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November is green as part of the European Year of Youth and for this month, we will be sharing HYP practices that help reduce the energy footprint under the hashtag #EYY2022.

At Hellenic Youth Participation we have a special interest in the environment and try to act based on our respect for it. As an educational actor, we often promote materials with sustainable and green practices and support related initiatives such as Food for Thought and Solidarity for Fashion, HYP's teams, that deal with issues related to the environment.

In particular, the Food for Thought team deals with the importance of food and how its consumption affects people and the environment. Through their events, they want to explore and promote ways to reduce waste and reuse materials from cooking.

Then, Solidarity for Fashion is motivated by the need to redefine the consumption of clothes and study the environmental impact of mass clothes production and disposal. With events and posts, they try to spread information and give new value to clothes as something timeless and not just another product for mindless consumption.

But beyond words, we believe more in actions and the impact they have on the environment. In our office, at our events, and in the programs we run, we have certain principles that we follow to reduce our footprint.

Let's look at these practices:

• We avoid buying plastic packaging and disposable items in general. If we have non-recyclable packaging, we give them new life with DIY.

• We don't print paper (except for what is absolutely necessary) and use recycled options when needed or reuse the sheets we already have.

• We prefer crayons over plastic markers

• We generally eat and offer vegetarian options at events and in our office

• When we need materials, we support small and local businesses instead of multinational corporations

• We support slow fashion and ethical fashion

• We try to organize events with as little waste as possible, based on zero waste

• Due to the nature of our work, we need to travel frequently and that is why we choose and promote Green Travel as an option for us and our program participants

• We provide the people who work and interact with us with reusable materials such as metal bottles, straws, coffee cups, and tote bags to promote this mindset around us.

Have you ever wondered how much resources a conventional initiative like HYP would need to waste? The environmental impact is unimaginable, so we urge mass awareness in the field of the environment, with small but collective steps, to achieve a more permanent change in habits! We don't need a few people who do everything perfectly, but thousands who do their part!