 2021 together with many citizens.

With a donation of 25 euros to a climate protection organization, one ton of CO2 can be saved. A first important step, considering that each and every one of us in Germany causes on average more than 11 tons of CO2 per year! 

If each participant in the bet convinces two people, who in turn convince two, a movement can be created that reaches one million people in 20 weeks. 

On the side of the climate bet you will find simple tips on how CO2 can be avoided privately. 

ConPolicy also supports the climate bet, because we are convinced: together we can achieve more!

You can find more information about the climate bet (in German) here.

11/23/2020

Digital consumer protection: Focus on data sovereignty
ConPolicy presentation at MULNV consumer congress

On November 23, 2020, the consumer congress of the Ministry for Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia took place, which dealt with various topics of data sovereignty in everyday consumer life.

During the congress, ConPolicy project manager Dr. Sara Elisa Kettner held a presentation with the title "A look into practice – Study on innovative privacy consent management". It was followed by a panel discussion with Marc Fliehe (VdTÜV), Klaus Müller (Federation of German Consumer Organisations) and Rebekka Weiß (Bitkom), in which the possibilities of data protection through technology design were discussed.

The presentation is available until the end of 2020 as a video (German).

The results of the study on "Innovative Privacy Consent Management", which was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, can be downloaded here (German).