Climate change – Polish Family Association

Recently, as a part of my role in the Polish Family Association Climate Action Project funded by Merton Council Climate Action Fund, I attended the Carbon Literacy Project training provided by the Heritage Alliance.

The well-structured training included an impressive BBC documentary film, striking statistics, persuasive facts and practical guidance has empowered me to apply the knowledge gained, acquire more skills and expertise and become a Carbon Literate role-model for the Eastern European community in Merton.

The Carbon Literacy trainer and Carbon Literacy team were amazing at motivating, share experiences and educating others. They motivated me to do my best to make my humble contribution into the global net zero strategy. The trainer’s hands-on approach provided plenty of insights on how much can be done by every single individual every day. For example:

Unsubscribing from irrelevant emails and ending up with creating WhatsApp groups with local inhabitants to practice upcycling and car-pooling.
The idea of making a pledge is like a New Year resolution gave me the needed push to start making persistent eco-efforts from now on.
Providing abundant opportunities for networking and learning from the best practices.
Showing clearly that each of us can do a lot more than (s)he might think,

This training has inspired me to encourage the local community to start their path to sustainable future. In the PFA we are going to implement our Climate Action Plan. As a follow up we will share the BBC documentary which visualises our future without any measures taken and prompt the local community into action. This will help incentivise our communities into climate action.

The idea of pledges has given us an impetus to introduce case study workshops for Eastern Europeans, where, by deep diving into individual family circumstances, they can create a plan of actions, feasible and appropriate for them and empowers for positive changes. Using online footprint calculators in our communities we will use the results to outline a road map for implementing targeted sustainability programmes.

To boost the competitive spirit, we have planned a series of challenges:

Cycling to weekly sessions.
Swapping inefficient lightbulbs for energy efficient ones.
Buying food only locally produced.
Planting trees.
Christmas Feasting – together with the reward system to demonstrate that going eco-friendly is not only beneficial but can also be fun.

We are certain that by educating whole families with several generations involved, we WILL secure a sustainable future and foster a culture of environmental responsibility that will be passed down through generations. The Carbon Literacy Project course gave me a real nudge towards being more eco-friendly myself.