European Youth Meeting 2011 for Sustainable development, Day 3- Part 3- Workshops and recommendations

The third part of todays EYM was the skills workshop on "Build your own campaign for Rio+20". This was amazing in providing us with Advocacy tools- how to get our messages accross to others, how to plan strategies that will have the effect on someone elses life and how to get support for our ideas. I'm not going to repeat all of the tools and strategies we discussed, but the suggestion on green carpet today: check out Road to Rio plus 20 and take action! You can also contact them for advocacy training and advocacy toolkit :)

An interesting term appeared on green carpet for the first time. "Buycott". This is the opposite of boycott where you pressure not by avoiding or refusing something but quite contrary- by buying a lot of the product or services. For example, you can buycott your local farmer by buying all your products from him and asking all the people you know to do the same :) It is already long known that consumers are the most powerful force in todays economy and production cycles if they are joined in their most simple action- voting with your wallet. Your money gives the opportunity to live or to die for the business. Use your vote wisely and let's find somebody to buycott!
Along with that came term "carrot mobs" -Carrotmob also refers to a global movement[2] of community organizers who use the Carrotmob tactic of consumer activism as a way to help change businesses in their communities.[3] In a Carrotmob buycott, businesses compete to be the most socially responsible business, and then a network of consumers spends money to support the winner. 
This is something we could bring home and try in our own cities and countries!

Then back on EYM we continued in the working groups on drafting the recommendations to address the key challenges (available in previous posts). I would like to share the one that our team was working on: Waste, water, energy.

• Municipalities should provide incentives and support programs for home owners to adjust all buildings in following ways: to properly insulate and install efficient heating and ventilation systems; to equip with energy and water saving systems (like "sink to closet") for more efficient resource use; and to install the "green" technologies and roof top, balcony and aquaponic gardens.
• Municipalities should create a waste management plan that would be a "cradle to cradle" life cycle of resources, providing recycling opportunities to each inhabitant of the city.
• Civil society, inhabitants and municipalities must now work together to increase the awareness on how to redue the resource consumption in the houshold, on resource saving technologies and to promote "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!" rule. 

We had a lot of examples in mind and other suggestions, but- as we must draft a policy document, then we must keep it short. So this was our first draft.

During and after the dinner there were a bit different heated discussions. This time on the organisational part. When you come to an event for Sustainable Development, you have certain expectations. Like food and accommodation, for example. Unfortunately, there was little thought given on vegetarian issue. Let alone having fresh foods. It is very sad that at the time (middle of the summer), when it's the high production seasons on fruits, berries and vegs, we still get food that's been previously frozen, instant soups and not a single leaf of fresh salad. It is just very unsustainable practice I must say and many of the participants have agreed with that. I visited a shop to buy fruits on my way back..
But the most important- sharing ideas, experiences, networks is going on very well and we are all happy about it!