17 Inspiring Social Innovations Across Europe: New Brochure by the 3-CO Project

Social innovation is gaining widespread recognition across Europe as a pivotal solution for some of society’s most pressing challenges, reaching from climate change and resource scarcity to combating social exclusion and improving public health. The term social innovation describes new ideas, or even products, services, and models, that often meet social needs better than prescribed solutions. These innovations flourish through collaboration, spanning social enterprises, business initiatives, non-profits, public programmes, and grassroots community action.

Social innovation for transformative change of the EU-bioeconomy

The EU-funded 3-CO project (Concise Consumer Communication through Robust Labels for Biobased Systems) aims at empowering both consumers and industry stakeholders with the knowledge and tools to make more sustainable and environmentally conscious choices. Besides its main goal to improve end-consumer communication and eco-labelling for biobased solutions, the project aims to actively support social innovation practices that inspire responsible behaviour among citizens, private companies, certification bodies, and public bodies alike. 

Brochure showcasing 17 good practice examples

The latest 3-CO publication, a brochure titled “Social Innovation – Solutions Contributing to Responsible Production and Consumption in the Bioeconomy and Beyond” brings together 17 carefully selected best-practise examples of social innovation from across Europe and beyond. Each case demonstrates how creativity and collaboration can deliver solutions with tangible social and environmental benefits  and significant impact. Through thoroughly conducted interviews with the founders and members of these social initiatives, 3-CO identified key-aspects of successful action, aiming to encourage replication or adaption of similar solutions in a wide range of settings. Barriers and challenges identified in these conversations were derived into a policy paper, motivating successful policy implementation of social-innovation. 

Each of these stories illustrates how innovative strategies can create new social relationships, address the specific needs of local communities, and drive sustainable consumption habits and lifestyles. 

Scope and content of the brochure

The brochure addresses three target groups – citizens and communities, private businesses, and the public sector – and presents examples such as “library of things” initiatives encouraging sharing over ownership, clothing swap platforms, community gardens, digital food sharing networks and recycling support applications. Each case study details the initiative’s context, governance, implementation, and measurable social and environmental impacts. 

The findings highlight that social innovation often arises from non-profits, small businesses, local communities, and public sector programmes alike.

Explore all examples and the full brochure here: https://3co-project.eu/social-innovation-factsheets/

Identified challenges and policy recommendations

Besides highlighting success-stories and key-elements for successful realisation, the document also identifies reocurring challenges encountered when realising and scaling social innovations. These include governance complexities, limited funding, stakeholder engagement barriers, and regulatory obstacles.

Based on these results, the 3-CO team derived policy recommendations to help policymakers create more supportive conditions for social innovation. These recommendations include establishing flexible governance and regulatory frameworks, providing accessible funding and capacity-building resources, promoting cross-sector collaboration, integrating social innovation within wider sustainability and circular economy strategies, and advancing socially inclusive approaches. 

Read the full policy paper here: https://3co-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3-co_policy-paper_social-innovation.pdf

Webinar “Creating Impact: Social Innovation in the EU-Bioeconomy – What policymakers can do”

To further disseminate the brochure’s findings and policy recommendations, the 3-CO project will host a webinar on 9 September 2025 from 13:00 to 14:30 CEST. The event will provide an overview of the brochure’s content and the derived policy guidance, with representatives of featured social innovation initiatives sharing practical experiences related to implementation challenges and societal and environmental outcomes.

The webinar is open to researchers, policymakers, civil society actors, business representatives, and other key stakeholders interested in social innovation and sustainable development.

Registration for the webinar is available free of charge: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P8qUxMnkQRm9mn9ZdcPuFg#/registration

More information on the 3-CO project is available at https://3co-project.eu

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Source

3-CO, original text, 2025-07-30.

Supplier

3-CO Concise consumer Communication
European Union
nova-Institut GmbH

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