Let me give you a concrete example that illustrates our approach: the CAC’s Reusable Bag Campaign relies on students, merchants, and citizens. Our ultimate goal is to reduce the use of plastic bags in our town by persuading people to use a town-wide reusable bag instead. When we began, there were two extreme positions on this issue. Some store owners said: “Why should we invest in reusable bags? They are useless.” Others said: “Reusable bags are an easy step that customers can take to be green...so let’s go for it!” With such opposing viewpoints, it was hard for us to decide what to do next. We didn’t want to yield to the requests of one group and force a solution on the other group. So we turned to the key tool of community organization: compromise. Our strategy was to put the “unity” back into “community” with education, outreach, and lots of dialogue.
We found the happy medium. We made participation in the campaign voluntary and welcomed varying degrees of involvement: merchants could donate money to the campaign and sell bags in their stores, just sell the bags, or wait out the first phase of our campaign and hopefully decide to participate in round two. We also reached out directly to citizens with newspaper articles, flyers, fact sheets, and even a movie made for our local cable channel. In the end, our campaign turned out to be an enormous success for our town. Everyone was extremely proud.
The CAC and I were able to figure out to a solution to our problem because we took time to understand all points of view. We talked with all groups and worked out a solution that satisfied everyone. We didn’t let opposing perspectives stop us. We simply put our heads together and problem-solved. True, it did take a long time. But the result was definitely worth it. We raised $4300 from 14 sponsors. We designed and purchased 1900 reusable bags that featured the logos and names of the CAC and all our donors. On July 1st, the bags went on sale in 12 locations. Each bag sold for $2, and all proceeds are invested in the next installment of bags. We quickly sold out, and we are currently processing the second order. The best part is that more merchants are participating in the second round of our campaign, and our work has been recognized both in our state and around the country. We achieved our goals after two years of hard work and deliberation. You can do the same thing in your town--all it takes is commitment and understanding.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html
Written by Youth Venture Ambassador--Chloe Maxmin, Climate Action Club
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