FAB13 Workshop: Fab Labs and Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Fab Lab Goals / Objetivos de Fab Labs Sostenibles); Report on the workshop during FAB13 conference in Santiago de Chile; 2017; Pieter van der Hijden, Enrico Bassi, Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo, Neville Govender, Yogesh Kulkarni, Wendy Neale.

1. 1
FAB13 Workshop: Fab Labs and
Sustainable Development Goals
(Sustainable Fab Lab Goals / Objetivos de Fab Labs Sostenibles)
1 Initiative description
During FAB13, the 13th International Fab Lab Conference (Santiago de Chile, 31 July - 6 August 2017),
we organised a bilingual workshop [WS218] called "Sustainable Fab Lab Goals" about Fab Labs and
Sustainable Development Goals.
After "Fab Lab Life Cycle" workshops on setting-up and running a fab lab at four earlier FAB-
conferences (http://bit.ly/fablablifecycle) and Fab Lab Safety Game sessions during two
(http://bit.ly/fablabsafetygame), it was time for the next level: Fab Labs and Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG's).
In 2015, countries of the world agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals which have to be
reached by all in 2030. Fab labs of the world could use these SDG's as a global framework to identify
where we could make a difference. This helps clarify our potential impact on local, regional and
global scale. It helps us to align our social activities and makes our labs and the whole more
sustainable itself as well. Where sustainable development goals and sustainable fab lab goals
coincide, new opportunities for structural cooperation and sustainable funding emerge.
This report describes the format of the workshop, its outcomes, the feedback by participants and our
own conclusions on how to proceed.
Amsterdam, 30 September 2017
The Fab Lab SDG team, Pieter van der Hijden (chair) - The Netherlands / Suriname (pvdh@sofos.nl),
Enrico Bassi - Italy (enrico@enricobassi.com), Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo - Peru (vaneza@fablablima.org),
Neville Govender - South Africa (neville.govender@ekurhuleni.gov.za), Yogesh Kulkarni - India
(Vigyanashram@yahoo.co.in), Wendy Neale - New Zealand (wendyneale3@gmail.com).

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2 How it works
In brief, the agenda of our 2-hours workshop was:
 Check-in
 [15'] - Briefing [plenary]
 [30'] - Cycle 1 - Fab labs today - Setting our baseline [5 groups]
 [30'] - Cycle 2 - Fab labs tomorrow - Identifying fab lab options [5 groups]
 [30'] - Cycle 3 - Fab labs together - Assessing global fab lab goals [plenary]
 [15'] - Debriefing [plenary]
 Check-out
The Facilitators Guide to the workshop (http://bit.ly/fab13-sdg-guide) describes the workshop in
detail. See also the presentation slides (http://bit.ly/fab13-sdg).
3 FAB13: first run
The following table describes what happened at run-time during FAB13 and the lessons we learned.
Planned Actual Lessons Learned
Materials Bilingual (English and
Spanish)
Bilingual (English and
Spanish)
Participants
appreciated this
service. For us it was
easy to realize as most
of the materials were
available at the UN
websites in various
languages.
Audience 10-35 plus 6 facilitators,
most of them English
speaking, one facilitator
native Spanish speaker
40 people registered,
10 showed up (almost
all Spanish speaking),
4 facilitators. Start
was half an hour late.
Chain of logistic issues
out of our control
hindered the
workshop. Next time
we should triple check
this in advance.
Cycle 1 - Fab labs today
- Setting our baseline
Analyzing home fab lab
in terms of activities,
competencies and
target groups. Realizing
Skipped to
compensate for late
start
Pity to skip as it was
meant as warming up
for the participants. If
this happens again,

3. 3
Planned Actual Lessons Learned
diversity in fab labs. the first round should
not be skipped.
Cycle 2 - Fab labs
tomorrow - Identifying
fab lab options
5 groups each focussing
on three different SDG's,
identifying possible
contributions of fab labs
in general
One single group
(about ten Spanish
speaking participants)
arbitrarely selecting
some SDG's to discuss.
As we had only one
group, only a few
SDG's could be
discussed. Is OK in
these circumstances;
at least we have a first
impression of the way
participants react to
this topic.
Cycle 3 - Fab labs
together - Assessing
global fab lab goals
(plenary)
15 people from 5 groups
reporting the outcomes
and building the fab lab
agenda summary poster
Participants reporting
individually (see
below)
The participants
indicated the SDG's
they want to focus on;
some participants
came with concrete
project suggestions.
4 First outcomes
Picture of the summary poster
Concrete suggestions for fab lab activities were:
 SDG 2: Zero hunger: Multifunctional growbox
 SDG 4: Quality education: Revamp existing education with instructions of digital fabrication

4. 4
 SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure:
 Use fab lab to go from unskilled to skilled manpower
 Think of local materials; value addition by fab lab
 Incubate businesses (start-ups)
 SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities:
 Design and develop smart solutions at fab lab to bring down energy consumption
 Public involvement in designing cities
5 Feedback by the participants
At the end of the workshop the participants were asked to answer three questions:
 What was ok?
 What could be better?
 Other suggestions?
5.1 What was ok?
What was OK?
 Bilingual workshop
 Explain the global perspective of a fab lab and the way to make it sustainable
 Explanation of the Sustainable Development goals
 Interaction with the facilitators
 Learning about specific experiences
 Meet people from Latin America
 Meeting new people
 Networking
 Organization, working in groups
 Share knowledge and benefit from each other
 The topics dealt with (2)
 Very good
5.2 What could be better?
What could be better?
 Everything was perfect
 Focus on the problems we all have with our fab labs
 Include elaborated ideas for common projects

5. 5
 More attention to this workshop
 More information on the accompanying business model
 More specific examples
 More time
 More time to relate results to larger picture
 Post-its right on the table
5.3 Other suggestions?
Other suggestions?
 Explain the projects every fab lab is developing
 Nothing
 More graphics
 More interaction
6 Lessons learned
As a team we have some conclusions to share on the content of the workshop as well as on the
workshop format.
6.1 Fab Labs and Sustainable Development Goals
Regarding the content of the workshop, our conclusions are:
1. Go on with Fab Labs and SDG's - The workshop team is convinced that the Sustainable
Development Goals may act as an important frame of reference to identify, measure, guide
and improve the social and economic impact of fab labs. Some other speakers at the FAB13
conference hinted in the same direction and in fact enforced our conviction.
2. The Fab Lab community consists of a wide variety of Fab Labs - Although fab labs have many
things in common, each of them has its own identity based on the context in which it operates,
the resources it has available and the interests of its staff and visitors. Also each of them may
be related to their own specific selection of Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Each Fab Lab can identify its own SDG-profile - We assume that each single fab lab can
identify 1-4 Sustainable Development Goals that best fit their identity. When we could collect
this type of information, we could gain a lot of insight in the total fab community, i.e. where
certain (combinations of) SDG's are found. We assume that as a community we will cover all
17 SDG's.
4. SDG-profiles enable cooperation - When fab labs reveal their SDG-profiles, e.g. in the list of
fab labs and on their websites, they easier can find other fab labs with the same interests
within the fab community. They also can be found by the outside world easier and more to the
point.
5. Cooperation may produce solutions - Once each fab lab knows its 1-4 SDG's it could analyse
the official targets underlying these goals (the 17 goals in total have 169 underlying targets).

6. 6
The fab lab then can identify its (potential) contributions to these targets and search for
cooperation with related ones. For the fab community could bring forward some of these
solutions to international fora.
6. A triple win solution - In our view this all helps 1) strengthen the global fab community 2)
without sacrificing the autonomy and uniqueness of each fab lab. For the outside world we
could become a more coherent organization, with a presence on the ground in many
countries, innovative and not profit driven and loved by young people. In other words: 3) an
ideal partner to include in consortia for SDG programs.
6.2 The workshop format
Regarding the format of the workshop, our conclusions are:
 In our workshop format we tried to cover all (17) sustainable development goals. For many
participants this will be rather abstract. In the case of a re-run we could better ask the
participants to focus on their home lab and its SDG profile (1-4 SDG's) and to form groups to
cover the SDG's involved (and not try to cover all 17 SDG's anyway).
 The bilingual (English / Spanish) character of this workshop was highly appreciated by
participants who did not feel comfortable when using English. Slides and hand-outs were
bilingual and one of the facilitators as well. We recommend it as good practice to future
workshop organizers.
 Conference participants want to meet new people and some of them want to learn the basics
of setting-up a fab lab. Workshop formats should take that into account.
7 Our impact
7.1 Impact achieved
For the moment: our workshop format has been field tested, we learned valuable lessons regarding
the workshop content (see above) and our worldwide team is committed to go further.
7.2 Targeted impact
 Spread the SDG message to all 1000+ fab labs worldwide (6000+ if you include all variants like
makerspaces, innovation centers, etc.).
 Let each fab lab develop its own SDG-profile.
 Make SDG-profiles visible for the whole fab community and for external parties.
 Stimulate bottom-up collaboration on specific SDG's (or SDG profiles).
 Position the global fab community as a global player for a range of innovations.