Since 1992, LIFE has contributed to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental policy and legislation by co-fi nancing pilot or demonstration projects with European added value. LIFE supports information and communication activities as key elements for knowledge sharing, and off ers opportunities for environmental education and training. Projects have targeted schoolchildren, young people, teachers and/or families. They have also highlighted actions people can take in their everyday lives to save water and energy, prevent and reduce waste and help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change.

LIFE for environmental education

LIFE, the EU funding tool for the Environment

LEARNING TO SORT ELEC(TRON)IC WASTE

COM-U made an important contribution to improving environmental teaching and inte-grating environmental issues into school cur-ricula in Sweden. It promoted a more balanced and practical view of the challenges and pos-sible actions, developed training material and organised training for 29 000 teachers and other school staff .

The project also reached municipal school ad-ministrations, teachers’ organisations and en-vironmental interest groups, and set up a na-tionwide network of coordinators to support this work and to promote the issues beyond the project. The project contributed to 1 200 schools and pre-schools joining the Swedish Eco-Schools programme, which is run indepen-dently of the LIFE project by the benefi ciary.

The benefi ciary estimates that nearly 350 000 schoolchildren were reached by the project’s actions and are now better informed and edu-cated about issues related to EU environmen-tal policy.

The results of the project will also be used to promote the Green Flag environmental certifi -cation system. The project website is a popu-lar means of spreading the message and con-tains the teaching and information materials produced by the project.

COM-U LIFE07 INF/S/000901

Eco-Animation wanted to fi nd out which messages worked best with children aged 5-8 to encourage them to engage with simple en-vironmental actions.

The challenge is how to communicate the com-plex issues (such as saving energy, biodiversity or water scarcity) to children, when they are of-ten too complicated for young people to under-stand.

Children need a greater understanding of im-portant topics before they can be motivated to become more environmentally friendly. Most importantly, they need to be shown how their actions can positively impact their environment.

The project set out to directly engage with the children through a medium they would enjoy and indirectly reach their parents and teach-ers. A cartoon series was created to teach the children that small actions can improve quality of life and the future of the planet. “My Friend Boo” is about a dog that uses a magic carousel to take his friends Lucy, Ben and Jaq on adven-tures to show them the consequences of pollu-tion, water shortage and waste.

The cartoon successfully brought the messag-es to millions of children, parents and teachers across the EU, and broadcasting deals were se-cured in 19 countries, in 17 languages.

Eco-Animation LIFE07 INF/UK/000950

The R.A.C.E.S. project aimed to set up a multimedia campaign using a range of com-munication tools to raise awareness amongst teachers and students, families and stakehold-ers in fi ve cities.

One notable project action saw families take part in a voluntary scheme named Carbon budg-et, in which participants were asked to monitor and report their CO2 emissions in terms of en-ergy consumption and mobility habits. This ex-periment lasted one whole year and was sup-ported by a tutoring scheme, workshops and meetings.

The project also developed an online education-al kit for teachers which was promoted through seminars. Another awareness-raising tool was a travelling Clima Days exhibition, which visit-ed the partner cities and was widely promoted through both national and local media.

Ast er the Clima Days campaign, a set of public debates based on the Open Space method was held. Representatives of all the target groups took part, openly and frankly discussing the climate change strategy and the measures to be adopted locally.. Alongside this,a dissemi-nation campaign was carried out through the press, radio and TV in Italy, and through the Europe Direct relays at European level.

R.A.C.E.S. LIFE07 INF/IT/000487

The “Slovenia WEEE campaign” project organised awareness-raising cam-paigns about waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in schools, municipalities, and on the Internet.

Open days were held where participants could dispose of such waste, assess the relevant re-cycling processes in real time and learn about proper management of WEEE ast er its collec-tion. The events were organised mainly in co-operation with local authorities, EEE producers, major retailers and public bodies responsible for WEEE management. More than 1 000 tonnes of waste were collected and subsequently recycled or disposed of correctly.

The school campaign proved to be very eff ec-tive in collecting small WEEE (mobile phones, lights and batteries), which are usually improp-erly discarded as unsorted municipal waste.

With the assistance of technical experts, the pro-ject produced didactic material for schoolchil-dren and local communities. Two of the project’s major achievements were a promotional vehicle (“E-Transformer”) and interactive terminals, used to inform the general public and schoolchildren how to properly handle the various kinds of elec-tronic waste and how and where to dispose of it.

Slovenia WEEE campaign LIFE06 ENV/D/000461

Environment

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR TRAINERS

COMMUNITY AWARENESS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

A CARTOON TO ENCOURAGE ACTION

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Visit the LIFE website: ec.europa.eu/life

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