Winners of Green Action Fund announced, awarding ambitious plans to advance sustainable consumption worldwide

20 July 2023

We are delighted to announce that 27 Consumers International Members from developing and transitional economies will be awarded grants to implement this year’s Green Action Fund campaigns. They will raise awareness, run training, advocacy and school outreach to inspire and support action which promotes sustainable consumption.

SHARING COMMUNITY 

The theme of Green Action Week focusses on ‘sharing community’. Encouraging communities to come together and share goods and services has a positive social, economic and environmental impact on people and planet.  

 

GLOBAL COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

This year, our Members will be running 27 campaigns in 24 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. 

Grantees are determined to drive change by promoting a culture of sharing and collaboration within communities to reduce waste and improve resource efficiency. These initiatives include: 

  • Waste and single-use plastic reduction:  In Yemen, where an estimated 43 million plastic bags are consumed annually, the Yemen Association for Consumer Protection will be raising awareness on the harms of plastic through information campaigns and by distributing 1000 cloth bags for shoppers to use. In Burundi, ABUCO-IT will be working towards protecting Lake Tanganyika from plastic pollution, while in India Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group will be curbing the overconsumption of single-use plastics through school education and rewarding shoppers for bringing reusable bags.
  • Food waste, security and sovereignty: In Senegal, Lebanon, Pakistan, Benin and Peru grantees will be addressing food sovereignty and hunger by reducing reliance on cereal imports, creating a sharing economy for surplus food and educating communities to cultivate their own organic home gardens and community kitchens are the focus for projects. In Malaysia, Niger and Colombia, grantees will be raising awareness of harvest losses and the importance of growing sustainable and nutritious crops and cooking healthy food. An alarming 3 billion tons of food is wasted each year. In this context, Consumers Lebanon, The Network in Pakistan and ADEC in Senegal will be creating a sharing economy for surplus food. BSSC in Benin and ASPEC in Peru are aiming to educate communities on cultivating organic and nutritious food to enhance food security and food sovereignty for the future.
  • Collaborative market enterprises: The fast fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on the planet, usurped only by oil production and responsible for much of the climate crisis. To curb the environmental harm from fast fashion in Nepal, grantees will be encouraging consumers to buy more second-hand clothing. Similarly, in Argentina and Togo, grantees will be raising awareness about the importance of supporting local producers and traders as well as adopting environmentally friendly consumption patterns. In Indonesia, grantees will be supporting women from rural communities to harness the economic, environmental and nutritional benefits of cultivating, harvesting and selling moringa products. 
  • Knowledge and experience-sharing networks: With more than 345 million people facing high levels of food insecurity globally in 2023, grantees in India, Zimbabwe, India and Costa Rica will be raising awareness about the importance of nutritional food. They aim to develop knowledge-sharing networks to strengthen responsible consumption.   
  • Clean and efficient energy use: The supply and use of energy represent around 3/4 of global greenhouse gas emissions today. In India, Kenya, Mali, Cape Verde and Fiji, grantees will be stressing the importance of switching to clean energy sources and being more energy efficient. They will also be supporting communities through the transition to clean energy through solar-powered lights and information campaigns on how to be more energy efficient in the home and in business.  

Download our summary to learn more about each project.

SUPPORT THE #GREENACTIONWEEK CAMPAIGN 

 

During Green Action Week, the annual global campaign running Monday 2 October to Sunday 8 October 2023, grantees will run activities linked into their wider projects, that mobilise consumers around the theme and promote actions that can be taken to reduce unsustainable consumption globally. We will also host a Sustainable Consumption Envisioning Workshop which explores different visions of a future world – one in which we are consuming sustainably.

We will be using the week to celebrate the new ideas, insight and innovations that are delivering impact and progress towards SDG12. Join us by using #GreenActionWeek on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to share how you are marking the week.  

The grants are made available by our partner, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), and administered by Consumers International, with the campaigns being delivered between September and November 2023.