Save…resources in and around your home
Switch it Off, Green it Up
There is a lot we can do to make our homes and local communities cleaner and greener places to live. These activities will help you decrease the impact you have on your local environment, saving valuable energy and other resources. The more Girl Guides and Girl Scouts take action to make their communities environmentally sustainable, the more we can encourage others to do the same. By reducing the resources we use, finding creative ways to recycle and reuse resources and making the local environment greener, we can save energy and reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.
ACTIVITIES
Choose any two
1 Get Off The Grid!
Saving electricity is one of the simplest and most powerful things you can do to save energy.
A
Design a poster giving your top ten tips for saving electricity then spread the word! Display it everywhere you can; in your meeting place, your school or email it to your friends and family.
B
YOUNGER
Design and make “switch me off” notes to display next to taps, light switches and plug sockets at home, school and your meeting place.
C
Take part in Earth Hour. At 8.30pm local time on the 31 March every year, the lights go out in over five thousand cities and towns worldwide. For that one hour, Earth Hour, go “off the (electricity) grid” and save energy. Make a pledge to raise awareness about the campaign between World Thinking Day and Earth Hour and encourage your community to take part.
D
FUNDRAISE!
Design an evening programme for your Girl Guide/Girl Scout group that does not require electricity to run on World Thinking Day. Invite guests and ask them to make a small contribution to the World Thinking Day fund.
E
Write a song or rap about saving electricity and perform for your group.
Take it Further! Why not try living off the grid after 8.30pm every evening for a week or longer?
FUNDRAISE! Get sponsored for going off the grid for a set period of time and donate the funds raised to World Thinking Day.
2 Swap it out, Glam it up
A
Think you need some new clothes? Instead of buying more, organize a clothes swapping party and invite all your friends to bring unwanted clothing and swap it for a new look.
B
OLDER Take it Further! Learn how to recycle old clothes – simple sewing techniques can update your clothes and make them feel new again, without putting any extra strain on the planet. Ask someone in the local community who can teach you basic sewing skills, then teach your friends by having a clothes recycling corner at your swapping party.
FUNDRAISE! Combine your swapping party with a recycled fashion show and charge a small admission fee for the World Thinking Day fund.
| Log your actions here. Share your actions and stories with other Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and help us reach our target of 201,200 actions by 31 August 2012. |
3 Make it New
There are countless creative ways to recycle materials and reduce waste.
A
Learn basic sewing skills then turn old clothes and scraps of fabric into new products you can sell. Simple projects such as making cushion covers are easy to learn and quick to make.
B
Best of all, recycle old fabric into cloth bags, decorate with messages about the environment and distribute in your local community to discourage the use of plastic bags.
C
Papier Mâché (French for “chewed paper”!) is a great way to recycle old paper, card and other materials into…well, pretty much anything! How about making a papier mâché sofa for your meeting place or bowls, stools and tables to sell? It’s very simple and lots of fun.
Create a frame for what you want to make using recycled materials, such as toilet roll middles taped together to make legs, a flat piece of cardboard shaped to make a table top, wire to make framesFor bowls, find something that gives the round shape you want, such as a football or another bowl. Cover this in cling film or waxed paper to stop the papier mâché sticking to the shapeMake a thin paste using flour and water (if you heat this until it turns clear it is more effective) and tear newspaper into small stripsDip newspaper strips into the paste and smooth onto your frameBuild up a few layers then let it dry and test for strength, adding more papier mâché where necessaryPaint with a white base coat then decorateFinish with a few coats of varnish to protect it
4 Plant for the Planet
Growing plants is a great way to make your local community a greener place. Plants improve air quality, reduce soil erosion, retain water, create nutritious fruit and vegetables and make everyone happier!
A
Organize a group tree planting in your area. Seek advice from a local expert on the best type of tree to use and where they will grow well. Identify an area that would benefit from the trees, ask local businesses to donate the trees and invite local media to your tree planting ceremony.
SPEAK OUT Use your tree-planting event to deliver your demands from section four.
B
YOUNGER Experiment with growing plants in recycled containers. You could plant herbs in tin cans, grow cress in old eggshells or salads in empty milk cartons.
Take it Further! FUNDRAISE! Set up a plant shop as part of your World Thinking Day celebrations and contribute the money raised to the World Thinking Day fund.
C
OLDER Plant and care for a World Thinking Day recycled garden to benefit your local community. This could be a vegetable garden with the produce going to local food banks or charities for distribution, or sold to raise funds for the World Thinking Day fund. You could also create a sensory garden for people with special needs or a play garden for children – think about what your community needs the most.
D
Are all the outdoor spaces in your community being used? Guerrilla gardening is a popular way to reclaim unused land – that might be a dusty patch of soil by the road, the bottom of the school playing field, even a bare rooftop; anywhere you can find! Persuade the land owner to let you care for it. Think about the best type of plants for the land; maybe grass or moss is best for a small patch of soil or a rooftop, whilst you can grow vegetables on the school playing field. Think ahead – if you plant something, you need to take care of it.
Don’t forget, you can log on to the World Thinking Day website to find out how you can donate, or to donate online, log onto www.wagggs.org/en/donatetowagggs.
5 For the Butterflies
OUR CABAÑA ACTIVITY
World Thinking Day is a very special time at Our Cabaña, the WAGGGS’ World Centre inMexico. Each year, millions of Monarch Butterflies migrate to spend the winter inMexico. If you are lucky enough to be at Our Cabaña for World Thinking Day, you get to climb through the mountains to see the butterflies clinging to the trees. However, the Monarch Butterfly is in trouble because trees are being cut down in the forests where they live.
A
Research the diversity of wildlife in your area, and plant trees and bushes that attract native insects and butterflies. Dedicate your planting to World Thinking Day and the Monarch Butterfly.
B
CELEBRATE, YOUNGER Make World Thinking Day cards with a Monarch Butterfly design, and write about why we shouldn’t cut down trees inside. Take a photo of your card and put it on the World Thinking Day website.
6 Up Your Street
How well do you know your local environment? With your group, explore and map your local area then identify environmental gold stars (such as clean community water source, public garden) and bad spots (such as litter dumping spots, neglected footpaths, bad air quality). Try to think of creative ways to promote and protect your gold stars and see what you can do to improve the bad spots.
Take it Further! Design and create an eye-catching display, using recycled materials, to show your findings and display it in the local community. You could also take photos of the gold stars and bad spots and turn into a photo exhibition to raise awareness of the issues.
7 Energy Audit
Keep a record of the amount and type of energy your family uses in your home for one week, Plan how your family could use energy more efficiently. Share your ideas with your family and decide which changes to make.
8 Power Rangers
If possible, find an electronic energy monitor to test how much electricity difference appliances use at your home, meeting place or school. Make recommendations for how to save energy and list the top three ideas. Design twenty postcards including this information and give them to your friends, Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting leaders or teachers.
Take it Further! Encourage your school to establish regular energy monitoring. Get students volunteering to check classrooms for best energy saving practices eg: not leaving devices on standby, closing windows, turning out lights.
9 Easy Recycling
OUR CHALET ACTIVITY
Our Chalet is WAGGGS’ oldest World Centre, high up in the Swiss mountains. It is a great place to see how beautiful the environment can be if we take care of it. The Our Chalet team knows they can make a difference by taking small steps to protect the environment so they provide plenty of recycling containers to make it easy for guests to sort their rubbish and recycle as much as possible. Take care of your environment by being better recyclers!
A
Find out what can be recycled in your area then design a set of recycling and composting containers to make it easy for people to remember what they can recycle. Think about how to make them easy to use, store and clean. Make the containers from recycled materials and decorate them attractively.
Take it Further! Make more sets and distribute them in your local community
B
Try the Our Chalet recycling game with a group of younger Girl Guides/Girl Scouts to teach them about sorting rubbish. Put together a sack of different types of rubbish (check the rubbish is clean) and, using your new recycling containers, time participants to see how quickly they can sort the rubbish into the right containers. The team that completes the game most quickly and accurately wins.
10 Give it Up
How hard is it to give something up? Think of something you could give up and calculate what it would mean for the environment if you gave it up for a whole month. Try to live without it and keep a record of your experience.
11 Bag it!
SANGAM ACTIVITY
Sangam, WAGGGS’ World Centre in India, works with many community organizations so visitors can learn what living in India is really like and contribute to exciting community projects. Recycling is really important inIndiaand inventive ways to make something new from something old are always popping up.
Many cities inIndiahave banned the use of plastic bags. Staff and volunteers at Sangam have been learning how to make bags out of old newspaper to use for shopping.
Support the step away from plastic bags. Try to make your own newspaper bags using the instructions on page XXX or watch the video instructions at www.newspaperbagproject.com.
FUNDRAISE! Try selling your bags and donating the profits to the World Thinking Day fund!
Don’t forget, you can log on to the World Thinking Day website to find out how you can donate, or to donate online, log onto www.wagggs.org/en/donatetowagggs.