Development of GreenDealz: a public engagement toolkit addressing critical raw materials and the EU Green Deal at informal education settings

Abstract. One of the most important challenges that Europe faces to date is the need for a sharp increase in the extraction, production and recycling of critical raw materials to meet the demands of renewable energy technologies as specified in the European Union’s (EU) climate targets. However, this topic is not widely discussed amongst publics and is underrepresented within the field of informal public engagement. We present the development of a public engagement toolkit called ‘GreenDealz’ that addresses this gap. We focus specifically on informal learning within the festival environment. GreenDealz was created via an iterative process informed by festival-based data collection and audience input. GreenDealz engages incidental audiences with a supermarket experience, where critical raw materials must be shopped for to build key renewable energy technologies and achieve EU climate goals. Evaluation is streamlined into the tactile experience of GreenDealz, employing embedded assessment measures which yield quantitative data that indicate this activity significantly enhances audience knowledge of this topic.