GreenerAge aimed for significant contributions to the Green Deal call to “Use research and innovation to kick-start the environmental, social and economic transformations required to tackle the climate challenge”. However, we cannot achieve a green transition when excluding adults 55+ given that they constitute over one third of the European population and may be the hardest to reach. Thus, GreenerAge's overall objectives were: (1) Increasing environmental skills of citizens 55+ through informal gamified learning strategies and tools, co-developing a compendium of knowledge and practices that promote changing behaviour and values necessary to achieve a carbon-neutral society. (2) Broadening access to knowledge and user-friendly tools to create a step-change in environmental literacy via the usage of a new inclusive digital gamification platform. (3) Increasing capacity of adult educators to provide low-threshold and highly adaptable training of environmentally-friendly practices through an inclusive gamified training toolkit adjustable to online, face to face and blended training. (4) Promoting future sustainability and uptake of GreenerAge content by developing a set of recommendations for policymakers and relevant organisations
Demographic change is a reality in Europe; the share of people aged 55 years or older (55+) is projected to reach 40.6% by 2050. At the same time, environment and climate change are key priorities globally. Thus, the EU is committed to a green transition towards a carbon neutral society by 2050 that must also be inclusive and just. To achieve this, a fundamental cultural shift and education to promote durable changes in citizens’ behaviours towards more sustainable and healthier habits is needed. While youngsters may be the most well positioned to create such transformation due to the extended adoption of internet and social media, adults 55+ are harder to reach as they tend to have less internet access and fewer digital skills, knowledge and confidence. Yet, many older adults are open to learn more and change their behaviour towards more environment-friendly patterns, and given that older adults make up a large proportion of the EU population their participation in sustainable behaviours is crucial to achieve a green transition. The GreenerAge project aimed to tackle climate change literacy and environmental training and awareness while also increasing digital literacy skills and confidence through a gamified digital platform.