Webinar, 25 MAY 2021
Impacts and potential of social vouchers
to encourage sustainable consumption
#EUGreenWeek
EU green week 2021 partner event
| Pollution affects all citizens with damaging consequences notably on health, biodiversity, and climate. On the contrary, tackling pollution, apart from establishing better and healthier conditions of life, would create opportunities for the economy with the emergence of new green businesses while accelerating the transition to a circular economy.To ensure a long term change on this regards, citizens have to be involved in a positive way. On the contrary to constraining, restricting and banning measures, social vouchers are incentive instruments to encourage virtuous consuming practices. They enhance consumers purchasing power while targeting consumption towards specific goods and services, with impacts in buying habits. The Ecovoucher in Belgium, for instance, grants workers an additional purchasing power which is dedicated to ecological products and services, with a proven impact on their long-term consumption habits.
On a larger scale, social vouchers will also support the post COVID 19 crisis recovery by helping to rebuild a more sustainable EU economy, reducing social inequalities and supporting job creation. The workshop would explore the potential of such practices giving the floor to various stakeholders (from public authorities, to researchers on the environmental field, social partners and consumers associations). It will be an occasion to present existing practices such as the Belgian Ecovoucher or some mobility voucher programmes, to discuss their potential and to explore possible transferability. |
Provisional agenda
| 3.00 – 3.10 pm CET | Introduction and moderation |
| Nathalie Renaudin, President of SVIA | |
| 3.10 – 3.20 pm | The role of social vouchers |
| Amal Chevreau, Policy Analyst, Social Economy & Innovation Unit, OECD | |
| 3.20 – 3.40 pm | Testimonial on the ecovouchers in Belgium |
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| 3.40- 4.20 pm | Roundtable discussion on potential and transferability of social voucher practices to boost sustainability |
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| 4.20 – 4.30 pm | Q&A session |
| 4.30 pm | Conclusions / Wrap up |
| About SVIA
The Social Vouchers International Association (SVIA) is an international not-for-profit association (AISBL) established in Belgium in 2017 with the aim of promoting the social vouchers’ industry at European and international levels. SVIA gathers companies with the status of full members: their main activity consists of implementing social vouchers programmes at global scale. Associate members are notably national associations gathering delegates from the social vouchers industry at local level. |
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