VCAL: unit 10 what can we do activity guide

Unit 10: Introducing the Personal Eco‐challenge

‘What can we do?’ activity guide

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Unit 10: Introducing the Personal Eco‐Challenge

‘What can we do?’ activity guide

Estimated duration: 15 minutes

Aim •

Determine which actions to take as part of the personal eco‐challenge

Objective By the end of the activity, students will be able to: • identify personal actions that they can undertake to reduce energy and water use and production of waste

Resources • • • •

Actions you can take derived from the “spot the sustainable choices” activity earlier White board to record ideas during discussion List of possible actions (below) Unit 10 log sheet

Activity Description Overview Students are to decide on a number (four to six) of actions they will undertake to do as part of the personal challenge, for example taking shorter showers, or turning off appliances at the power point. For this activity, use the actions from the “spot the sustainable choices” poster and the students’ own ideas, and use the whiteboard to record possibilities and to narrow down the options. Students then record their final choices on the log sheet, as well as the units they will use to record their data.

Students will spend the week between this class and the next collecting baseline data where appropriate (e.g. measuring their existing shower times). The following weeks of the challenge students then measure their usage with the view to improving their sustainability (e.g. reduce their shower times to say 4 minutes).

Group option (recommended) This option will enable the whole group to complete the same sustainability actions, thereby simplifying the process and the calculations of what changed. The group comes to a consensus on the range of actions that each member of the group will attempt. Obviously there may be some items which have less relevance to some participants. In one case in the pilot program a participant lived in a house that relied on both tank water and solar power and was already very conscious of shower times Page 2 of 5

and turning off unused appliances etc. However, if there is a range of actions then there should be some things everyone can do, and in the worse case you might have some individuals doing different actions.

Individual option This is where participants individually choose the sustainability actions they will undertake. Of course this complicates the management of the challenge and the recording and reporting. This does enable participants to focus on things they are able to change and that is relevant for their specific situations and is therefore the best option for individualised outcomes.

Recommendations In the pilot programs we attempted to have groups work on eight actions. However, in the evaluation this was seen as too many actions to be attempting at the one time. Most participants completed between three and four actions, although some did go on to do all eight. It is therefore recommend that you either use a small number of actions (four to six) or start initially with two to three in the first few weeks, and add an additional two to three in the later weeks of the challenge.

We do not recommend setting the challenge up as a competition amongst the group. This can encourage participants to fudge their figures in order to win (remembering this all relies on self reporting). The idea is to challenge their own personal behaviour, so it is important that the personal eco‐challenge is framed as working toward improving their own performance, not comparing with others.

Our final recommendation is that reducing shower times is one of the most productive and easier actions to manage. It provides significant energy and water savings and is relatively easy to record details given it occurs only once a day (hopefully). However, you will need to arrange shower timers in advance to be able to calculate time spent in the shower. These can usually be obtained direct from your local water authority at no cost and are essential to try to get reasonably accurate records.

List of possible actions There are two issues to consider when choosing an action: 1) Is the action feasible? (E.g. VCAL students are unlikely to have the power to install solar power in their homes.)

2) Can you measure the baseline data and/or measure the impact of the action?

Listed below is a range of possible actions for which measurement methods and calculations data is provided in the calculation unit. Usually this calculation data converts savings into litres of water or kilograms of greenhouse gases, which can be a very effective way of communicating the group’s savings to the community. The group can choose actions which are not in this list, but if they do you will need to decide how to quantify them. Where calculating greenhouse gas and water savings is

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too difficult, you may find that the best option is just to record the “number of times” (e.g. number of times you turned off the electric blanket, instead of leaving it on once you were in bed).

The actions suggested below include the units which have been used in the calculations data. You will need to make sure all of the class are using the same units, as if one student counts which days they turned off unused lights and another counts how long they were turned off for it will be difficult to compare data.

• Taking shorter showers (minutes per shower) – highly recommended, as it allows students to make a big impact on their water use and emissions • Only charging mobile phones till fully charge (number of times) – most mobiles continue to use power when they are left plugged into the charger after they have finished charging • Recycling (number of items) • Turning off appliances at the power point (yes or no – yes on a day when they did turn of appliances, no on a day when they didn’t) – lots of appliances use ‘standby energy’ when they are off but still on standby, and need to be turned off at the power point • Recycling water (number of litres) – students could put a bucket in the shower or could collect cold water coming through the kitchen taps while they wait for it to warm up. To help them estimate, explain that a bucket usually holds about nine litres.

• Switching off lights in empty rooms (yes or no) • Refusing plastic bags (number of bags refused) • Changing light globes (number of globes changed) – changing older (incandescent) globes to low energy light globes • Only putting as much water as you need in the kettle (number of times) – heating a full kettle when you only need one cup wastes energy to heat the water • Turning off the electric blanket once in bed (number of times) – electric blankets can be a good way of warming up the bed, but leaving them on once you’re in there wastes energy • Closing curtains or doors to hold in heat (winter) or coolness (summer) (number of times) – we use large amounts of energy to heat and cool our homes. If you only heat or cool the space you are using and not the whole house, you save lots of energy.

• Turning off the tap while brushing teeth (number of times) • Using a bike or walking for short trips rather than asking someone to drive you (number of hours, or fractions of hours, of driving time saved).

Remember that there are lots more ideas for actions in the ‘spot the sustainable choices’ activity guide.

Student Roles and Responsibilities: Participate in agreed tasks Page 4 of 5

Contribute to class discussions Work cooperatively with others Participate in survey and collect data Seek teacher assistance and support when needed

Level of Teacher Support Facilitate discussion Organise materials and equipment Provide encouragement and assistance when requested Introduce tasks and activities Provide advice on how to research and identify sources of information Remind students about timelines and commitments

Assessment To use this learning activity as an assessment task, collect evidence such as:

Teacher checklist and observation Student research notes and report Copies of student materials and worksheets Student notes Teacher checklist for class discussions

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