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On the 30th of October, on five different stages in Utrecht, it was all about sustainability and social entrepreneurship during the Cultural Sunday: Win-Win.

The Cultural Sunday is a one-day event around a specific topic in the city centre of Utrecht, held six times a year. Among many other things, there was the possibility to buy social and sustainable products during ‘Gat in de Markt’, to get inspired by talks from social entrepreneurs and scientists from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ and to participate in an experiment from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ master student Marieke Boudeling. The Cultural Sunday was well attended by a diverse public. 

Lectures about social entrepreneurship 

The scientific side behind social entrepreneurship was explained by and during a lecture series in the old Post Office at the Neude. Niels Bosma explained the different sides of the production chain and the role of social entrepreneurs. Thereafter, the production chains of social enterprises were made insightful by the talks of Tony’s Chocolonely, Closing the Loop/Fairphone and Kuyichi.

In the Winkel van Sinkel, Erik Stam explained his research into the current developments in entrepreneurship in the Netherlands. More and more Dutch entrepreneurs choose to set up their business in a social and sustainable way. However, this movement doesn’t make the Netherlands a leader in social entrepreneurship yet. Erik Stam noted that some other countries are developing more rapidly in this field.

Experiment in consumer behaviour

During the day, it was possible for the general public to participate in a scientific research from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ master student Marike Boudeling. She investigates consumer behaviour, especially focused on consuming social and sustainable products. Consumers consider environmental and social issues more often, but this does not automatically lead to more sustainable consumption.

With her research, Marieke tries to find out what causes this ‘behavior gap’ and investigates solutions to bridge this gap. During the experiment, the participants where provided with different kinds of information about a product and they were given some money to buy social and sustainable products. An interesting result is that consumers are more willing to pay for an ethical product, when they are provided with information about the people in the beginning of the value chain, for example farmers. 

It was an interesting, sunny Cultural Sunday, where Utrecht embraced social entrepreneurship. Read more about the  (in Dutch).