Local Youths Climate Change Quest

The Youth Research Project team member and former Youth Advisory Council (YAC) member became involved in the project after looking into some of the Australian Youth Climate Coalitions (AYCC) projects. She then managed to find a better more local opportunity when she was put in touch with Climate Connectors enthusiast Annelise Remigio.

Ms Watson-Reeves said the Climate Connectors project sparked her interest as the issue of climate change was becoming more recognised by the wider community and the project empowered people at a grass-root level to make changes. “The program really entices people act and to start thinking about being more aware of the resources they use and the waste that they produce,” she said. “Business can play a key role in shaping the community’s response to environmental protection and by changing their business practices, environmentally friendly practices should become not only more widespread but better understood.”

Since their first meeting Holly and Annelise have spent the past few months contacting business in the Fremantle area in the hope of getting them to attend a Climate Connecters forum and a screening of the climate change DVD Telling the Truth, which is scheduled to run in late January to early February 2009. The DVD and the forum will play a key role in shaping the community’s response to environmental protection and aim to change business practices so that environmentally friendly practices become not only more widespread but better used.

Ms Remigio said the project was targeted at local business who had or who wanted to develop and implement sustainable initiatives around reducing waste, emissions or water and resource use. “The project is so much more than just giving people facts and figures about what could be happening in the world,” she said. “It actually gets people thinking about what they are doing and looking at ways that they could be more innovative in the way that they do things so that future generations have the abundance of resources that we enjoy today. I encourage any businesses that are interested in improving their sustainability to attend the forum.”

For more information on the Climate Connectors project please contact Holly Watson-Reeves on 0403 554 603 or Annelise Remigio or 0416 931 881.