Young Consumers' Guide to Eco-Friendly Living


UNEP and UNESCO Announce a New and Updated Edition of the Popular YouthXchange Training Kit. Paris/Nairobi – October 1st, 2008.

How to balance looking cool and feeling cool with the need to combat climate are among the key tips in the new United Nations YouthXchange Training kit. This updated version of the guide also gets to grips with the mountains of waste emerging across the globe as a result of today's fast throw-away society from mobile phones to fashion.

The 2008 Training Kit on Sustainable Consumption, produced by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is now in its second edition. YouthXchange is a train the trainer tool that aims to promote sustainable consumption patterns among young consumers worldwide. Among other novelties, this updated guide includes a chapter on how to find a balance between youths' consumer aspirations of dressing cool and fashionable while at the same time being aware of the impact of their consumption on, for example, climate change.

"YouthXchange is one of the most important youth activities connected to UNEP's sustainable consumption and production work - it provides us with content that we are able to convey to other young people, empowering them to make different choices in their daily lives and be actors of change," says Gabriela Monteiro, a UNEP Tunza Youth Advisor.

Young people today establish their identities through what they buy and seek social inclusion by purchasing the newest and "coolest" products on the market. Yet, when unguided, this consumption contributes to problems such as ozone depletion, climate change and hazardous wastes that not only affect our daily lives but impact the entire globe. Through their daily actions, people can increasingly reduce their environmental impact. Well aware of this, UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) and UNESCO decided to update the 2002 guide to include today's trends. It provides statistics, case studies, games, examples of companies going greener, and alternatives for more sustainable lifestyles. New to the guide are the following features: a clear link between our consumption patterns and climate change, a more substantial e-waste section, updated data and scientific information and two new chapters: one on the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development and one on fashion.

Fashion feeds a growing industry and ranks textiles and clothing as the world's second-biggest economic activity for intensity of trade[1]. However, human rights and the environment pay a heavy price – a price that people can increasingly choose to lessen with the rise of ethical fashion. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Young people in developed and rapidly developing economies can play a massive part in fighting climate change while being cool and keeping the planet cool too". "Through their purchasing patterns, life-style choices and networks with schools and universities to clubs, the music scene and sports they can also influence the wider world—influence that will be vital for moving communities, companies and countries to back a new UN climate change deal in Copenhagen's UN Climate Change Conference in 2009" he added. "This initiative, which fits within the framework of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005-2014), seeks to raise the awareness of young people and make responsible consumers of them," said Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO "Buying a product, what ever it is, is never a neutral act for the environment; its production, its use and the management of the waste it generates, all impact – to a greater or lesser degree – on our planet." Through YouthXchange, UNEP and UNESCO work together to show young people that it is possible to translate our aspirations for a better world into everyday actions. YouthXchange has been translated and adapted in 19 languages and is available in a bilingual (English and French) website – www.youthxchange.net.


Notes to editors: For the 2008 YouthXchange version, please visit: http://www.youthxchange.net/main/english-guide.asp. The UNEP Tunza Programme seeks to engage and involve young people through awareness creation, information exchange and capacity-building and through involving them in environmental decision-making processes globally and in the regions.

For more information on UNEP's youth and children program, please visit: http://www.unep.org/Tunza/ About the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)Created in 1972, UNEP represents the United Nations' environmental conscience. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, its mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

For more information, please contact: Ms. Morgan StreckerUNEP UNESCO YouthXchangeTel : + 33 1 44 37 30 35Email : mstrecker@unep.frWebsite: www.youthXchange.net

Check out my blog on the environment. Its just started but I want to hear what you have to say

http://youngjamenvironmentalists.blogspot.com/

Anyone can still be living.

They might be dead many years ago,
They went when we needed them most,
We felt heart broken and despaired,
Cried our hearts out wishing get them back.
They have left us, left us alone.

We always remember them every passing year,
In prayers and tears, we wish they were near,
We feel the emptiness left inside us,
Sometimes feel betrayed, that they left us alone,
They are gone, gone from our lives.

Gone they are but left us treasures,
All the memories they gave us forever,
It’s our choice to keep these in our hearts,
As anyone can still be living,
If we keep them alive in our hearts.

Written by Angela Damas.

It has been years since i left Kiev when i was very young to remember anything. Alot has happened since i left, like the breaking of the Soviet Union, changes in economy, the Orange revolution and the like, alot has as well happened with my family; the one i left behind when moved to Tanzania.

Going back to ukraine had many reasons for me, it was going to find part of my roots, finding my relatives and wanting to once more get familiar and solve the curiousity and questions i had been asking myself about it.

My preparations for travel took very long, and was never as easy road, but all in all i got so many dissappointing comments about Ukraine and Kiev. Some told me i will be wasting my time and i should dream for something else, some said they are on the edge of poverty and i shouldnt even think of them, and some said i will not enjoy and it wouldnt be as pleasant as i wish it to be.

But me being me, i went ahead as to me it meant alot, especially because thats where i came from, my mother, brothers and sisters were still there and i never saw them before, so i said i dont care about any situation, and even though i dont speak the language, i am determined to go and no one can stop me with their comments.

On mid november last year when i got there, at the airport i felt like i was in another world. When people were struggling to finish the check up and go to their destinations, i was just overwhelmed by the fact that i was actually there.

But to top it all, i got help from everyone who didnt even know English and managed to find a place to stay and find my relatibes within the same day i got in.

the City was soooooo beautiful and peaceful that i felt amazed by the light effects on the buildings at night and even though it was cold, i was amazed by the warmth of the people.

KIEV you are sooooo beautiful and i cant wait to come back.

This time i will be able to speak some words of the natives precious language, Ukrainean.

To all who disappointed me, you should open your hearts and find time to get to really know Kiev and even visit and then you will be supprised!!!!!!!! and amazed!!!!!!!!!!

I will always embace the memories and will always tell of how wonderful Kiev is, i am glad i didnt give up, may be it was kiev wanting me to go back,and i managed to despite of all odds.

Dear Robert and all, first thank you for posting this, and second thanks for all taking their time to give out and share their opinion, please excuse me for using English, but at this moment i would wish for us Tanzanians and anyone else visiting to understand. And i hope our fellows of the East Africa will as well visit and get to know our opionions.

I would like to start with one of the comments posted in regard to together we are united and alone we fail" Thats veryu true my brother, and thats a very good spirit. I just feel in the EAF issue, we can put that spirit aside for a while. Why i say this is because whatever we wish to practice and lead to changes in our community has to start from home. And in this case i feel US TANZANIANS need to have our unity stable before we go and look for bigger community. Though we are said to be the most peaceful and united, but we still have our small problems (like Muungano).
On the other hand, in my opinion i believe before we want to join others, we should see if those we want to join are themselves unted as a nation. Unfortunately in most of these countries, unity is still just an impractical song. And i believe for this as one of the reasons, we are all too young and too unprepared to drug ourselves in such a huge huge huge thing.
this might sound funny, but if any of you know SWOT, i wish for you to exercise it in gthe EAF context and see if it has ant promises for now.
On the other note, I feel as Tanzanians, we should not be scared to go any face the world, we are comming up now, and we still have alot to do to have our feet on the ground, i think we shouldnt invite guests before we sweep our houses and became the hosts and not the guests in our own houses.
Please note that these are just my views, and i wish we have the discussion Robert, please.
I would also like to leave us with few questions that i have been asking myself in regard to EAF, i dont need answers they are just some powerful questions that can help us brainstorm.
1) Why the EAF now and so fast?
2). Who will benefit from it?
3). Who wants it (i know i didnt ask for it so where did it come from?).
4). Do all the Tanzannians know about it in depth or are just being told what to think and what to answer?
5). Are we going back to marriages that are done because our parents decided or we choose the bride/groom in our own time and bring them home?
6). What us as Tanzanians have got to loose and what have we got to gain?
7). isnt EAC that exists now enough?
8). It took alot of effort to Unite this country to even use one language and forget tribalism, are we ready to throw it all now? and for what price?
9). Am i as individual young Tanzanian see any benefits i and my fellows can get?
10). Are we thinking and deciding or we left other people to think , decide for us and we just put our thumb stamps?

I klnow i sound very negative on this issue, trust me i am the stronger believer of unity and i believe not only do we need to have unity as East Africa, but as well as Africa in general, My only concern is we are not ready and everything has to take its own pace, and changes are better slow than hurried.

Lets take a lesson from the Europeans, it took how many years since they had nations for them to even become united?
And even now that they are United, the unity is not as what we are aiming for, they made sure individually they are strong before they went in. Lets take our sweet time, lets realize ourselves before we identify as others.
Just my views, but i hope they make sense, i love my country and i still want it.

Along the way to UN Global Summit
In 2004 UNDP selected me to participate as a female delegate from Tanzania to the Pan African youth leadership summit in Dakar. Even though I was a youth activist, this was my first exposure to understanding MDGs.

Dakar was an introduction to what MDGs are and the role youth can play, it was an introduction to a group of youth who share the passion to develop Africa, it was also the beginning of our determination to fulfill our responsibilities in the achievement of MDGs in our countries.

One day in my society, culture and health lecture class back at the university after the youth summit meeting, my lecturer asked about MDGs, I raised my hand so fast, and only then did I realize I was the one among few with my hand up in a sociology third year class of approximately 200 students. It was a shock to the lecturer and to me; students in the class didn’t know well what MDGs were. It is then that I realized how much there needed to be done, for only with concerted efforts would we achieve the MDGs but the efforts can only be made once people and communities learn about the eight goals. My immediate thoughts went to the role I had to play in sensitizing fellow youth activists and students.

Dakar was motivating and our expectations were fever high when we returned home that we thought we could do anything but it was not that easy. Key drivers of MDGs needed to be informed and engaged, we also needed to establish contact with organizations that were already doing work on the ground. The road got thinner as we realized the enormity of the task. We had to start small and think strategically, with the help of UN agencies and the municipal council we organized our first youth MDGs awareness program and concert in Dar es Salaam.

The program centered on transformation of our efforts to generate impact on achieving MDGs. We had to find activities that will make MDGs attractive and relevant to young people, so we included sports and art programs, which generates immediate awareness on MDGs and that resonated with young people’s ideals and interests.

My journey with MDGs’ got me involved with more programs. I traveled to districts as a youth and MDGs educator in the Citizen Global Platform (CGP) as MDGs educator and secretary of the Human security theme group, representing my organization the Youth of United Nations association in Opinion gathering program throughout 15 regions in Tanzania. I also got engaged in the great lakes project and Sexual reproductive health project among the less informed areas. Throughout these projects I kept in touch with the young leaders that I met in Dakar and Morocco. We shared ideas and exchanged strategies that worked in our countries, like when I worked with the young activists from West Africa in the Ecossoc realization of youth participation consultations. By that time I had graduated from University and employed by a cellular company, the programs that I was involved in enabled me to direct my work in the corporate world to foster addressing national challenges and support communities in achieving MDG through the Corporate Social Responsibility portfolio that I managed.

In May this year, journalists from USA and Europe visited Tanzania to learn about the impact of Malaria. Unfortunately Tanzania is once of the country’s worst hit by this deadly disease. I was part of the team that visited projects across Tanzania showcasing some of successes as well as challenges that communities face. I realized how we as youth activists have neglected Malaria in our programs while it is the biggest killer of expecting mothers who are predominantly young, in a country where 54 percent of young girls have a child before they are 20.

The UN GLOBAL summit delegates know about MDGs and are working in various aspects to ensure they fulfill their role. I carry one more concern, which is the importance of giving priority to the fight against malaria alongside the MDGs work they are doing.

Today we are all celebrating the World Peace day.
Some had serminars, others games and the like. In Tanzania we celebrated the World Peace day with a mix of activities, from speeches, presentations by posters, peace games, drama, songs and poems.The main thing is that we were all together young and old, did a match to the venue of the event, spared our time and prepared a way to show how we describe peace and how we wish to live with it. It was wonderful!

Our celbrations started with matching of about 3 kilometers in the center of the town towards the venue of our celebrations which was at the first parliament building. The group composed of students from different schools from those very young to high school, youth organizations, other organizations, ambassodors from a number of countries(or their representatives), officialls of the UN ( who are the main organizers) and without forgetting representatives from the government in which our guest of honor was the deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international cooperation.

I observed three very interesting issues during all this, first was that there were representatives of 6 different religions and they all had time to say a prayer for peace, for our country and for the world. Another interesting thing i saw was how people who are involved in sports felt so much for the day and their presence was very well seen by everyone. This included the presence of a government official from the department of sports who actually was not in the program, but we were very overwhelmed and had to put her in.As well the "Right to play" organization who actually had even a peace game for the day and involved kids who were there to see how can these games demonstrate peace and even influence peace.

The second observation was within myself, and this came at the moment of Silence. That one minute seemed too long for me as i was wondering what are all these people thinking now. When it was about to end i started thinking myself, and wondered how many people can not even have a safe activity like we had, or how other people wish to have the like activities to demonstrate how much they hate anthing to do with taking peace away. And i was there, and many of my fellow tanzanians dont even know the day or find the one minute of silence to think about peace.

As i had to elaborate what continues after the minute of silence, i actually ended up telling everyone to clap and feel happy, i realised we should celebrate to have such a peaceful country, and never forget that this happiness can be gone in a minute if we dont keep out efforts to treasure it.

I wish you all a wonderful peace day, and hope you have your one minute of silence to think of peace in a peaceful way.

I forgot to tell you, i was the host of this celebration today, and i felt such a great honor, i have only one problem, Im not allowed to do this kind of work by the private company that i work with, so i gave an excuse today that i have a social responsibility to fulfil, but tomorrow i might be in papers, and today everning i might be in TV, pray for me so they dont see me,otherwise i will be jobless.

when asked who do you want to be, we normally quickly give answers, but not all the answers to either other people or ourselves reflects on who we want to be, but rather what we wish/ want to have.
"I want to be a wealthy person", "i want to have a big company" , " i want to have a happy family", " i want to be the president"
These all explain what we want to have either power, money, possibility to do things etc. But that doesnt explain who we want to be. It always leads back to identifying who we are by who or what we have. My husband, my job, my etc etc.
We should look inside our own selves and decide who we really want to be, either a happy person, then it means i will do things to make me happy, make others happy etc.
If you decided you want to be an open minded person, then you grow the way to become that, not your partner, or people around you should make you measure your worth out of them being part of your life. We should measure from our won part and then how and what we do and possibly mean to others.
The trick is, imagine of who you want to be, start by acting as who you wish to be and that will soon be you.

....it feels good being an African. Be happy guys.... Moreover, its really a blessing being a Tanzanian.

As I sit here and type I think of the many things I can say. Well ok I can tell you about last weekend when I spent about 48 hours rehearsing for the 3rd sitting of Jamaica's National Youth Parliament.

Finally the big day came on November 7th. 60 young people from across Jamaica gathered in the parliamentary house to discuss "Poverty: a national development issue".

Jamaica suffers from all aspects of poverty and its adversely affecting our young people. More young people need empowement in order to escape the cycle of poverty. My government needs to implement more programs which promote the development of youth...One day I want to see a better Jamaica...I just hope its sometime very soon..

The government does what it can I guess...but there is soo much more they can do

Its Monday Aug. 1 and I have been in Scotland for 5 days!

I love the idea of the congress, bringing so may young people of different race, nationalities , religion, togther in one place to work towards making our world more livable depsite the corruption and unfortunate situations that seem to plague every society!

Time is flying but I feel as if I have been here for more than five days. A month is more like it. Meeting so many inspird young people is always refreshing. Seeing my friends from Morocco makes me feel like I am at home. But sadly we all have to leave and go to our separate countries but this congress makes me believe that we will be together again very soon.

What a great 21st birthday! Thank you TIG for making it feel even more special....I truly appreciate it.