Improvement of the state of the environment in St. Petersburg directly depends, among others, on the effectiveness of the activities aimed at raising awareness of residents in environmental issues.
To develop the environmental culture of St. Petersburg residents, to promote the sound use of nature resources, the Committee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St. Petersburg (the Committee), based on its authorities, is implementing measures including both environmental activities (campaigns, cleaning actions, workshops, trainings etc.) and dissemination of environmental publications (posters, leaflets, brochures etc.)
In 2018, to systematize the environmental education activities in St. Petersburg, the Committee developed the Concept of Continuous Environmental Education in St. Petersburg (Concept). The key idea of the Concept is reaching every target group of residents, from preschool children to aged people. Methods of efficient environmental education are developed individually for each target group generating the “lifelong environmental education”.
Among the recently published environmental education materials dedicated to the sustainable development goals, we should mention
- leaflets;
- posters; some of them were developed in cooperation with volunteers from the international youth non-commercial non-political independent organization AIESEC (Fig. 1);
- colouring books for children.
The recent publications of the Committee are the brochure “How to make a more environment-friendly event (practical tips)” and the book “Act EcoLogically! Collection of environmental tips”.
“How to make a more environment-friendly event (practical tips)” was developed for organizers of events of various levels: public and municipal authorities, commercial and non-governmental organizations etc. The brochure contains basic principles and practical recommendations for greening the events and is presented in most simple and comprehensible form. Developed in cooperation with the environmental movement “RazDelny sbor” (Separate collection).
“Act EcoLogically! Collection of environmental tips” is intended for a wide range of readers. In a comprehensible form the edition explains such terms as Sustainable Development Goals, circular economy, environmental footprint; it helps to make a correct – environmental – choice while buying goods and foods, contains environmental tips for behavior at home and outside. Developed in cooperation with “Friends of the Baltic” environmental organization.
We do trust that these publications will help the city’s residents to find a reply to the question what everyone can do for sustainable development, for nature conservation, for saving resources for both present and future generations.
Author: Denis Beliaev, Head of the Committee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety, City of St. Petersburg, Russia