Go Green! project

Go Green project (619336-EPP-1-2020-1-PT-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA) is coordinated by YUPI in Portugal, in close partnership with Romania (APIS PM Feedback, Brasov ), Thailand (Volunteer Spirit Association, Songkhla) and Vietnam (Centre for Sustainable Development Studies, Hanoi) for a total number of 200 young people and youth workers in the 4 countries involved from Europe and Asia.

We want to raise capacity of our organizations to support young people to start activities or business which are environmentally and community friendly and re-use resources in the scope of circular economy. We want to strengthen the support in youth work through the development of methodologies and procedures of each organization to better integrate and accompany young people who want to start any activity (volunteering or business) in the environmental sector, by raising their employability and entrepreneur skills aligned with an ecological perspective and in a sustainable way.

With a calendar of activities such as jobshdowing, trainings, long term volunteering and close cooperation, the project will prepare 2 project results: 1) a tool for auditing sustainability in non governamental sector in each 4 countries, validated and tested for the 4 countries (in romanian, portuguese and english versions) which can be freely accessed on a digital platform; 2) a publication with in-depth interviews and curiosities from 5 local initiatives of Circular Economy from each of the 4 countries involved, promoting youth volunteering for sustainability.

Alongside these results, we have prepared videos featuring six local initiatives from Thailand, Romania, Vietnam, and Portugal. You can watch the videos by accessing the following links:
- Klom Blom – Ko Larn ( Thailand )
- Krogan recycling&Even More Green ( Romania )
- Carpaterra Geopark initiative ( Romania )
- La Libray – Center for sustainable living ( Vietnam )
- Green Life ( Vietnam )
- Perfume of Flamingos ( Vietnam )
- Organic Recycling ( Portugal )

This project is funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building for Youth in a long term duration of 24 months from 01/09/2021 to 31/08/2023.

Do you (and your organization) wish to assess your organization and individual practices in different areas and potentially improve your sustainability indexes, essentially from the point of view of your ecological footprint and the environmental impact of your practices? In the context of Go Green we started from an existing tool, which has been widely used by schools in the context of the Eco-Schools programme (coordinated in Portugal by ABAE - Blue Flag Association of Europe), and adapted it to be used in the context of civil society organisations.

All partners of this project have been making adjustments to the tool in order to be culturally and geographically valid (focus groups, interviews and external consultancy) and even translated for more friendly use in Romania and Portugal.

We suggest you to:

• - Step 1 - Check the existing areas of the assessment tool, such as Water, Energy, Outdoor Spaces, Waste, Biodiversity, Organic Farming, Forest, Sea, Mobility, Noise, Food, Environmental Management
• - Step 2 - Choose which areas your organization (or you) would like to get feedback (or do it all) and select your country - estimated times for answer are given
• - Step 3 - Generate a summary report from the platform and reflect the outcome with your team/organization;
• - Step 4 - Create a Sustainability Plan to commit your organization to time-framed changes for improvement of your score;
• - Step 5 - Schedule a new implementation of the tool once you have completed the Plan or some stage of it and get feedback.
• - Step 6 - Enjoy the process while you are making your positive actions :)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

• Go Green_ Audit_ Portugal
• Go Green_ Audit_ Romania
• Go Green_ Audit_ Thailand
• Go Green_ Audit_ Vietnam