Mullingar student and climate ambassador receives 'Outstanding Achievement' award
Mullingar's Rebecca Labour is a DCU student, charity shop volunteer and young facilitator focused on youth for climate justice, and she has just been honoured with an "Outstanding Achievement" award in her role as Climate Ambassador.
The Climate Ambassador Awards were held on Friday November 18, serving to recognise the tremendous effort and dedication demonstrated throughout the year.
Each climate ambassador received a certificate of recognition, with an additional twelve outstanding awards presented to teams and individuals from swap shops and flash mobs, to musicians and artists, sports stars, farmers, social entrepreneurs, community activists, businesses and universities.
One of the recipients was Rebecca Labour, who has just graduated from DCU with a Bachelor in Civil Law.
She is active in Voluntary Service International, and closer to home volunteers with the Irish Cancer Society. This past summer, she started an initiative called the Sustainability Half Price Sale. Signs were created out of unusable polyester and cotton t-shirts and went one step further to educate the charity shoppers on the most sustainable materials such as organic cotton, linen, hemp, recycled wool and leather. More recently, she co-hosted a three-day youth for climate justice project, transitioning from a participant this time last year, to a climate leader now.
About the programme
A total of 191 citizens were chosen to be Climate Ambassadors in 2022. The programme, which has been in operation since 2018, has become stronger over time as Climate Ambassadors have acquired crucial skills and confidence to take action, motivating others to follow in their footsteps along the way.
Climate Ambassadors receive training at the start of the year in climate science, solutions and communications which enables them to carry out climate actions. Throughout the year they are asked to undertake four key actions – two climate communications and two climate actions, though many participants get involved in many more projects. This programme allows individuals to join a strong network of dedicated people who share knowledge, gain insight from one another, and forge long lasting relationships.
Over the course of the year, Climate Ambassadors based throughout the Republic of Ireland carried out 661 climate actions, directly engaging over 274,000 people, and created 2,671 climate communications, reaching an estimated 5.6 million people.
The Climate Ambassador Programme is operated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce and is funded by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. The programme trains and supports individuals to become climate leaders in their community. The programme has trained over 800 Climate Ambassadors since 2018.
The Environmental Education Unit operates all FEE programmes in Ireland – (Green-Schools, Green-Campus, Blue Flag, LEAF, YRE) along with national education and awareness raising programmes such National Spring Clean, Clean Coasts, IBAL, Climate Ambassador, GLOBE and Neat Streets.
For more check out www.climateambassador.ie.