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/

There's a lot of volonce going on in Philly. In my opinion the most dangerous part of the city is 52nd and Market street It was not that long ago, that 52nd and Market were hailed as the "Main Street" of West Philly;seemingly it had so much to offer.

Thanks to tit being the state-of-the-art transportation hub, there is plenty of hustle and bustle as folks came from far and wide to take advantage of its unique shops, dynamite restaurants, and classy nightclubs.

But like so many other once-proud sections of the city, this area has suffered a devastating fall from grace.This formerly thriving thoroughfare is pockmarked with boarded-up storefronts, dive bars, careless drug dealers, and roaming bands of lost souls who lurk in the shadow of the Market-Frankford El.
living and growing up in the area and see it deteriorate is very painful i just wish that things can change for the better because is a thurving city of brotherly love where have all the love gone? i would hate to have my childern to grow up in this city because i'm so scraed that something jeapordize their future we need to clean up our acts and our cities

I would like to analize why teens are getting pregnant? There are too many fears that come to my mind when i think of young girls lacking direction. What can I do to stop teens from getting pregnant and focusing on finishing school? Should there be more programs out there, like going to different schools informing young girls to abstain from such activities?What role can a morther play in promoting responsible , and positve social behavior ?

Yesteday, a police officer got shot in his head in a donut shot on 66 and Broad street. I as a kid donot feel safe to walk down the street because i never know whats going to happen,if a police officer can get shot, how can young kids feel safe walking to school and coming back home from school? how can we stop this volince ?

This was my favorite picture from the community walk because I was glad to see that the community gave tribute to the Philadelphia Negro League because a lot of black people do not recieve a lot of credit and for them to have a whole memorial deicated to the Philadelphia Baseball Negro League its a step up from not reconizing black people at all.

BO$$UNIT is a group of young people who are trying to take control of there life with all thats going on. Bo$$unit basically takes advantage of how the world is so high tech nowadays and use technology to express whatever they want. Bo$$unit has realized with technology you can achieve many things, and they just want to show the world that in a way for young people and older people can understand. Bo$$unit produces many products with technology until they get enough money to build a studio that uses technology to do everything and have it open to the public to produce whatever they want to exspress to the world with a little help.

I think Invisible city class is about talking pictures about things people see every day but don’t pay any mind to and make a documentary about and describe it in your own words.

Well the pictures I took were about the natural environment and how everything in the park is different. I took pictures of different trees and leaves. I think the pictures I took match the class because we suppose to take picture that we are not used to taking.

The trip was fun because we took our class art stuff to this big conference and showed all of our work and we had a lot of people ask questions.

I actually like the trip we want on because it was different because it was better than being in school and sitting in the bored house all day chilling on Skype and MySpace.
This conference really help me out because in give me a little idea what I want to do in the future.

In my point of view our class ''Invisible City'' is about overlooking things that people pass by every day. I learned a lot from being in this class and it gave me a new lens to see things in different ways. I also liked this class because it also gives me a chance to show people how I see things with my photography.
Pictures I personally took were mostly landscape pictures, like pictures of my school and pictures of my community. The music we created was more up to date hip hop type instrumentals. The process of making the music was simple; we used this program called FL studio and put together sounds to make the music we produced.
We took all the projects our class made and we took it to Hershey, Pennsylvania to the PETE&C conference. There we displayed all the things we did in our class for people there to observe. I thought the conference was helpful because people there gave us feedback on what they thought about our work. I would be interested in going again, and if I could go again next year a project I would like to work on more of our music and maybe do some movies.

Today was a very good day. Visitors from other countries came to talk about how they was living and their cultures. I think it was very interesting.I learned a lot from listening to the different people. I also enjoyed the different questions that were being asked. I think the visitors helped me get more knowledge about their homes and their religions.

We were blessed with five guest from different countries. We were blessed by people from Egypt, Rosseta, Jordon, Malaysia, Algeria. They were teachers all english teachers. While they were here they just got a basic input on what we do here and how we live and learn. We also had the oppurtunity to ask them questions about the places they were from and and get the basic foundation of their cultures and their learning engagements.
After our discussion we had a chance to take them to our main projects and give them a little insight on how we learn. They got to sit in these rooms and interact with the students for about 20 minutes. Once their twenty minutes were up we gave them a tour through our school so they get to see our enviroment. In the afternoon the tour guides had a chance to sit and talk to them on a one on one bases as they ate lunch. When lunch was over unfortunately we had to say good bye to our visitors.

Today was a very exciting day for the School of the future. Why because we actually had people. From different countries visit our school for the first time. I myself was alittle nevus because I wasn't sure. About what to say and what not to say. As i got to kno them alittle better then i became comfortable. These mutilingual educators expressed things about their countries in a well thought out way. If i could visit their country for about a week. That would be very interesting just to be in a total different envoirnment sounds like fun.

Today on the 5th day of February 5 people from 4 different countries came to visit us here at the School of the Future. It was 4 male teachers and 1 female. They were all English teachers. This was the 1st time for some of them to ever come to the US. They are here for until June. For the next six weeks they will be at the School of the Future observing the learners as well as the educators. They all speak at least two languages some even four. Therefore they will be helping the learners learn their new languages.

They came today, talked one on one with about 11 learners and had a tour of the new school. They spent some time in some of the classes and got to see how some of the learners act. They got to see how our school differs in many ways. They got to go to the gym and they enjoyed there selves. They played basket ball and did some pull ups. They really had fun. They had lunch with 11 learners and left at about 12:30.

I think today was a great oppertunity for all of us kids at S.O .T .F. ( School of the future). I think that it was a big eyeopener to the people that came from the different countries, because they learned how we function and how we live and learn at the School of the future. To me this was a big eyeopener for me in general, because I learned about how things are being functioned outside of the country I live in. I really enjoyed it alot and I sure they did. I am happy i got to expeirence this today.

I dont really think that global warming will affect me in my life time. I mean sure its causing the polar ice caps to melt but it really won't affect the world until later generations where the sea levels rise above where tey are now, submearsing most cities on the coast in water. I thinkto help slow this process we should use less gas for example get a hybrid care instead of a hummer. Also to slow the process you could use solar power instead of gasor oil.