Press Release

INHERIT is looking for ‘triple win’ ideas for a more sustainable future: initiatives that simultaneously protect the environment, improve our health and contribute to fairer societies. Share your thoughts on our new website: www.inherit.eu

The Intersectoral Health and Environment Research for Innovation (INHERIT) project is looking at the links between our living, moving or consuming patterns and the environment, our health and equity. This large scale Horizon 2020 initiative, coordinated by EuroHealthNet, brings together experts from the health, environment and other sectors, including technology, to investigate policies, practices and innovations that can influence our behaviours to achieve a ‘triple win’.
The following examples, drawn from our initial research, help protect the environment and can directly or indirectly improve health and tackle health inequalities, providing a ‘triple win’:

• Initiatives to develop urban gardens, which foster social inclusion, local production and healthy consumption, like those brought together through the Urban Gardens Otesha project that received funding under the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme (Grudtvig Multilateral).

• Social enterprises active in reuse, repair and recycling, like those that are part of the ‘RREUSE’ network, which helps bring unemployed people back into work and get products back to the market at affordable prices, providing low income groups with essential household items.

• Fare free public transport in Tallinn, Estonia, contributing to improved air quality and health.

• The ‘Beat the Street’ scheme, a global initiative that encourages children and parents to walk to school in order to gain points for their school and compete with others.

• The “Energiesparservice” (Energy saving service) initiative, piloted by Caritas in Frankfurt, Germany, that trained and engaged previously unemployed persons to help low-income households make their home more energy efficient. Recipients of the free consultation services reduced their carbon footprints and utility bills through the use of e.g. energy saving lightbulbs and water saving devices. The initiative has been replicated nationally.

Do you have other examples of policies or initiatives that can lead to the triple win? INHERIT is collecting ideas, and would like to hear from you! Send us your example or idea and we’ll review and feature it on our website to help initiate thinking and contribute to our efforts to stimulate positive change for more sustainable lifestyles for all.

INHERIT is an 18-partner research project about defining effective inter-sectoral policies that promote better health and greater well-being across social gradients by looking at key environmental stressors and related inequalities in the areas of living, moving and consuming.

INHERIT aims to identify and promote linkages that support greater inter-sectoral cooperation in order to address health, equity and environmental issues in a comprehensive and positive scenario-oriented manner for a more sustainable future.

INHERIT receives funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 667364. INHERIT was launched in January 2016 and will run for four years until December 2019. It is coordinated by EuroHealthNet.