Green Passport Overview for Education Abroad Professionals
DEFINITION
The Green Passport (GP) is a tool that provides recommendations to encourage students to behave in socially and environmentally conscious and responsible ways while studying abroad. It recognizes the interconnectedness of the world’s people and the environment and seeks to relate this understanding to concepts of sustainability and global citizenship.
FORMAT
The Green Passport will exist virtually as part of a national repository on the Abroad View Foundation site. Students will sign up for a Green Passport before going abroad by agreeing to the Green Passport code of conduct. They then will be given a user page to upload their photo and bio. These students will be asked to keep track of actions they take abroad that are within the guidelines of a responsible traveler and/or which seek to make connections regarding sustainability concepts, as outlined by the GP guidelines. Thoughts and unique best practices, as well as area and project-specific practices will be encouraged for submission. Students can document their actions while abroad or after returning home. The GP is completely based in the honor system and students participate on a voluntarily basis. However, a future practice may be to ask students for an in-country witness to sign off on their actions.
RECOGNITION:
Each issue of Abroad View magazine will feature a Green Passport holder, as selected by the Abroad View Editorial Staff and reviewed by the Sustainable Study Abroad Advisory Committee.
As the Green Passport Program develops, the Abroad View Foundation hopes to work with socially and environmentally responsible companies that will award Green Passport holders’ efforts with donations on their behalf that better the environment or local communities abroad. The purpose of this is to recognize students efforts’ while not contributing to the consumption of more material goods.
Individual colleges and universities may wish to provide on-campus recognition to students who participate in the Green Passport Program to help raise the profile of this important initiative.
IMPLEMENTATION
A. Pre-departure Orientation: Students will be encouraged to agree to the GP Code of Conduct and sign up for a GP. They will be provided with the GP guidelines.
B. While Studying Abroad: Students, on their own choosing, comply with the guidelines and make entries into the GP virtually while abroad or upon returning home. If they do not have access to a computer abroad they may wish to keep a journal documenting their practices.
C. Re-Entry Follow Up: Students can/should be recognized for their achievements and listed in their campus publications and in Abroad View. Students will be encouraged to send a description of their greener experience abroad to a national magazine. Green Passport holders returning from abroad are also encouraged to help educate future study abroad students about the benefits of studying abroad “green” and to help coordinate educational events and activities for their campus community as related to sustainability in study abroad.
CODE OF CONDUCT
The Green Passport recognizes socially and environmentally responsible travel. Acknowledging the interconnectedness of the world’s people and the environment, Green Passport holders agree to:
• Minimize their impact on the environment
• Act in culturally respectful ways
• Engage with locals and immerse themselves in the local community
• Give back to their host communities
GREEN PASSPORT SUGGESTED GUIDELINES
Actions Students Can Take In-Country:
• Get involved with a community project abroad to help clean up the environment.
• Use public transportation whenever possible.
• Reduce, reuse and recycle.
• Turn off all electricity before leaving the room/apartment/bathroom, etc.
• Get involved with a local educational institution to teach about sustainability.
• Write an article for a local journal on a subject related to sustainability.
• Measure carbon emissions: minimize them and then offset the remainder.
• Use accommodations and restaurants owned by local families instead of multinational chains.
• Consume food (preferably organic) products from local communities.
• Get involved with a community project abroad that serves “underprivileged communities.”
• Write an article for a local journal on a subject related to sustainability.
SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH AND REPORTING
The following pertains to students who wish to go a step further to research and report on a specific aspect of sustainability in their host country(ies).
Sustainability covers a wide array of fields. Sustainability topics would include anything that looks at ways of reducing the human impact on the global environment and on energy consumption. We are interested in students conducting research on what is being done overseas in terms of sustainability initiatives that could be useful information for students at their home campus and elsewhere. Students are encouraged to work with themes with which they are already familiar in order to have a basis for comparison and a knowledge base from which to work. Just about every major can find topics related to their field of study and/or ways that they can be helpful in communicating with others about sustainability themes. If students need help materializing a research topic, we encourage them to contact faculty within their institution’s Environmental Studies Department or they may contact a specific member of the Sustainable Study Abroad Advisory Committee.
Examples of research and reporting topics include:
1. What is the average home size in the country/community where you are? How are homes constructed? How does it compare to U.S. home sizes and what are the implications for sustainability?
- 2. Are there particular communities or organizations that are working on sustainability initiatives? What do those initiatives look like and what can we learn from them?
3. Is there a consciousness of the need for energy conservation? How is this manifested and what could be done to change it?
4. What do the people in the country where you are studying eat and where does their food come? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
5. What does the health care system look like? Is there a traditional medicinal practice still in use? How does that practice depend on the natural environment and its conservation?
6. How are people in the country where you are studying generating power? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
7. How are media such as film, newspaper, theater, and/or music being used to educate about sustainability or the need for resource protection and conservation? How does that compare to the U.S?
8. What kinds of transportation do people use and how do they use it? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
9. What is the family structure like? How do families work together to consolidate resource use? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
10. What are innovative technologies that are being used in order to reduce energy consumption? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
11. Are children being educated about the need to be conscious of the earth’s carrying capacity and their role in caring for the earth? How does that compare to the U.S. and what can be learned in terms of sustainability?
12.- How are local businesses taking leadership in their community to educate about the need for sustainably produced products? How does that compare to the U.S.?
13. What is the role of poverty, equality and justice in our ability to reach a sustainable global lifestyle? What do you see around you that can inform you of this?