SUMMING UP ACHIEVEMENTS OF GREEN LIVING GROUPS
Time of action: Sep – Dec, 2009 No. of groups: 12 (Binh Minh, Mam Xanh, Song Xanh, Tien Phong, Ben Vung, Uoc Mo Xanh, Tuong Lai, Rau Sach, Suc Khoe) in 5 wards : Phuc Tan, No. of members: 108 members No. of people in households: 535 people |
After three months of actions, experimental Green Living groups of the Project have completed 5 themes, including Green Living, Water, Waste, Energy, Eco-Wise Consumption, and Safe House.
COMPARED RESULTS BEFORE AND AFTER- PROGRAM
The compared results before and after participation in Green Living action at home show that changes in living habits lead to positive benefits for the environment and community, as well as reductions in family expenses. However, there are some inaccuracies because some households met difficulties in the accurate measurement on some categories. But most families said that the real results may be better than these figures.
Results of Green Living activities 12 experimental groups – September-December 2009 |
|
Benefit for environment (1 month on average) |
Economic benefit for household (1 month on average) |
- Reduced 2.156 nylon packages - Reduced 792 packages of waste - Reduced 4.088 kw of electricity - Reduced 236m3 of water - Replaced 117 Compaq lamps - Grown 47 home plants more |
- Reduced VND 688.926 on water bill - Reduced 7.905.886 VNDong electricity bill - Self-provided clean vegetables for meals |
Benefits for community |
|
Some groups have done collective activities - Tuong Lai and Uoc Mo Xanh groups (Phuc Tan ward) have grown clean vegetables which have become a source of the families’ daily dishes. This attracts many other groups to follow this example. - Tuong Lai subscribed 4 packages of clothes for the poor - Xom Xanh provided electric lamps in the community for safety. |
Relatively comparing among groups, some groups gain special success in some themes:
Groups |
|
Tien Phong, Than Thien, Ben Vung, Binh Minh |
Effective use of home energy |
Xom Xanh, Than Thien |
Effective use of cooking energy |
Song Xanh, Suc Khoe |
Reduced the use of nylon |
Xom Xanh |
Reduced garbage the most |
Mam Xanh |
Grown plants the most |
Tuong Lai, UocMo Xanh, Rau Sach |
Consumed sustainably |
Ven Song |
Used water effectively |
After participating in the program, group members understand more about sustainable activities. Specifically, members accurately assess their habit to each sustainable activity in Audit table.
MORE GREEN LIVING NEWS
Putting the priority of saving finance into clean energy or electricity saving equipment:
Using less coal for cooking with no change in cost
Many households save by suitably turning off lights and equipments when not using electricity, changing the lights, etc. and using this money to charge for cooking by electricity. Numbers on electricity use may not change, the expense may not change either, but the amount of coal decreases and the family’s health is better.
Investing in electric power saving equipments
Some families invest in buying a pressure cooker and Compaq lights. This money will be compensated by a saved electricity expense from these equipments.
Attending the meetings and sharing action practice to help living green effectively
Members of groups who participated in meetings (such as Song Xanh, Binh Minh, Tien Phong, Tuong Lai, Ben Vung, and Than Thien) are all groups which bring savings to families and contributed more benefits to the environment.
Members in that groups all have tips for better green living practice in which they share with each other. Solidarity and Spity of Green Living are better, too.
Recording changes
This task is considered most important. Recording helps members measure their results and follow their level of commitments to change their living habits. More importantly, recording changes is parallel to action practices to increase awareness and creativity when practicing ecological actions.
Some initial problems that members face are that they have not correctly assessed the reality. (For example, initial auditing is higher than the real audits). Secondly, the number of measurement is very general. Moreover there are some disagreements on the list among members. The reason is that they were not aware of the value of recording in supporting habit change.
The project will simplify tables so that recording, measurement and assessment of members will be much easier.