InfluenCE

It is not only politicians and businesses that need to implement the circular economy; consumer behaviour also has a significant impact on its success. For example, it is up to consumers to decide how long a product is used, whether it is repaired and how it is disposed of. In everyday life, however, it is often not easy to carry out this role – instead, many feel overwhelmed and do not know how best to behave, despite or because of the flood of information on the subject.

With this in mind, the InfluenCE project is launching a social media campaign to raise awareness and motivate consumers to take action on circular economy issues in their daily lives. To this end, influencers will convey genuine knowledge about the circular economy to different target groups in a humorous way and illustrate its importance for everyday life. The aim is to establish circularity as a topic for everyday life and to show the target groups practical, easy-to-implement options for action. To actively involve users, the influencers will integrate interactive elements such as polls, quizzes and challenges into their posts. Comments and feedback from users will be used to inform future posts. In addition, two workshops involving influencers and interested consumers will complement the social media activities in order to gather users' opinions, concerns and suggestions on the topic and to actively involve them in the development of the campaign.

The Wuppertal Institute is leading the InfluenCE project and is responsible for bringing together the scientific content and communication objectives, as well as organising the workshops. The Wuppertal Institute researchers are also responsible for evaluation and continuation measures. The partner organisation Germanwatch will implement the influencer campaign and design interaction formats.