A Sustainable Manifesto

For the right to life, socio-environmental justice, and the preservation of our common territories

As part of Green Action Week 2024, IDEC, the Institute for Consumers Protection from Brazil, produced a Manifesto and film advocating for socio-environmental justice and a sustainable future. These works reflect the urgent need for changes in dominant modes of production and consumption, promoting practices aligned with a society in which social, environmental, and climate safeguards go hand in hand with ancestral knowledge.

The film was recorded in Itacaré, a city in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and features interviews with members of various organisations who shared their views on sustainability and what can be done to improve the communities in which we live. The video above offers a glimpse into their voices and visions for a more sustainable future. It is in Portuguese, but subtitles are available in other languages.

The Manifesto

Like the film, the Manifesto was developed collectively and includes themes that reflect the perspectives of the organisations present at the event regarding fair modes of production and consumption. With 15 key points it proposes a political roadmap for transforming the prevailing systems of production and consumption. These are:

  1. Recognition of diversity;
  2. Care as a political practice;
  3. Harmony with nature;
  4. Respect for communities;
  5. Strengthening of marginalised groups;
  6. Education for new generations;
  7. Technology as a democratic tool;
  8. Valuing ancestrality;
  9. Popular knowledge in harmony with academic knowledge;
  10. Disobedience of rules that threaten life; art and culture as a strategy;
  11. Exchange of knowledge;
  12. Democratisation of funding calls;
  13. Anti-racism;
  14. Public participation in policymaking.

With these guiding points, we can work towards transforming the world and building a future where sustainability is a right for all forms of life and all territories.

Read the complete Sustainable Manifesto in Portuguese here
(activate browser translation for other languages).