Report: Citizen science for sustainability

Around the world actors from across sectors and stakeholder groups, together with citizens themselves, are working on changing our ways of living in order to move towards a more sustainable future. Within this, the topic of how to enable people to live more sustainable lifestyles is gaining increasing attention.

It is with this focus that we approach the topic of citizen science - primarily described as “the active engagement of the general public in scientific research tasks” (Vohland, K. et al, 2021, p1) - and explore how this method can be used towards achieving more positive and sustainable lifestyles of citizens across Europe.

This report is design to provide an overview of the current context of citizen science for sustainability, the emerging innovations in the field, and what we can learn from the most inspirational examples, as we design new citizen science initiatives in the context of sustainable lifestyles.

We derive our main findings from desk-based research, development of 30 inspirational case studies of citizen science projects, and interviews with 27 stakeholders who have been involved in citizen science initiatives. From a review of existing literature, we see that citizen science is increasingly being used in a range of contexts to both engage citizens in societal issues, and gather new types of data. There is particular potential for citizen science as a method to contribute to a range of sustainability-related topics, including: environment; planning and land use; smart cities and urban environment; spatial planning and land use strategies; food; housing; mobility; consumption and behaviour change.

Publication Date: 11 May 2022

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