Sustainability booklet

SUSTAINABLE EVENTS ­KNOW HOW

“Exploring Sustainability in Local Community” is a training course supported by Erasmus Plus Programme where 24 young leaders, volunteers and youth workers from Poland, Macedonia, Slovenia, Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Greece met in August in Narol, Poland to explore about sustainable development and learn new, creative ways to engage youth in the development of the local sustainable communities.

The overall aim of the training course is to promote sustainability and make young people understand the meaning and importance of it, to provide young people with competencies and encourage engaging youth in using sustainable practices in the development of the local community.

To reach the above mentioned aim, the training course had the following objectives: To develop a common understanding (and common language) of essential concepts such as sustainable development and community building, and to explore the links between these.

To provide participants with the experience of sustainable living, new ways of youth participation, personal expression and development To offer participants a space to share their ideas, learning points and experiences.

To raise awareness about the environmental issues and promote sustainability in the community of Tomaszów Lubelski District through the local activities of the training To promote active citizenship between young people for tackling environmental issues in their local communities To promote the values of respect, solidarity, equality between European countries To stimulate creativity, to challenge their behaviors and equip them with tools and skills needed to lead responsible actions in their communities.

The main organizer of the project is Czajnia Association. The following partner organizations gave an added value to the training course: Mladinski center Zagorje ob Savi ­ Slovenia Hrvatska skola Outward Bound (HSOB) ­ Croaita SWT Alumni Macedonia ­ Macedonia Associazione ONLUS Levitazione ­ Italy Az Elo Erzsebetvarosert Egyesulet ­ Hungary Environmental Group of Kessariani ­ Greece Associação Juvenil da Linha de Cascais Rota Jovem ­ Portugal The training course focused on exploring sustainable and greener practices which can be incorporated into youth work. Using the experience of the training course we created this booklet which provides tips and information on how to be more “GREEN”, while organizing training courses or similar educational activities.

how to organize sustainable, ecofriendly training, even if its topic is not about sustainability ?

Based on our experience in organising training courses and youth exchanges we would like to share with you a 3 phase simple guide, with useful tips on how to make your project more sustainable.

Reduce

Waste. Examples? Use glasses for coffee breaks and meals instead of plastic cups. Plastic cups? Ask people to stick name tags on them or write their names using markers, so they can use the same cup longer than just one break.

Paper. You can reduce its usage by using old posters and one side written paper. We encourage you to use online tools as much as possible.

Booklets, promo materials, announcements, posters ­ everything you can do online instead of printing. Print and copy your materials on both sides.

You can also decrese the font size Packaging: Participants of our training were provided with linen bags, locally hand­made. Plastic bags were never used during the training!

By reducing the amount of paper you consume, you avoid contributing to climate change

Re-use

Old newspapers: In our training they were used to produce envelopes for secret messaging between participants. Bit of origami skills contributed to the second life of unwanted newspapers and lots of fun for participants.

Old t­shirts. Everyone has a favourite one, but doesn't wear it anymore. These old t­ shirts proved to be a great workshop material.

Out of them we created bracelets. shopping bags and hair bands.

The remaining ones were used during the rock festival, as a distinctive mark of our group.

Decorational materials such as ribbons, thin ropes, together with an old cardboard out of shoe box, some old newspapers, water based glue, can be reused and upcycled into cool notebooks and calendars, which has been presented during the notebook workshops.

Recycle

Buy recycled products to complete the recycling loop. Many companies already offer recycled office supplies such as markers, paper, pencils, pens and many other useful items.

Try not to buy what cannot be recycled afterwards. Buy consciously and read labels so you can be sure that the product or its package can by recycled when you don't need it anymore.

Recycle yourself! During our training our compost workshop was organised so we could see ourselves how food can be recycled instead of being wasted. Materials for our workshop came from the hotel kitchen. It is easier than you think!

story of one rock festival Other words on how we prepared a sustainable event ourselves Cieszanów Rock Festiwal is a settled brand in Poland among music festivals in the country. Every year it hosts more than 20 thousands music fans from Poland and abroad. In 2012 the festival was ranked as top 3 summer music festivals in Poland. The team of organizers try to implement eco­friendly, sustainable practices which have resulted in many rewards in the field of ecology. In 2015 group of young people from 8 countries were hosted by the organizers of the festival in a City NGO zone. They got a chance to promote sustainable lifestyle among the visitors of the festival. The entire program of the event was prepared by the participants of the training course.

Let's plan it!

The story started based on a detailed plan. First the whole group brainstormed about the ideas. They had known the background thanks to the visit of our guest speaker ­ one of the festival organizers. From millions of creative ideas, several that felt like the most suitable and achievable were selected. Everyone is needed, everyone is welcomed ­ we split into teams with team leaders responsible for specific tasks. The plan looked like this: ­ "Free hug for an empty cup" promo action, ­ sustainable photoframe, ­ workshops on making bracelets and notebooks, ­ sustainable games

Materials The event planning phase took into consideration the quality and the type of the materials needed for the implementation of planned activities. What needed to be bought?

Well, almost nothing! The project team just filled the supplies of materials which had been bought for the training (so glue, tapes) and the rest was already there: some used paper, scissors, paper knifes. Special materials like branches, sticks, old t­shirts were provided by the participants. Also local businesses contributed to the event, by giving us some empty cardboard boxes and selling second hand t­shirts.

Event

camera man in action

The workshops on making bracelets out of used t­shirts and its result.

Free hug for an empty cup - promo action

participant's stories Notebook making workshop

The notebook workshop was one of my favorite activities of this project, because it was useful, simple, interesting, and above all creative and fun. It was very eye­opening, because I learned that from things that I would usually throw away in the trash, I can make a product that will be useful. It was very inspirational too, now my creative mind is awake, and I have tons of ideas for recycling and reusing old materials and objects in an artistic and creative way.

Monika, Macedonia

The compost workshop for me was one of the best workshops we had during the training course because it was practical and useful, in the sense that it could really bring a real impact on the everyday life of the participants.

First, we made a revision with Norma on how to prepare the compost bin by drawing it on the white­board: the materials, the amount of them and the kind of plastic of the bin. Then, we went on to the practical part: we took the plastic bin, we did holes on its surface and we began arranging the different layers needed by the compost process using shovels, gloves, knifes and scissors. Everyone participated under Norma’s supervision, who gave us tips and pieces of advice.

After that, we went to the fields close to the hotel to see a bigger compost process managed by the local farmers in order to understand what happens to our organic waste after a few days. Norma explained the different kind of bugs, spiders and worms that live in the compost soil and their tasks in the organic decomposition.

Finally, we went back to the hotel to have a further discussion about other ways of composting (how to get compost in only 19 days!) and new techniques in agriculture such as permaculture.

As I said before, the workshop was very useful because it made me understand better what I had watched in the video and it taught me something that can really change my eco­friendly support for the environment of my community.

To be honest, it will be difficult for me to convince the people I live with to compost at home because actually they are closed­minded on the topic of “respect for the environment”. By the way, this workshop gave me the mental strengths and energies to try to change their minds.

Simone, Italy

Compost workshopr

more City Ngo - pictures from the event Czajnia Fb Cieszan贸w Rock Festiwal Green Tool Box official

click me!

This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.