Youth organisation the Woodcraft Folk is reducing the carbon footprint of its residential activity centres and equipping young people with the skills and knowledge to raise awareness about energy efficiency. The Face Your Elephant project is led by a team of volunteer 'peer educators' aged from 17 to 23 years old.
"The name 'Face Your Elephant' stems from the fact that each year, every adult in the UK produces CO2 emissions equivalent to the weight of two elephants. We want to reduce this by half," explains Deborah McCahon, Membership Development Manager at the Woodcraft Folk. "As well as helping us to improve the energy efficiency of our centres, our peer educators will work with youth groups to help other young people reduce the amount of energy used in their homes and at their clubs."
The Face Your Elephant project focuses on the Woodcraft Folk's London head office and its residential activity centres in Kent and the Peak District. The 20 peer educators attended a weekend training programme to develop their knowledge of energy efficiency and learn how to measure and monitor energy consumption. The training weekend drew on the expertise of a number of partner organisations, including the Centre for Alternative Technology, Global Action Plan, De Montfort University and the UK Youth Climate Coalition.
"The peer educators have already completed an energy audit for one of our sites and we're now in the process of implementing their recommendations. These include improving recycling facilities and introducing user-friendly signage to encourage visitors to conserve energy," says Deborah. "We're also installing a heating control system that will allow us to set individual temperatures for different buildings across the site."
The training weekend also enabled the peer educators to develop the skills they'll need to run energy efficiency sessions in youth groups. "The youth group sessions will have a hands-on approach, with interactive games and practical demonstrations of renewable energy technologies," says Deborah. "The peer educators will invite participants into our 'virtual house' - a model house kitted out with technology and features that allow them to calculate the carbon footprint of their own home."
The Face Your Elephant team plans to train more peer educators, including a group who will run energy efficiency sessions at music festivals during summer 2010.
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