Exploring Responsible Consumption in Practice: Seminar in Pamplona

What is really behind the price of the clothes we wear? Can we recognise whether a product has been produced fairly just by looking at it? And what can local communities teach us about creating more sustainable and ethical ways of consuming?

These questions were at the centre of the Consumo Justo Seminar in Pamplona, Spain, organised by SETEM from 22–24 May 2025. The three-day international programme brought together participants and project partners from Spain, France, Latvia, Poland and Norway to explore how youth workers can promote fair, ethical and local consumption among young people. Through practical workshops, exchange of experiences and visits to local initiatives, participants explored responsible consumption through real examples rather than theory alone.

Looking behind everyday products

The programme started by connecting responsible consumption with familiar products and everyday choices. During a blind chocolate tasting, participants compared different chocolates before discussing Fair Trade and the social and environmental conditions hidden behind the finished product. The Shoes Workshop continued this exploration by asking participants to estimate how the price of shoes and T-shirts is distributed between workers, manufacturers, brands and retailers, opening a discussion about inequalities within global supply chains.

A workshop with a local wool producer brought another perspective. Participants learned about challenges connected with sheep's wool in Navarra and created their own woollen bowls, connecting responsible consumption with natural materials, craftsmanship, local production and the value of resources.

Seeing responsible consumption in the community

A significant part of the seminar took learning outside the training room. At Geltoki, participants discovered a cooperative cultural centre connecting responsible consumption with local food, solidarity economy, food sovereignty and community cooperation. The programme continued at Katakrak, where a bookstore, publishing house, café and cultural space come together around ideas of social justice, critical thinking and community participation.

Participants also explored initiatives such as the Piparrika urban vegetable garden, maintained collectively by local residents through ecological horticulture, composting and local plant varieties. Visits to the SETEM Fair Trade Shop and other community initiatives provided additional examples of how responsible consumption can become part of everyday city life.

Think global, act local

The international dimension of the seminar became especially visible during the “Think Global, Act Local” workshop. Participants exchanged responsible consumption practices from their countries related to food, clothing, energy, technology and saving, comparing both good practices and challenges.

These discussions demonstrated that there is no single perfect model for responsible consumption. What is affordable, accessible or sustainable can differ considerably between communities. This is particularly relevant for youth work: rather than telling young people what they should or should not consume, we can encourage them to investigate where products come from, compare alternatives and identify realistic changes within their own context.

Some of these perspectives were also captured through interviews for the Consumo Justo podcast series, allowing experiences and consumption habits from different participating countries to become part of the project's educational resources.

Sustainability, inclusion and community

On the final day, participants travelled to Ollo to visit Gure Sustraiak, a cooperative farm school combining environmental education, social inclusion and sustainable rural development. The initiative demonstrated that sustainability is not only an environmental question but can also connect with accessibility, wellbeing and community participation.

The seminar concluded with activities bringing these different perspectives together. Participants discussed fair, ethical and equitable consumption, developed their own “perfect recipe for responsible consumption”, and created a networking web using a ball of wool. The activity highlighted an important message from the three days: changing consumption patterns is not only an individual responsibility. Cooperation between people, organisations, producers and communities is equally important.

Across the seminar, responsible consumption was explored through food, fashion, Fair Trade, local production, community initiatives and social inclusion. Participants had opportunities to taste, create, discuss, visit and compare, experiencing methods that could later be adapted to activities with young people.

For youth workers, the Pamplona experience demonstrated how responsible consumption can become much more engaging when young people are encouraged to look behind everyday products, question where they come from, discover local alternatives and understand how individual choices connect with wider social and environmental systems.

Erasmus+ Cooperation partnership

Consumo Justo

Project No.  2024-1-FR02-KA220-YOU-000248910

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 the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.