9.5 Green volunteering, production and consumption
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Green volunteering
Keep Sweden Tidy
The Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation (Håll Sverige rent) promotes recycling and combats littering through public awareness campaigns, awards and environmental education. The foundation strives to influence people´s attitudes and behaviour in order to encourage a sustainable development.
Keep Sweden Tidy has been organising Litter Picking Days for decades. Annually, during the spring months of March, April and May, schools, pre-schools, companies, organisations and municipalities are encouraged to go out and pick litter in their nearby environment. In 2015, more than 804 000 people and 268 municipalities joined in, which shows that littering is an important issue for many people.
Keep Sweden Tidy educates children and young people about the environment, mostly through the Eco-Schools Programme, an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). Eco-Schools aim to empower learners by engaging them in action-orientated learning. The programme started in Europe in the early 1990s and was introduced in Sweden in 1996, coordinated by the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation. In Sweden the programme is called Grön Flagg (Green Flag) and there are about 2 500 units in the Swedish network.
Green production and consumption
The Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) is a government agency whose task is to safeguard consumer interests. The Swedish Consumer Agency has produced ready-made lesson templates on sustainable consumption for teachers in compulsory school or upper secondary school.
The lessons consist of films, quizzes, presentations and facts. For the lessons, there is guidance for both students and teachers. The school material is free of charge.
The Swedish Consumer Agency has also produced six films and related lessons on sustainable consumption, personal finance and advertising. The films are aimed at high school and provide concrete tips and explain in a simple and fun way how to be a conscious consumer.