GreenDependent Egyesület

As one of the six best practice pilot projects in the frame of the Changing Behaviour project, GreenDependent Sustainable Solutions Association launched a climate club for the general population of the town of Gödöllő.

The main objectives of the climate club are to:

• raise awareness of climate change issues in households, establish links between climate change and household consumption and create a sense of responsibility in households;
• measure household consumption and associated carbon emissions on a monthly basis; and
• involve and support households in an energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction programme.

The format of the club seemed to be an ideal way of creating a local informal community of people interested in taking action and moving towards more sustainable household practices at the individual and small community level.
The climate club meets every month. At the club, members discuss their efforts, successes and failures, watch relevant thought-provoking movies and receive advice and help from GreenDependent experts. In between club meeting, additional resources are provided to members:

• a regular newsletter containing relevant events, sustainable energy and climate change news, tips for household energy use reduction, a description of low carbon products and services, and success stories from club members;
• a guidebook and checklist on household energy efficiency; and
• a mailing list to exchange information, share ideas and discuss relevant issues.

At one of the first club meetings, the GreenDependent climate club team was interested in finding out more about club members’ motivation for joining, as well as their aims for and expectations from the club in order to be able to keep the motivation of club members high.

As for why they decided to come to the club, people mentioned the desire to learn more about energy efficiency and to exchange information with others. The second most important objective that came up was to belong to a community of like-minded people and cooperate with them in doing something meaningful, such as working towards the reduction of the impacts of climate change.

As for expectations, by attending the club people’s primary aim is to reduce their consumption levels (and their monthly energy bills), and thus live a more environmentally-friendly and at the same time healthier life. Apart from learning more about leading an energy efficient lifestyle, quite a few club members mentioned other areas of environmentally friendly living that they wanted to explore in the club – examples included organic gardening, composting, waste reduction and reuse, etc. In accordance with these, it is the hope of the GreenDependent team that the club can become a regular and long-term forum for the local community to explore sustainable livelihoods and act together for a more sustainable Gödöllő.

Homepage of the Gödöllő Climate Club: http://klimaklub.greendependent.org/en.html