IRISH people are joining a growing international movement aimed at encouraging individuals to take responsibility for the environment.
Ms Audrey Dickson of the Irish Women's Environmental Network said the Global Action Plan (GAP) intended to show people how to live, not talk about, more sustainable lifestyles.
"There's a lot of people who really want to do something but they don't know how to go about it," she said. "The real advantage of the Global Action Plan is that they can do it through an organised programme."
GAP's slogan is "Now you can make a world of difference at home" You do this by taking simple steps to reuse and recycle waste, cut back on energy consumption, walk instead of taking the car.
It was not a question of becoming a hermit or turning one's back on modern society, said Ms Dickson. "There's no real hardship involved. It's just a question of being more careful, like people used to be in the 1950s." She was inspired to act after attending the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, based on anthropologist Margaret Mead's dictum that a small group of committed people can change the world.
The programme is already running in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the US. It is supported by the UN Environment Programme, whose director,
Ms Elizabeth Dowdeswell, is a In Ireland, it has been adopted by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and Cork county councils as part of their post Rio contribution to environmental awareness, as well as by the Irish Energy Centre and the Department of the Environment.
Ideally, five or six households in an area should get together, Ms Dickson says. They all get a "lifestyle assessment" at the beginning and another at the end of the four to eight month programme to determine their progress.
The GAP organisers supply every household with an "eco team workbook" as well as a specially trained volunteer, known as an "ecocoach", to inform on recycling, insulation, energy audits and so on.
There are savings, too. By following the programme, a household can reduce its energy consumption by 12 per cent, its waste by 40 per cent and petrol bills by 5 per cent.
GAP's booklet also stresses the importance of saving water one tap leaking a drop every second wastes 1,550 litres of water every year. But she concedes this is minuscule compared to the loss through leaky mains.
So far, only 25 Irish households have signed up. But public meetings have been held in Dundrum and Dun Laoghaire, and more are scheduled this month in Co Cork.
Further details from Global Action Plan, Carmichael House, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7, (Tel 01 873 3993).
