Green Action Week 2022: Members championed sustainability worldwide

18 October 2022

Last week we marked Green Action Week (GAW), the annual global campaign running in the first week of October, to promote sustainable consumption. GAW is funded by the Green Action Fund (GAF), a grant scheme advancing sustainable development and reducing poverty. The fund is made available by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and is administered by Consumers International.

This year, under the ‘Sharing Community’ theme, 27 Consumers International Members have been awarded the GAF grant to implement their projects, which are in line with the theme: ways that sharing and collaboration bring equal and sustainable access to goods and services, benefiting people and the planet. GAW 2022 saw our Members across 26 countries and six different regions unite and carry out activities on projects that bring equal and sustainable access to goods and services to benefit both people and planet. Some of their activities included:

  • Consumers Lebanon providing advice to consumers on how to compost properly
  • The Yogyakarta Consumers Institute in Indonesia teaching communities how to transform local organic waste into natural dyes for eco prints
  • The Network, Pakistan calling for support to consumers from policy makers on the cost-of-living crisis and emphasising how sustainable behaviour can help to mitigate it
  • Consumer Voice in India teaching school children how to recycle plastic bottles and reuse these as plant pots!
  • Tribuna del Consumidor Ecuador installing recycling units in schools and colleges.
  • Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) in India establishing a sharing platform between resident communities and the nearby daily wage labour community to promote sustainable consumption and product lifetime extension
  • Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) educating consumers on the safe use of reusable and biodegradable plastic bags
  • Asociación Peruana de Consumidores y Usuarios (ASPEC) creating a mechanism that allows for the continuous exchange of ancestral knowledge and products of agrobiodiversity between consumers and conservationist farmers.

 

Their activities engaged a vast range of groups within the society, including school children, women’s groups and those typically cut off in rural communities. For a deeper dive into the projects of the 27 grantees, please head to our summary.

This year, GAW incorporated a new element, introducing five GAW Ambassadors to champion the projects in their region. They provided support to grantees and fostered a vibrant community by connecting participating organisations, raising awareness online and contributing to implementing projects on the ground throughout the week. To find out more on how GAW is delivering change in their regions, read a blog by our MENA region ambassador, Fatima H. Abou Abbass here and Asian-Pacific ambassador, Rinki Sharma here.

Support Green Action Week

 

Join us in celebrating sustainability throughout the year. Use the hashtag #GreenActionWeek on social media and promote your sustainable consumption activities.

We will return next year with more impactful projects to mark Green Action Week 2023 around the globe.