Sustainable Programmes: Environmental Living

2016 is CISV’s year for Sustainable Development. Throughout the year, we will bring you ideas, discussion pieces, materials and resources to help you to explore, educate on, and take action toward Sustainable Development in your Chapter or Programme. 

In Step 3 of this year’s sustainable development campaign we will explore how we can apply sustainable development to our programmes. In this three part series we will explore what actions we can take to ensure that our programmes are as environmentally, economically and socially sustainable as possible.

When most people think of sustainable development they think of the environmental aspect first, and so this is where we begin our mini-series!

Over the past few years CISVers have often talked about making CISV programmes as low impact as possible, ensuring that we are practicing what we preach, so to speak. This means we have a whole range of amazing resources already out there to help us reach this goal. Below you can find 4 easy (ish!) things that you can do during a programme to be as environmentally sustainable as possible.

1. Go vegetarian, or at least eat less meat, and certainly eat locally!

Did you know that giving up red meat would reduce our carbon footprint more than giving up cars (Guardian, 2014). On many programmes, staff and participants have started thinking about this issue and many have made the switch to eating less meat, to help reduce CISV’s carbon impact. Eating locally also helps to reduce the amount of energy spent producing your food. While local food can sometimes be more expensive, eating much less meat helps you recoup some of this costs.
If you’re going on a Seminar this summer – why not bring this up with your group.

2. Recycle

Everyone knows how important it is to recycle, but sometimes in camp it is hard to know what you can recycle and how to do it properly. If you’re not in your home country ask the staff what you can recycle locally as every country has different practices. If the staff haven’t set up a system for recycling– make sure you ask them too!

You can also re-use as well as recycle. For example in England and Wales they recently introduced a 5p charge for plastic bags. When they did this in Scotland it reduced new plastic bag consumption by 80% percent. (BBC, 2014)

3. Don’t use too much water

Did you know the average American uses 525 litres of water a day, while more than a billion people in developing countries have to make do with less than 19 (Guardian, 2015)? In much of the world today, water is a very precious resource. Even where it is plentiful, processing clean, drinkable water uses up a lot of energy. To use less water in camp remember to turn the tap off when you’re brushing your teeth, use the plug when you’re washing up and try to avoid water fights! 

4. Use public transport – that isn’t a plane!

Did you know a flight from Paris to London produces around 244 kg of carbon dioxide, compared to 22kg/CO2 for the train journey? That is the equivalent to 3 trees per Village delegation. If you’re going to a programme that isn’t too far away, why not get a train or bus rather than a flight? It might take a bit longer to get there but it will sure help the planet! If you’re staff on a programme, why not try and arrange excursion day or travel to the site using public transport rather than cars or buses? It might even save you some money!

Do you have other ideas of how to be sustainable in our programmes? Share them in the comments!

Jessica Wanless

on behalf of the Sustainable Development Team

The Sustainable Development Team includes members of CISV’s Educational Programmes Committee, Kompaz Project, International Junior Branch Team, Communications Team, and the International Office. Our team coordinator is Madeleine Le Bourdon.