Real Zero Waste stories in a Living Library

The Living Library format at our III Estonian Zero Waste Conference offers participants the chance to chat informally with people who are implementing different zero waste solutions across Europe.

We don’t believe in presentations in Let’s Do It Foundation. We believe in genuine human interaction and talking to each other in practical language and sharing both our challenges and successes. That is why we have chosen this year to bring the real examples of zero waste solutions to our conference in the format of a Living Library.

Living Library means essentially that instead of listening to someone’s neatly arranged speech you get into a discussion with that person by asking them questions. At our conference, we have 8 tables with 8 “books” who all have a story to tell and experiences to share. You can spend the whole 2 h session only at one table or chat with several “books” during that time. All conference participants get to choose the “books” most intriguing to them on the spot and ask questions together with other interested participants in a cozy around-the-table group.

In order to get your ideas and questions already going, let’s meet our Living Library “books” and the questions they can give you answers for.

Ismael Casotti Rienda from ZERO, Portugal has worked with municipalities and a Michelin star restaurant in their journey to become Zero Waste certified, so he knows what can be the different realities for implementing zero waste solutions.

These are some of the questions you can find answers to from Ismael:

• What have been the benefits of Zero Waste certification to Portuguese municipalities?
• How can a restaurant adopt zero waste practices in accordance with hygiene and safety regulations? What has been the experience of a Zero Waste certification for a Michelin star restaurant?
• What have been the main lessons in getting started in the zero waste journey, both for the mentor and the organisation or municipality?
• Why become certified Zero Waste if the law already requires same things?

Katja Sreš from Ecologists Without Borders, Slovenia can share howcome Slovenia is the country with the biggest amount of certified Zero Waste municipalities in Europe. In addition, Ecologists Without Borders has a lot of experience in working with several organisations on food waste reduction, with great results.

Katja can shed a light on these questions:

• What has made Slovenian municipalities want to commit to become certified Zero Waste?
• What are the connections between tourism and zero waste? Can tourism be a zero waste driver?
• What have been the key elements in reducing food waste in hotels, hospitals, schools, restaurants?
• What communication strategies and activities have worked in getting citizens involved in zero waste?

Marina Tomović from Zero Waste Montenegro, Tamara Jovicevic and Milica Jankovic from hotel The Chedi achieved something incredible together – getting a 5-star hotel certified in a country with under-developed waste management system and hardly any waste reduction policies in place. They will be sharing this story and talk about these questions:

• How did a a 5-star hotel become certified Zero Waste in a country with no real supportive infrastructure?
• What were the unique challenges of maintaining luxury standards while implementing zero waste practices at a 5-star hotel?
• How did collaboration with local stakeholders, such as wineries and waste management companies, help the hotel achieve its sustainability goals?
• What were the key strategies used to educate and engage guests in the hotel’s zero waste journey without compromising their comfort and experience?
• How do businesses reconcile long-term environmental goals with short-term operational challenges?

Laura Dzelzkaleja and Evija Ozola – Ozoliņa from Zero Waste Latvija are sharing their story about platform Lietovelreiz.lv for circular services and things, but also their other work in creating change towards circular economy in Latvia. You can find answers to questions like:

• How was the platform established and partners motivated to join?
• How could this platform be replicated in other countries? What main challenges would need to be overcome?
• What can be learned about environmental packaging while leading a small production company?

Liina Kanarbik from Tallinn Strategic Management Centre, Estonia has the experience of what happens when a city bans single-use tableware at all public events. In addition, her work is related to everyday waste management questions in the capital city of Estonia.

Liina shares her lessons through these questions:

• What have been the biggest lessons from making reusables obligatory in public events to actually implementing it in practice?
• Why do I work in public sector while I could earn so much more working in private companies?
• How much is the fine if an event organizer does not follow the regulation? How many fines has the city of Tallinn issued?
• What are the other steps (besides reusable dishes) the city of Tallinn takes to organise sustainable events? What are the next steps the city of Tallinn is planning to do to move towards a zero waste city?

Johanna Reiland from Bax, Spain is working in experimenting and piloting different tools and solutions of sharing economy in the urban setting, in the example of Barcelona. She can share the experience from a project called COMPARTImenT – sharing stations in public and private spaces, offering citizens alternative to owning things.

Johanna can help you answer thse questions:

• How can significant behavioural change – to buy less – be achieved among citizens?
• What role does technology play within the sharing economy to reach wide-scale waste reduction and what other infrastructure is required?
• How can sharing be made more attractive than owning things yourself?
• How can public authorities tackle overconsumption and improve their citizens’ liveability and social cohesion at the same time and what role do they need to take?

Triin Siimer from European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, Estonia has been working several years towards making this year’s European Capital of Culture the most sustainable one there has been so far. She has the insights of how to balance artistic visions of culture management with wanting to have as small environmental footprint as possible. This includes finding answers to questions like:

• What have been the most significant lessons from implementing the obligation to use only reusables at events in the Southern Estonian region (often far away from main service providers)?
• What to consider in event communication in order to support its zero-waste activities?
• What sustainability criteria have been implemented by Tartu 2024? Which ones have been easier and which one harder for event organisers? What could be the takeaways for future European Capitals of Culture?
• If and what do audience even notice from the sustainability efforts made by organisers?

Kaisa Karjalainen from Mission Zero Academy, based in Brussels, Belgium works with all the municipalities and businesses in Europe and therefore has a good overview what are the challenges and successes from different regions of our continent.

Kaisa can cure your curiosity in these questions:

• What are the main things to keep in mind when developing zero waste services?
• What kind of innovations have cities and businesses across Europe come up with to advance on their zero waste journeys?
• What does a systematic approach to zero waste look like?
• What are the bad cases of greenwashing when it comes to zero waste and how to avoid them?

The Living Library takes place on the second day of our conference, on Oct 3^rd in Tartu. You can buy both 2-day and 1-day tickets to the conference here.