This election, climate change needs to be the priority for all political parties and candidates. As a climate champion, you can help raise awareness of climate change with political candidates and with your friends, neighbours and colleagues.

This action kit gives you three actions to engage in this election on the issue of climate change. It also summarises the major parties’ – Labor, Liberals and Greens Party – position on climate change.

Download the kit here: Climate Action Kit - Election (30) (pdf).

Earth Hour is an important symbolic event that encourages people across the globe to think about the serious issue of climate change.

Earth Hour: 8.30 pm, Saturday 27 March 2010

Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, and asks that for an hour on Saturday 27 March, you turn off your lights and appliances.

Many universities and TAFEs across Australia support Earth Hour, and we welcome their recognition of the seriousness of climate change.

Visit the Earth Hour website for more information, and check out this blog article on what you can do this Saturday during Earth Hour.

The NTEU would like to welcome Climate Champions from Deakin University, Monash University, Melbourne University, Swinburne University, and from our many TAFE branches.

Shortly we will also be welcoming Climate Champions from the University of Ballarat.

By joining as a Climate Champion, you can help make a real difference in improving the sustainability of your workplace.

If you are a member at either of these two institutions and did not receive an invitation email, please contact Alex White (campaign officer) at awhite@vic.nteu.org.au.

If you would like a copy mailed to you, please contact us.

All printed materials for the NTEU Climate Champions campaign is printed on 100% recycled paper.

The NTEU is committed to openness, participation and member-empowerment.

We have developed this campaign plan to guide our activities in engaging with an issue that you, our members, have told us you feel strongly about. In August 2009, the NTEU conducted a survey of over 2000 members. You can download the survey report here.

This campaign plan is here to let you know what we plan on doing, and why. It also lays out some details of how we are approaching members who have different sustainability or environmental priorities.

We know that many members are concerned about wastage and poor sustainability practices in their workplace. That’s why we have a focus on “Office Action”. We also know that some members want to use their expertise and experience to campaign for better whole-of-institution sustainability practices. Finally, we know that there is a group of members who want to take action more broadly, in their community.

Introduction

The NTEU is running the Climate Champions campaign at branches that opt-in during 2009. The campaign will be extended to all branches in 2010 (following the completion of bargaining, or when the branch determines to opt-in).

Climate Champions is a campaign was developed following a large survey of members (over 2000). The survey revealed that over 97% of members at all branches were concerned or very concerned about environmental issues, and that over 75% of members believed that the environmental should be a “core union issue”.

This campaign is for members only.

Campaign Goals

The Climate Champion Campaign Goals are:

• Improve the environmental sustainability of tertiary institutions and workplaces;
• Engage union members and develop workplace activists and delegates; and
• Raise the profile of the NTEU as active on sustainability issues.

Campaign Streams

There are three campaign streams:

1. Office action: personal behaviour change activities, aimed at enabling members to improve the sustainability of their workplace.
2. Institution-wide action: creation and resourcing of branch environment committees, to tackle comprehensive, whole-of-institution changes to policy and practice.
3. Community action: members are encouraged to take part in broader climate change, sustainability movement, particularly political action to pressure the government to improve climate change (and related) legislation.

The two primary tools for these streams:

1. Monthly action kits: members who sign up to become Climate Champions will be mailed monthly kits focusing on a particular issue, such as transport, energy use or paper consumption. The kit will include details of what the Climate Champion can do in their office, home and community to increase sustainable behaviour. These kits are modelled on the ACTU/ACF Climate Connector kits.
2. Branch environment committees: Branch environment committees will be supported as organising and policy-development hubs, with a holistic approach to improving the sustainability of the institution as a whole. To a great extent, the BECs will be encouraged to be semi-autonomous in their activities, and to focus on the issues its members believe to be priorities.

Climate Champions who do not participate in activities for 3 Action Kits in a row, or who do not attend a BEC meeting/activity for 2 months will no longer be considered a Climate Champion. Activism and participation are the points of this campaign.

You can download a report on the 2009 NTEU Environment Survey here: Report on Member Attitudes to Climate Change (117)

This new website is the hub for the Climate Champion campaign – a campaign dedicated to increasing the sustainability of Victoria’s universities and TAFEs.

You can read all about the campaign here, or sign up to be a Climate Champion here.