hero missions

qpsu climate heroes
supported by acf

mission one: visbility / earthhour / survey

Climate change is the greatest challenge to Australia’s future prosperity, but today we have the potential to lead the world and build a clean economy and a better future for our kids.

Climate change is the greatest challenge to Australia’s future prosperity, but today we have the potential to lead the world and build a clean economy and a better future for our kids.

It’s up to all of us to come together and protect future generations from climate change – individuals, business and government, together.

Being a Climate Hero is an exciting opportunity to make a difference to the future with simple but effective actions.

To help you with these actions, in this kit we’ve included:

• Four posters for you to put up in your workplace;
• An ACF Workplace Checklist;
• A ‘How to do Earth Hour’ guide
• This instruction sheet!

The first step is to raise people’s awareness.

Although most people are concerned about climate change, many people are unfamiliar with the details. People want to know how they can make a difference – so we need to tell them.

Step 1: Visibility

The first part of your mission is to send a message – let your workmates know that the Climate Hero program exists and that we can all take easy steps to prevent harmful climate change.

Your Hero kit includes four posters, each with a date on them. Find a prominent space in your workplace to put up a poster, and then replace it with the next poster the following week.

Congratulations! You’ve just taken your first action as a Climate Hero.

Step 2: Workplace Survey

Improving sustainability at work is easy. To help, we’ve included a workplace survey that has a list of simple questions about things around your workplace.

You can fax the results back to 3017 6222, or email climate@qpsu.org.au. You can also complete the survey online by following this link. If you complete the online version, you may want to jot down notes about your workplace beforehand so that you don’t have to get up and move around to check things while you are sitting at your computer.

This will give us a good assessment of where our workplaces are all at and what measurable improvements we can make to live more sustainably.

Step 3: Earth Hour

We want to get as many members, as well as their families and friends participating in Earth Hour 2008. On Saturday 29th of March at 8pm everyone is asked to turn off all their lights and switch all their appliances off at the wall for an hour to reduce our cities’ carbon emissions by 5%. Earth Hour 2008 will send a powerful message to the world: when many individuals take action against global warming they have a powerful collective effect. The longer tem goal is for each of us to reduce our carbon emissions by 5% annually, just by minimising energy waste.

All QPSU members have already received a flyer asking them to register online at www.earthhour.org.

When you register, send the email (see link to the text above) around to your workplace to introduce yourself as the local climate hero, and encouraging people to register for Earth Hour. Send us an email to climate@qpsu.org.au when you know how many of your workmates will be participating - it will be great if we can get over 5, 000 members turning off for Earth Hour 2008. Our union alone can make a huge difference. For information on how to host an Earth Hour "event" or to find businesses supporting Earth Hour visit the website - www.earthhour.org.

Queries and concerns

Want to know more about climate change? As a Climate Hero, we will provide with a full information pack and training on how to talk about our climate.

If anyone asks you a question about climate change that you feel uncertain about, just tell them that while you know climate change is an urgent issue, you are not an expert and don’t have all the answers. Tell them next month you will be undertaking training so you can get back to them then.

If you have any queries, email climate@qpsu.org.au or call 1800 177 244.

Good luck with your first mission!

The image above Drought is used with the kind permission of the photographer, Adam Majcher. All rights reserved, no use of this image permitted without the express permission of the photographer.