Girls’ High School Young Leaders enlist Welectricity to help Vincentians Save Energy, Money

Motivated by the theme “Our World, Our Climate, Our Problem, Our solution”, the members of the Girls’ High School Young Leaders Programme 2012 are embarking on a mission to develop initiatives that will help citizens reduce their environmental impact and save some money in the process.{{more}}

Young they may be, but the group of fourteen to sixteen-year old students see themselves as environmental activists and educators at the local level, with plans to “make a positive change in the behaviours and attitudes of communities.” They have created a website for their programme (www.ghsyoungleaders.com), created their own theme for the 2012 mission and are now encouraging Vincentians to buy locally-produced food, to use renewable energy where possible and to use less energy at home.

Now, in keeping with their aim to work along with local businesses and other non-profit organizations to take action against Climate Change, the students have commenced a project with Welectricity (www.welectricity.com), an innovative, internationally-awarded social network created by Vincentian Herbert “Haz” Samuel to help households track, compare and reduce their electricity consumption. As the GHS Young Leaders website notes, “Our work with Welectricity helps Young Leaders and other Vincentians save energy, money and thus reduce our carbon footprint.”

The GHS Young Leaders 2012 programme is sponsored by St Vincent Electricity Services Ltd (VINLEC) and runs until April 20th, 2012. Welectricity’s founder, however, sees the relationship with the school as a long-term one, and also the beginning of a larger national campaign: “We’d love to introduce Welectricity to all of the schools in the country,” he says. “We hope to be able to engage students with the idea of saving energy at home, using the tools and media that they are comfortable with.”

For the project, the Young Leaders will sign up for Welectricity and add information from their household electricity bills. Then, over the next several weeks, they will track their electricity consumption by way of weekly meter readings, while devising and following energy-saving plans. Fun prizes will be offered to the top achievers at the end of the project.

Please visit the GHS Young Leaders website at www.ghsyoungleaders.com for more information.