Stories from Green Action Week 2021
Changing the debate
CAP – media articles (or could be full-width background photo of collage of media articles with text on top?
Exploring new areas
Deeper impact year-on-year
Click to scroll down to stories from Green Action Week 2021 across the world
Make your own fertilizer
Make your own fertilizer
Make your own fertilizer
Make your own fertilizer
Benin - Benin Santรฉ et Survie du Consommateur
In Benin, groups trying to grow vegetables in soil free of plastic bags tackled the problem at the demand-side, creating their own sustainable bags with attractive designs.
๐๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ท๐ฆ๐ถ๐ต ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆฬ๐จ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ ๐ถ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฆฬ๐ฃ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆฬ ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ. ๐๐ข ๐ต๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ณ ๐ขฬ ๐ญ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ด๐ข๐ค๐ด.
Brazil - Centro Ecolรณgico
“Soon, 230 kilos of plastic caps will be transformed into food, surgeries and veterinary consultations for street animals or animals of low-income guardians in Torres [a city in southern Brazil].
The metamorphosis won’t be the result of any magic, but of approximately 350 hours of dedication from Ana Telles, a volunteer from the Associaรงรฃo Torrense de Proteรงรฃo aos Animais. Since July 1st, when she sent a 165 kilo shipment to Tampinha Legal, in Porto Alegre, she has started again the collection, selection, cleaning and storage of more bottle caps, in a work she has been doing for four years.”
Alone we are weak, but when we get together, in any fight, we become strong
Costa Rica - Ambio
Focusing on how to reuse household waste, Ambio in Costa Rica:ย
- Created video tutorials for turning household waste into ‘ecoblocks’ which can be used for long-lasting household furniture among other uses.
- Created a detailed guide for how to make organic fertilizer and use it in home gardens.ย
Ethiopia - Institute for Sustainable Development
Coordinated by the Institute for Sustainable Development, residents in the small town of Fofa, southern Ethiopia, gathered to learn about medicinal plants from the traditional healer, share food and listen to the local environmental club’s poems and drama reflecting on the pandemic. Afterwards a march through the high street focusing on plastic pollution has led to the council promising to monitor plastic disposal.
India - Consumer Education & Research Centre
When Green Action Week began the theme of ‘Sharing Community’, Consumer Education & Research Centre (CERC) launched ‘A Platform for Give & Take’, tailoring the concept to เชเชช-เชฒเซ เชจเซ เชเชเชฒเซ in Gujarati.
Each year, CERC have developed the platform to build a place where ‘pre-loved’ items can be repurposed and shared to reduce consumption and build community at the same time.
2018
2019
2020
2021
India - Consumer Voice
Consumer Voice ‘s sharing community strategy identified that young people were not just targets of their campaign, they should be the spokespeople and co-creators of the campaign.ย
They worked with young influencers who already had networks and followings to create campaigns againstย single-use plastics and created their own graphics, videos, and volunteer campaigns to tackle the issue.
Lebanon - Consumers Lebanon
Consumers Lebanon set up a Facebook group to invite people to ‘share your memories, share your toys’. To promote the group they organised activities for children to draw pictures and act in videos about sharing.
Malaysia - Consumers Association Penang
Consumers Association Penang used events such as their Seeds Sharing Fair to draw attention to their comprehensive activities to promote collaborative consumption:
- Participants shown how to use these more sustainable herbs and seeds in their daily life
- Monthly natural farming training sessions
- A chemical-free demonstration farm
- Giveaways of herbs grown at CAP’s own urban garden.
- An online seed sharing sessions for those who could not join in-person or are prevented by the pandemic.
The culture of sharing had slowly been eroded due to the rise of individualism, materialism and conspicious consumption... However, the pandemic proved that a sharing community is necessary as part of the response to a crisis."
The Philippines - IBON Foundation
As part of their long-running focus on “People Economics”, IBON Foundation ran urban gardens in Manilla, based on the rural system of Bungkalan – collective land cultivation.ย ย
As well as demonstrating the food security and environmental benefits of this work through practical alternatives, IBON also launched a book (“Lahutay: a path to sustainability”) exploring the Alternative Learning Centre for Agriculturalย Development (ALCADEV).
The stories and photographs were added to by a poem, ‘we will green more backyards’ย which you can read here.
Rwanda - ADECOR
The Rwanda Consumers Rights Protection Organization (ADECOR) organised community groups to:
- Build sheds for livestock and manure sharing to support their agriculture with less impact on the environment
- Organise groups in skill-sharing collectives for animal caring, livestock manure, and kitchen gardens
Senegal - ADEC
Association Pour La Defense De L’environnement Et Des Consommateurs (ADEC) helped Mr Babacar Ngom and his family to build the tables, earth beds, and seeds that could turn into a garden on the terrace of their home to help feed their whole community in Bargny, Senegal.
This trial garden was documented, so that they could make a step-by-step guide to microgardening.ย
Three months later, their harvest bore fruit, with the first salads, cucumbers, and other vegetables from their own terrace garden.ย