vendredi 10 octobre 2008

Zooming on the "Green Heart" Association


Three young adults, Claire, Eric and Michael, decided to dedicate their lives to sustainable development. During one year they traveled the world and came up with lots of ideas and methods that they will hopefully try to implement and develop.

"When we speak about the environment, let us not only speak negatively," stresses Eric Perdigau, co-founder of the 'Green Heart' association. "There are people who fight for the cause and have solutions to the problems." During their long adventure, the three globe-trotters indeed found solutions to the problem. There is for example an initiative taken by an Indian doctor, who created ecologic toilets to come up with solutions to all the hygiene issues his country was confronted to. There is also an Argentinian who grows a bamboo forest, which is seen as the material of the future. Indeed, a bamboo forest only takes three years in order to renew itself, whereas for an oak-tree forest forty years are necessary. As a total, thirty-two personalities behind thirty-two innovative initiatives that are all "reproductible". It is to meet these people that Eric (ex-chief in internet product), Michael (ex-consultant) and Claire (ex-assistant) abandoned their jobs. "As soon as I started working, I did not find a particular purpose in my job," tells Eric. "So I decided to take my time to realize something which made sense to me".
Their journey started in Asia, then they passed by Oceania and finally ended their trip in South America. In order to go on this journey they had to save-up for three years and collect €60, 000's worth of funds. Before leaving, their Internet based research helped them to prepare themselves for what they were going to face. Once on the field the local people were very effective with contacting the local association longing to be known.

"Tomorrow's ecology defenders"
During their entire journey, these three young adventurers kept a blog in order to inform children about their discoveries. "We worked with five-year-old kids in kindergarden, and they were not the least concerned. They helped us pass on the message to their parents." In total, seventeen kindergarden classes in France participated in this experience. Children created slogans for the environment and set-up recycling on their playgrounds. "They are tomorrow's ecology defenders." The association's next goal is to assign the 'Green Heart trophee'. The thirty-two selected projects will be presented on their website and Internet-surfers will be able to vote to choose their favourite candidate. The latter will be helped financially, thus his or her project will be developped. The adventure does not stop here for our three 'environment fighters'; they are ready to go to several cities in France and raise awareness on sustainable development. They also hope to publish a book and have a photo exhibition about their experience.

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