I truly believe that actions speak louder than words. Far too often, students learn about issues such as poverty, overfishing, and pollution without being encouraged to do anything about these global problems. Too often, this important knowledge is true but useless for these children.
On the flip side, sometimes dumping too much information about the world's problems on kids can actually be harmful, causing them to feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by any attempt to take action. But when young people are able to find ways to bring about change, they feel a sense of accomplishment and develop the confidence to do even more.
Green Panthers Act for the Environment
At the International School Bangkok we have a six-year-old environmental club called the Green Panthers that has always focused on action. This group has made several changes at the school, such as switching to eco-friendly paper, reducing bottled water consumption, using organic products, eliminating plastic bags, reducing general waste, and planting trees. We have also made TV commercials, helped shopping malls become more eco-friendly, and even worked with the United Nations.
We have been most successful in creating environmental changes in our local community through a unique concept called a Carrotmob.
What's a Carrotmob? Well, to achieve a desired behavior, such as wanting students to complete homework, teachers can use a reward or a punishment as a motivator—a carrot or a stick. A Carrotmob event rewards businesses for achieving a desired behavior, such as eliminating plastic bags.
First, you need an actual mob of people. The goal is to make your mob as big as possible, because once you have a committed group, you will select a day and support the particular business you seek to influence. How do you support it? Simple. You just shop. That's it. Just buy a couple of items to thank the business for making the change to become more eco-friendly.
On February 20, 2010, we held Asia's first-ever Carrotmob. Our goal was to have Villa, a local supermarket, ban plastic bags. This is not an easy accomplishment in a country that uses bags for just about everything. Customers would not think to bring their own bags to the supermarket.
The manager wanted to try it but was very nervous, as any business would be given the uncertainty of the situation. That's when we said, "What if we can actually bring the customers to you in a show of support?" We guaranteed 500 customers would come on the day of our event if the store agreed to ban plastic bags.
Leading up to the event, we built our mob. This wasn't limited to the school. We used Facebook and Twitter to spread the word and even relied on old-fashioned paper sign-ups. On Facebook, we had more than 8,000 people in Thailand supporting the cause. Students spread the message online and got others to join and spread the message too.
On the big day, we were all a little anxious about whether 500 supporters would show up to shop as they had pledged, but we shouldn't have worried. Almost 1,400 shoppers came out to say, "Ban the bag." The supermarket posted record sales, and they have continued the ban.
Restaurants Compete for a Carrotmob
Students were eager to build on the success of the Carrotmob events, so during Earth Week this year, we decided to have a Carrotmob competition. Green Panthers asked five local restaurants to make any changes they would like to be more eco-friendly. Green Panther students worked side by side with the businesses and audited their energy, waste, food, and other factors. We then put together a list of recommendations for each restaurant, but we left it up to the restaurants to decide which changes to implement.
The restaurants had just over a month to make the changes and list them on a Google doc for the public to see. These changes included reducing waste, using biodegradable packaging, using filtered tap water instead of bottled, and more. Then, Green Panthers looked over the list of changes and determined three winners that had done enough to merit the support of a Carrotmob.
In late April, students, teachers, and parents marched to these restaurants and bought food. One restaurant had more than 200 customers, while the other two received more than 100 customers each. We purposely kept this event smaller and more local than the plastic bag campaign because it would be tough for a restaurant to serve hundreds of customers.
Now Green Panthers are spreading this message to other international schools and forming an eco-school network. We hope to use this larger mob of students working together to make even bigger changes within our country.
Carrotmobs are fairly simple to organize and can be flexible to meet your needs. Supporters don't have to do much other than sign up, spread the word, and show up to shop on the day of the event. The concept wasn't designed for students, but it works great in schools and really engages students in creating change in their communities. So go ahead and start building your mob.
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Additional Resources
Want to learn more about what the Green Panthers are up to? Check out their blog at <LINK URL="http://greenpanthers.blogspot.com">http://greenpanthers.blogspot.com</LINK>.
Go to <LINK URL="http://carrotmob.org">http://carrotmob.org</LINK> to learn more about actions around the world.
The Ban the Bag Facebook page is at <LINK URL="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96682690774">www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96682690774</LINK>.