After their first workshop, oriented towards the selection of the most relevant challenge for the circular economy in Estonia, the AHHAA team planned their second workshop as an opportunity to dive more into practical ideas and elaborate a scenario with participants.

The second co-creation workshop organised by AHHAA took place in April in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, in the PROTO Discovery Centre premises. The first part of the event was an occasion to reflect and have an overview of the vast array of tools and exercises that can be used in public engagement.

Participants were then invited to put themselves into the shoes of a company owner who would be interested in performing societal engagement activities.

And you, what would you do?

Imagine that you are the CEO of a sheep farm and you are looking for sustainable solutions to use your leftovers of sheepskin pieces. You are also aware of a problem, common for the local farmers and gardeners: the invasion of Spanish slugs, an alien species in Estonia that are a grave danger to crops.

What if your leftover sheepskin pieces could be the solution? Let’s invite the stakeholders concerned by this issue, e.g. local gardeners and farmers, to discuss how this idea could be implemented. What would you do?

The SocKETs lab participants suggested a community-focused roundtable, where citizens would be invited to reflect on this solution. Indeed, they would be the first users of the final product, which would at the same time provide a function to the leftover skins from the sheep farms, as well as offer an organic product to solve the Spanish slug issue, which is usually treated with chemical and harmful products.

The idea is to reach people directly in their village. Local inhabitants who are experiencing the Spanish slug issue would be invited to a late-afternoon event, along with gardeners specialised in organic products and an expert in sheepskin-based repellent.

Want to be involved in SocKETs?

If you want to join this societal engagement movement in Estonia, contact Helin, our Estonian SocKETs lab leader!