Guide to sustainable shopping

BUYERARCHY OF NEEDS

While Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” looks at the structure of needs that influence our choices and shopping behaviors, a new hierarchy of human shopping needs is created by Canadian painter Sarah Lazarovic called “Buyerarchy of Needs”.

Look at the hierarchy, buying behavior is considered as the final level after we try all remaining actions at the lower levels. This image is a great way to consider your choices before buying an item. So before you buy an item, take a look at the following: • Do you already have something like that available? • If not, can you borrow from someone? • If no one can lend you, can you exchange something for the one you need from others? • If that is still difficult then buy a used product but it will still work as expected. • You can not find a used item to buy, can you try to make it yourself? • Finally, if you really can not do all the above actions, then buy them.

SAY NO TO WHAT YOU DON’T REALLY NEED

One of the core principles of sustainable shopping is to refuse the things you do not need. Take time to think about your buying behavior, maybe 2-3 weeks to make sure you really need it.

Also, do not forget to ask questions to make more informed decisions: • Do you need it? • Can the item be used more than once a week? • Does it serve more than one purpose? • Is it unique? • Will it enrich your life? If you answer all the questions above, and think about it for about 2-3 weeks, you still feel that you really need that stuff, then buy them.

UNDERSTAND THE SOURCE OF YOUR PRODUCT

Before shopping, to evaluate a product, you should consider the source and type of material that produces it, the source generates it, the cost of production and transportation, the life span and the possibility of reuse or recycle. Therefore, look for certifications to help determine whether the product is sustainable. According to the Seattle Art Institute, one of the best approvals is from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC label ensures that forest products are used from the sources were collected and verified responsibly. Another symbol to look for is the recycle symbol and digital encryption, which consumers can use for personal recycling. Moreover, you should consider whether the product is recycled or not. In addition, one of the best approaches consumers can take is to buy locally produced products, which means lower carbon emissions.89

Buying fashion items

Considering the sustainability of each set of clothes, shoes or accessories you buy can be a challenge. The easy way around this is to look at the different aspects of your purchase and to support businesses with a sustainable approach to fashion. So how to shop for clothes, accessories more sustainably? Always ask questions before deciding to shop for a pair of clothes or shoes or accessories. • Do you need more black pants, or skirts, or trousers? • Do you have a similar piece of clothing at home? • Do you like this new item better than what you already own? Often when we can not find something to wear, it’s because we have too many clothes to choose instead of not having enough. Simplify and minimize your wardrobe and Besides, do not forget to pay attention to the fashion brand you intend to buy whether it is sustainable or not. That shows the outfit you are buying has been calculated for its impact on Earth, as well as the brand has plans to replicate what it has taken away from the planet. Also, consider clothing or accessories that are made from recycled or environmentally friendly materials. Wherever possible, choose clothes made from recycled or environmentally friendly materials. These products will have less negative impact on water, soil and air when you stop using them. Even better, buy old clothes from charity shops and secondhand stores. And finally, do not forget to check how your product is packaged. Are the fashion items you buy over-packaged? This can be especially relevant when shopping online. Choose products with less packaging and remember to bring reusable shopping bags from home instead of using nylon bags. Furthermore, you can also recycle or reuse some clothes. If your wardrobe really needs refreshing and shopping is inevitable, it is time to recycle your old clothes. Clothes in good condition can be given to friends and family, taken to charities or secondhand shops or selling through online forums.

Giving gifts

One year we go through many big holidays like Tet, Christmas, Halloween, International Women, International Children... Not to mention special days for individuals such as birthday, anniversary... That is the time we give each other meaningful gifts. So how to achieve the purpose of keeping beautiful memories while minimizing the impact of the gifts we buy and receive each year on this planet? Do your loved ones really need it? Always keep in mind the fundamentals of sustainable shopping: avoid buying new, reduce buying, reusing and recycling. Try asking your loved ones if they really need a gift or souvenir you are buying. Is there any other way you can use as gifts rather than materials?

Is your present locally produced? Wherever possible, choose your locally produced gifts, from the materials or origin of your region. Local shopping will support the local economy and employment, while reducing energy costs and emissions associated with transportation. The same approach applies when you travel - buying gifts and souvenirs locally produced instead of imported items and trying to buy directly from sources to ensure your money has the best impact to the local community. Is your gift made from bio-degradable or recycled materials? Wherever possible, choose biodegradable gifts, gifts made from recyclable materials or gifts made from recycled materials as much as possible. These products will have less negative impact on our environment once you have done using them. Avoid gifts and souvenirs made from wildlife and ensure that any wood products are made from sustainable sources. How is your gift packed? Does your gift need extra packaging? For example, you buy your girl-friend a new dress on her birthday. Do you need to put it in a box, wrap a colored sheet of paper, attach a ribbon, and then put it in a nylon bag to give to her? You can try wrapping your own gift from old papers or newspaper; or simply give her a dress directly without having to wrap it in anything.

WHY INTEGRATING SUSTAINABLE SHOPPING INTO EDUCATION?

Gen Z or Generation Z is the generation born entirely in the technological age, warfare against terrorism and multiculturalism.90 Therefore, Gen Z consumes and processes content much faster than other generations. They quickly sort through large amounts of information through the use of five monitors at the same time: smartphones, tablets, TVs, laptops and desktops. More than that, today’s teens have their own phones since elementary school or high school, compared to high school or even college for the older generation. Both Millennials and Gen Z are quickly adopting new technologies, but while Millennials are pioneers of smartphones, young people are living entirely in its development era.91 By 2020, Generation Z will be the largest consumer group worldwide, accounting for 40% of US, European and BRIC countries, and 10% of the rest of the world 92. Therefore, the integration of sustainable shopping into teaching is very necessary. This helps young people take an early look at sustainable shopping, responsible shopping, and change their perceptions and behaviors, changing their daily shopping habits, avoiding negative impact on the planet. However, changing the habits of people is not easy and difficult to achieve results in just overnight. This requires a lot of investment, perseverance and a rational approach. In order for an individual to make the choice of buying and change lifestyle, he or she must have a basic understanding of how to act and be motivated and willing to do it. We can give others this opportunity through education, training, or simply by incorporating information into other activities in a clever way.

90 https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Generation%20Z 91 How To Win The Hearts Of The Gen Z Consumer Base In Eight Seconds (Forbes Communications Council, 2017) 92 Gen Z Shopping: Designing retail for the constant state of partial attention (Fitch, 2015)

PART 03

Methodologies to integrate sustainable shopping into educational activities for youth

This guidebook not only focuses on providing information about the topic “Sustainable shopping” but also pay attention to the procedure and tools to design trainings, activities, models and organization skills which will help to shift awareness and encourage actions of young people. However, behavior change and vision formation are not easy and can not be rewarded with result in short-sighted time. This requires the investment of hard work, consistence and appropriate methodology. For an individual and a community to take sustainable action, they need to have basic understanding, know how to act as well as have strong motivation and desire to take part in. We can equip this to others by education, trainings or simply integrating information into other activities in a smart way.

FORMS OF INTEGRATION

Sustainable Shopping is an everyday life topic. However, with the development of society and economic, it is not easy to be aware of how much is enough to buy. Therefore, integrating this topic into programs and activities for youth in and out of formal education is very important to guiding their mindset towards a less material world, a greener lifestyle and a better future for the Earth. Following are suggestions on some forms of integration that teachers, trainers and planners can use to bring the topic Sustainable Shopping to young people in a practical and exciting way.

INTEGRATE INTO TEACHING PLAN, EXERCISE, RESEARCH

Topic Sustainable Shopping can be approached from different angles and has a correlation with many fields from economics, environment, and production to technology, tourism, art… Therefore, the possibility to integrate this content into teaching subject is very potential. Professors, teachers can use this topic as example or give supporting information for the lecture depending on the specific lessons. For example: Introduction of the sale strategy of retailers in a marketing lesson, The impact of shopping on nature in an environment lesson, Research on the history of natural dyed fabrics on a fashion design lesson… Besides, in order to let students approach actively with this topic, teachers can assign exercises or orientation to look into,

research more about the topic such as assignment to design an clothing outlet using environmentally friendly materials, develop a branding plan for a company with natural products… In many cases, personal research, scientific research for students can be used to integrate topics related to Sustainable Shopping. For example: research on “The sustainable development plan for retailers” or “Sustainable shopping in the digital era”…

INTEGRATION INTO TRAINING ACTIVITIES

Extra-curriculum training is an effective way to introduce deeper about a certain topic to students. Depending on specific conditions in terms of human resources, time, venue, finance…, these training can be organized accordingly. For example: in the limited condition of time and resources, trainers can organize a short sharing for 2-3 hours about “How to shift your shopping habit” in a venue of the university. With the same topic, you can choose to invite some experts on sustainable consumption or a representative of a green company to share with students for 2 hours, or organize a game integrating information about sustainable shopping. One characteristic of this method is that the number of participants should be limited because it can interfere with the quality of the class. Depending on specific method being used, each training should have around 30-40 participants. The more interactive activities there are, the less people should be involved. With a talk show or a movie show, the number of participants can be bigger. Besides, since this is a highly practical topic, you need to pay attention to experiential activities. Not only introducing students to knowledge, let them be in touch with tree, soil, vegetable and fruit in these lessons. In the next section, we will introduce in details some suitable methods to use in training course about Sustainable Shopping.

INTEGRATION INTO FIELD TRIPS

This is a highly practical activity which usually attracts the participation of many students. A field trip usually lasts for at least half a day (without transportation time) and can be limited in the number of participants due to the specific location of the trip. A field trip requires more investment in preparation and organization because the visiting venue is usually outside of university. Depending on the local condition as well as available resources, trainers/organizers can choose from a

diverse range of location related to the topic such as: visiting a green company producing groceries products, visiting a zero-waste store, a tailor factory using environmentally friendly materials… Give students many chances to practice what they have learnt in these field trip. For example: dye fabrics with natural color, minimal shopping… When there is no sustainable model available, trainers can organize for participants to experience and analyze an existing model and give comments, opinion and suggestion to change it towards a sustainable way.

INTEGRATION INTO EVENTS

This is a familiar form of integrating a topic to students in university since they usually have extra-curriculum events happening during all school year. These events can be varied from competition, exhibition to fair, performances or a combination of different forms. Events usually have a big communication impact and can reach a much bigger audience than training courses or field trips. Another interesting point of integrating into events is that students can participate from the planning and organizing process along with teachers. This will help them to level up in personal skills and have a better chance to research about the theme or main topic of the event. Some examples about event: a barter fair, green fashion show, green market (with environmentally friendly products)… Around the worlds, there are many campaigns and events organized to encourage “reduce, reuse and recycle”. For example: Mottainai93, Garage Sale94… TIn Vietnam, recently there was a Mottainai 2017 “Give love, receive happiness” organized by Vietnamese Woman Magazine, Recycle fashion show named “I’m Hufliter” in Hochiminh city University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology. Happening more frequently are Saigon Flea Market95, Le Rustique Chic Yard Sale96 …

93 Mottainai is a term of Japanese origin that has been used by environmentalists. The term in Japanese conveys a sense of regret over waste. Japanese environmentalists have used the term to encourage people to “reduce, reuse and recycle”, and Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai used the term at the United Nations as a slogan to promote environmental protection. (Wikipedia) 94 Garage sale is a campaign initiated in America. It started when families clean up their house or move out and do not want to bring all the stuff with them, they then open their garage to sell or give a way what they no longer use. (Wikipedia) 95 Established in 2011, Saigon Flea Market is a market in Hochiminh city selling old goods or inventory with vintage style. 96 Một dạng thanh lý đồ cũ của các Fashionista

There are several facilitation methods that help participants to brainstorm and constantly think of ideas, be active and help them to understand better. Following are some effective training methods, you can also use other methods that are available.

Experiential learning cycle

One highly recommended method that can increase the efficiency of training and integration is experiential learning cycle, or it can be called “lessons translate into actions” (Felicia, 2011). David Kolb, an American theory educationist proposed 4 steps of experiential learning model as follow:

How can we design a training based on this learning model? First and foremost, the role of trainer/teacher or facilitator (hereafter we will use the word “trainer” for short) is to assist participants to learn and apply the lesson correctly. Therefore, before designing an integrated lesson plan, trainer needs to clarify what the core focus of the training is. Trainer can follow this step-by-step guide:

EXPERIENCE APPLICATION

SUMMERY PHÂN TÍCH

01

Trainer can follow this step-by-step guide:

Analyze participants

Where are they with this topic? What is their attitude towards this topic, are they eager to learn? How much do they know about the topic? How much have they practiced or applied? What do they need to learn and how do they want to learn? It is difficult to convey a large amount of information in 90 minutes and expect that participants can understand, remember and take action. Since we have established that this topic is new to our participants, we can focus on the main objective is to help them understand and know how to list basic necessities to avoid buying stuff that only last for a short time.

02 Identify learning objectives

The learning objectives need to be very clear so that you can design its content easily and appropriately. For example: what should learners receive after 45 minutes, after 90 minutes? In order to identify the objectives, you need to answer two questions: what are the objectives? (skill or knowledge, or both?) at which level? For example: the objective can be that students will understand the concept or they understand and can repeat or they understand and can explain from their point of view?

03 Design experiential activities

Experiential exercise is one of the most important indicator defining the success of your lesson. Learners will conclude the lesson points for themselves after going through each experience designed by trainer. Therefore, the experiential exercise needs to be closely related to the topic for learners to be able to analyze. Experiential activities can include: listen, watch, smell, taste, hands-on, feel or deep thinking. However, note that these activities should create emotion, excite learners and make them think deeply.

04

Design analyzing activity and summarize the lesson

Design application activity

At this step, trainer will ask questions about the activity for learners to recognize their own experience, come up with deduces and lessons.Organize a simple game for students to apply what they have learnt: “List what you have bought last month”.

05

Application activity is the part where trainer can suggest how learners can relate from lesson to reality. The application activity has different levels: relate to real life, apply to act, and apply to go deeper into the lesson. To help you get a clearer understanding of “Experiential learning cycle”, we would like to provide a detailed example.

Sample lesson design

Topic: Minimalism

STEP 1: ANALYZE PARTICIPANTS

Participants are students in the age of 18 – 22, who enjoy shopping and usually spend their free time for extra activities, social network (facebook, instagram), hanging out with friends or going shopping. You observe that this group of students are eager to learn and are familiar to everyday shopping but do not have basic knowledge about sustainable shopping. They might know a lot about environment but have not com across the concept of minimalism. We identify that students need to learn some basic and general information. The lesson should be cheerful and interactive with group and individual activities.

STEP 2: IDENTIFY LEARNING OBJECTIVE

It is difficult to convey a large amount of information in 90 minutes and expect that participants can understand, remember and take action. Since we have established that this topic is new to our participants, we can focus on the main objective is to help them understand and know how to list basic necessities to avoid buying stuff that only last for a short time.

STEP 3: DESIGN EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITY

The message of this lesson is heading towards minimalism and detachment from materialism, therefore it is important to make choice of which is important and what is necessary. We can give participants figures about the impact of short-life stuff on the environment, or the amount of natural resources needed to produce one-time use stuff that they are familiar with. These figures should surprise and shock them and at the same time have relation to participants to make them aware of their actions.

STEP 4: HOW TO CONCLUDE AND SUMMARIZE THE LESSON

After the experiential activity, we can ask students some questions to conclude what they learn: What have you seen? (Let participants conclude after calculating how much natural resources needed to produce what they have been using everyday) • How do you feel? (Check their feeling and let them think of do they really need all those stuff) • Why it has come to this? (Let students think of why they shop more than they need) • What can you do next? (Let students think of actions they can do, prepare for the next step – Step 5).

Organize a simple game for students to apply what they have learnt: “List what you have bought last month”. In this game, we can identify which student like shopping, which have a better attitude towards sustainable shopping from asking: “how many pants/shirt/dress you have bought last month, do you really need them, any among them you can borrow or use secondhand?...”. You can ask participants to take the challenge: If you have to choose to buy only 1-2 items per month, what would you buy? Afterwards, let participants make shopping plan for the next month. It will encourage them to think and give more concrete actions other than only think of what have been mentioned as example. You can use group activity in step 4 or 5 to increase interaction among students.

THIS IS A SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF APPLYING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING TECHNIQUE INTO LESSON PLAN. BASED ON THE MESSAGE OF EACH LESSON, THE EXPERIENTIAL PART CAN BE DESIGNED ACCORDINGLY.

Relevant examples are usually provided as story-telling, best practices or case study. This tool is being used widely nowadays for the objective of inspiration. Sometimes knowledge about sustainability might be seen as “theorical”, “too idealistic” or even “dreamy”. Therefore, showing true stories with real people doing real actions will help make the sustainable picture become clearer and more realistic. The closer the case to learners’ life context, the more persuasive it would be. Main values of best practices: • To be examples (to understand complex issues); • To create emotions (learners will interact with real people in real life with true experience); • To be proves (of what has been done of is being done) Using this method, trainers can fulfil many objectives such as: • Draw attention of learners (have you imagine that…?); • Check learners’ knowledge (do you know that…?); • Provide proves for their argument (it shows that…); • Help learners to connect theory and practice; • Develop critical thinking (what would you do in this situation?) and understanding about complex relationship among economics, social and environment in one country; • Raise awareness and encourage actions from learners (what can we do to achieve this?) Some notes when using this method: • Case-study need to be well prepared and checked for its credibility and update (is it still working? Is it available?) • Avoid using controversial cases with too many opposite opinions and do not have a credible source to check. • Even if the lesson time is limited, you should provide enough information for learners to connect from the best practice to themselves and their living condition. Providing more references for learners to research deeper on their own afterwards is highly recommended. To assist the best practices or case studies, trainers can collect more documents like scientific researches, maps and statistics; professional experience and successful stories in order to hold activities or develop in-depth learning.

Following are some examples of best practices for topic Sustainable Shopping that trainers/ teachers can use as reference.

NATIONAL LEVEL

Many developed countries have shown interest in encouraging sustainable shopping with concrete policies to get people’s attention into this issue. Taken actions can be issuing compulsory standards and labels, change tax and cost on unsustainable products, subsidies and incentives, communication campaign to raise awareness, education… Some best practices: • Ireland: apply tax on plastic bags. Retailers will add environmental tax on the price of single use plastic bags. The tax will be shown separately on the bill, the cost for each plastic bag is 22 cent (5000VND). This tax fee is supposed to encourage consumers to choose reusable bad and change their awareness towards waste. The money comes from this tax will be put

in Environmental Fund. This Fund supports environmental initiatives and waste management.97 • The Netherlands: the government and non-government organizations applied green quality card named “Nu Spaarpas”. In the 8 month pilot during 2 years of 2002 – 2003 in

Rotterdam, more than 10000 citizens participated in collecting “Nu Spaarpas” points by waste separation, shopping in local stores that joined the program and buy green products.

“Nu Spaarpas” points can be used to buy sustainable products and service, to use on public transportation or buy culture tourism tickets.98 • Japan: the land of the rising sun published a campaign called Cool Biz in 2005 to reduce

CO2 emission by encouraging people to dress simple while going to work and business man can get rid of vest and tie to minimize the use of air conditioners.99 • North Europe: In 2005, The Nordic Consumer Protection Commission (Denmark, Finland,

Norway and Sweden) passed a guideline on Ethical and Environmental Marketing Statement to expand previous regulation on marketing including social and ethical issues such as child labour, working condition and relationship to Third world countries.100

BUSINESS

Business companies and retailers work directly with consumers. They are the key stakeholders in changing shopping habit of consumers.

Walmart – the world biggest retailer

On their global market, Walmart made an effort to reduce waste generating from products or byproducts that we usually do not notice. This includes: • Switch to reusable containers: In Canada, Mexico, Britain and United States, Walmart uses reusable packing containers (RPC) to replace cartons and plastic wraps. According to a report of Franklin Associates, a leading RPC provider, a simple shift to RPC in production can reduce 85% waste and 31% green house gases emission, at the same time raise awareness of customers. Switching to RPC requires some changes in infrastructure and activity. For example: ASDA store in Walmart Britain is running 9 service centers to collect and wash RPC beside the regional contribution centers for frozen food, where RPC is used. In 2017, ASDA reused more than 1.25 million stray and eliminated packaging from carton. • Lengthen products’ lifespan: Walmart built 4 renewal centers in The US, where they send broken and returned phones, tablets, TV, computers and game remotes to fix and resell with a discount. In 2017, Walmart sent more than 6 millions items to be refurbished. Besides, Walmart brings inventories or stuff that customers return to charity organizations such as Good 360, Harvest Time and United Way.

97 Citizens Information Board is the statutory body which supports the provision of information, advice and advocacy on a broad range of public and social services. (http://www.citizensinformation.ie/) 98 NU-Spaarpas. The sustainable incentive card scheme (Paul van Sambeek, Edgar Kampers, 2004) 99 Promoting sustainable consumption: good practices in OECD countries (OECD, 2008) 100 The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA)(www.kkv.fi)

I:CO or I:Collect

The company collects, reuses and recycles used clothing and shoes. I:CO collects in partner locations around the world such as Levi’s, H&M… and then carefully sort the items and either reuse or recycle them ensuring maximum reutilization of these valuable materials. How it works:

Consumers bring in their used clothing or shoes to the participating stores (that connect with I:CO) and are given a reward incentive like a gift card or cash. High-quality sorting and evaluation follows the international waste hierarchy of reuse before recycling. Preparation for Recycling: Material identification and separation is a vital part of the recycling process. From an ecological viewpoint, it is best to reuse clothing and shoes. Wearable items are therefore kept and sold as second-hand goods. Some unwearable items can be used for production of new clothes. The recovered fibers are spun into yarn and can be integrated into the supply chains. After separating the material from old clothing and accessories, the recycled fibers are reused for products in various industries such as insulation material for the automotive and construction industries. Besides, many green products have been produced, which encourages consumers to use more environmentally friendly products. At the same time, there are more policies and incentives to promote the use of sustainable products.

Papa’s Dreamer

This brand produces natural soap hoping to bring safe and close to nature experience for people living in cities who can not wash by boiling herbs everyday. Each soap was made directly from olive oil and coconut oil by coldprocess101, tadded with turmeric powder, green tea powder or oat powder.

MỚI MỚI

More importantly, Papa’s Dreamer has their ethical regulation, which are:

• Limited daily product amount To ensure quality and dedication to each patch of soap with care and happiness

• Say no to: Palm oil Animal testing Plastic in the whole process

• Friendly materials: Main ingredients are olive oil and coconut oil Together with natural herbal powders that are good for skin Use natural essential oils

• Manual process: Made directly from plant-based materials and alkaline salts at low temperature, waited for 8-10 weeks to make sure soaps get to their neutral pH level.

KILOMET109

High fashion brand created by designer, artist and eco-entrepreneur Vũ Thảo. Kilomet109 is an environmentally friendly fashion brand which aims to conserve the Vietnamese abundant traditional garment and fashion heritage.

Using organic fibers and traditional techniques of vegetable dying, Thao works with her team of local artisans to grow, spin, weave, color and print Kilomet 109 fabrics. After that the garments are hand-stitched in her studio in Hanoi.

Vũ Thảo experiments with natural dyes in her home studio – Photo: Julie Vola

Modeling

Modeling technique is activity to imitate situations in real life. It firstly requires a model that represents the characteristics, behavior and function of the chosen system or process. Modeling provides experience closest to reality, however it has an edge of letting participants edit the scenario and try different strategies or alternatives. This would allow participants to solve the situation by applying their gained experience. Modeling is a highly flexible teaching tool that can be used in most major, this also means the way to do it can vary. The key to modeling is to be vibrant, not fixed, with the scenario changes along with actions of participants. For example, a lesson for students of tourism major to modeling a tour guiding guests to an ecovillage. In this place, people live in harmony with nature, using their own currency, stores only sell local products. This section will model exactly what might happen in reality where students will work in the future with tourists keep making requirements and ask questions during the tour. A similar exercise related to master plan of a sustainable community for students of architecture or business major. To design modeling section successfully, it is important that the scenario is concrete and makes sense.

Shifting shopping habit relates to personal level. There might be external factors to this shift, however, if one does not have the need and take action then changing habit would become very difficult with daily lifestyle. SMART Model will support participants in making clear of their objective, focus their effort, time and resources effectively and increase the chance of success in changing their habit. This model can be integrated into lesson plan as a learning tool. SMART is short for:

Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely

S M A R T

G

What do you want to do? How will you know when you’ve reached it?

Is it in your power to accomplish it?

Can you realistically reach it? When exactly co you want to accomplish it?

O A L S

SPECIFIC(S)

Decide what you want to do The first step in setting your goal is deciding what you want to achieve. In this stage, you can be somewhat general. No matter if it is a long term or short term goal, most people start generally. You turn this general goal into something more specific by adding details and identifying time. For example, your initial goal is to reduce shopping. Knowing this is the first step to create more concrete goal.

Specify it The chance of completing a concrete goal is better than completing a general goal. Therefore, your task in this stage is to analyze your thought at the previous stage into something more detailed. Most problem lies in identifying the time. Following the example above, you should ask yourself “what does it mean to reduce shopping?” Does it mean stop shopping at all? Reuse what is available? Borrow what you need? Consider everything related to shopping depending on what you want to do.

Identify who is involved A good way to set your specific goal is asking 6 questions: Who, What, When, Where, Which and Why. Starting with “who is involved?” If the goal is to reduce shopping, of course you are involved. However, in some long term goal you need help from others.

What do you want to achieve? This is a basic question about what you hope to get. If you want to reduce shopping, ask for clearer “what”. What are the items you want to reduce buying?

Identify location Identify where you will execute your plan for the goal. If you want to reduce shopping, you can stop hanging around purposeless on the street, reduce using digital equipment like phone, computer, tablet.

Think about the time Create a timetable and deadline to achieve your goal. This will need to be focus on at the end of your process. For now, just look at the big picture. If the goal is to reduce the items you buy by a half, you can reach it in a few months. On the other hand, if your goal is to live minimally and detach from materialism then it might take a few years.

Decide the requirement and limitation What do you need to achieve your goal? What obstacles might lie ahead? If your goal is to reduce shopping, the requirement is not to spend over money budget and not buy more clothes in the next 3 months. Obstacle is how to deal with your crave of wanting to buy something new.

Why you bring up this goal? Give concrete reasons and benefits to achieve this goal. Understand the why is very important to see if the goal is relevant to your need or not. For example, imagine your goal is to reduce buying new items by 50% with the reason of wanting to save money for your next trip. If your goal is saving money rather than reducing thrash, you can always choose another way to get it.

MEASURABLE

Create some way to measure the result Nhiệm vụ của bạn là đặt ra tiêu chuẩn thành công. Điều này giúp bạn dễ dàng kiểm soát quá trình và biết khi nào bạn đạt được mục tiêu. Tiêu chuẩn có thể về số lượng hoặc chất lượng. Nếu có thể hãy đề ra con số cụ thể cho mục tiêu. Như vậy bạn sẽ nhận ra mình có bị tụt lại hay không. Ví dụ, nếu mục tiêu là hạn chế mua sắm, bạn có thể đặt mục tiêu số lượng là giảm 10 món đồ bạn

Your task is to set a target for success. This helps you control the process and know when the goal is achieved. The target can be qualitative or quantitative. If possible, give a number for it. Then you can check if you are behind the plan or not. For example, if your goal is to reduce shopping, you can set a target of 10 items less per month. You know what you usually buy a month, then it should be easy to identify when the goal is achieved. A qualitative target could be “I want to fit in the jeans that I bought 5 years ago”.

Ask questions to sharpen your focus You can give many questions to ensure your goal can be measured: + How much, How many? For example: How many items you want to reduce? + How do I know if I’m about to achieve it? Do I record daily what I buy or count it at the end of the month and compare between months?

Check and keep track A trackable goal will help you to identify whether you are on track or not. For example, the goal is to reduce 10 items per month. Starting from the first day of the month until the 15th, you do not buy anything then you know that it is very likely you will achieve the goal. On the other hand, if it is nearly the end of the month and you are about to buy as many as last month, then maybe it is time to change your strategy.

Write diary This is a good way to keep track on your effort, result and how you feel about it. Spending 15 minutes each day to write diary or journal would help you note down details and reduce the stress of getting to the goal.

ATTAINABLE

Know your limitation You need to guarantee that your goal is achievable. If not, you will soon be discouraged. Consider the difficulties and challenges you might meet, access your chance to overcome them. To get your goal, you need to face challenges. The question is where you can surpass your challenge or not. Be honest to yourself about how much time you will spend on this goal, as well as your background, knowledge and physical limitation. Think of the goal feasibly, if you can not see yourself achieving it, then choose a new goal. For example, your goal is to reduce shopping. If you can commit to not logging in e-commerce sites everyday, not wondering around stores and saying no to friends asking you to shop, know what you need and do not need then maybe you can achieve the goal of reducing 10 items per month. But stop shopping completely could be impossible. Write down your limitations on a piece of paper, it will help you visualize the big picture of your task.

Evaluate your commitment Even with the goal that is theoretically achievable, you need commitment and hard work to earn it. Ask yourself: are you ready to commit to this? Are you willing to change your life more or less? If

not, is there any other goal that is more attainable that you are ready for? Your goal and your commitment go together. It might be easy to commit to reduce 10 items at first, but target 30 items is too much. Be honest with how much change you are willing to make.

Set an attainable goal After considering challenges and commitment, you can adjust your goal if needed. If you think your goal is attainable, move to the next step. If not, adjust it. You are not quitting, you only make the goal more feasible.

RELEVANT

It reflects your need Link closely to the feasibility of your goal, this is the R in SMART. The question is whether you can achieve the goal by yourself or not. It is a good time to come back to question “Why”. Ask yourself whether this goal is something you really want to do or is there anything else more important. For example: You choose a birthday gift for your friend. You can easily buy some cosmetics that she usually uses. However, it might concern you because that will lead to waste. Then why don’t you buy her a cup of coffee, invite her to dinner or make her a cake.

Consider other goals and conditions You need to consider if this goal is consistent to other plans you have. Conflicts between plans can create many problems. Or to put it another way, see if the goal fits in your life or not. For example, your goal is to reduce what you purchase a month. But you also want to take good care of your skin and a large portion of what you buy is for skincare. This is conflicting. You might need to re-consider both goals here.

Adjust your goal If you think your goal is relevant and not conflict with other plans of yours, you can move to the last step. If not, you might need to re-think a little. When unsure, go towards your passion. If your goal is what you really care for, there is a higher chance you will complete it than something you only have little interest to. A goal helps you achieve your dream will be more motivated and meaningful to you.

TIME-BOUND

Choose a deadline A goal needs a deadline or when it will be considered finished. Making a timetable or timeline will help identifying the concrete actions you need to take to achieve your goal. It eliminates the vague “sometime in the future” that might sounds encouraging. If you don’t have a timeline, you will not have much motivation and pressure to finish and might end up being discouraged.

Create smaller milestones Especially with long term goal, you should divide it into smaller goals. This would help you calculate and monitor your progress. For example, your goal is to live minimally for 6 months, you can create a target of reducing 5 items for the first month and increase 2 items for each following month. This might sound easier than the general goal and make the goal become more consistent. If you find it too much, you can adjust.

Focus on short-term and long-term goal Based on the timeline, as yourself: What can you do to achieve your goal? If your goal is to live minimally in 6 months, daily goal can be making a list of things you need to buy, cross out 1-2 items you think not really necessary, using questions like: “do I really need this? If yes, can I borrow it from someone? Can I make it from materials around the house?” What can I do in the next 3 weeks? The answer can be: reduce time surfing the internet where you can see promotion and discount marketing every 5 minutes. What can I do in the long run to achieve my goal? Focus on reduction of un-necessary purchase. Create a habit of asking question before you buy something. You can think of un-install some shopping apps on your phone.

Besides directing participants to use SMART models, trainers might take note of some points below:

• List important milestones of the process. You can reward yourself after completing small milestone. A small encouragement will motivate you. • Try listing human resource and other resources you need to achieve your goal. This will help you to come up with a suitable strategy. • Do not list out too many goals if you can not prioritize them. You will feel overwhelmed and hopeless. After introducing SMART, you can give them a task to apply this model.

PART 04

Recommendation for training program

There are many methodologies and content to be used to build a training program. In this guidebook we would like to introduce some recommendations together with examples of organization methods.

SAMPLE 1: IN CLASS – STORY OF STUFF

• Learning objective: - Participants will understand the life circle of a product. From then, they can be more aware of how what we buy and consume is hurting the planet and ourselves. - The lesson provides a general view about this topic for later lessons. - Create an opportunity for participants to think about the impact of consumption and be open to different perspectives about it. • Duration: 90 minutes • Agenda:

NO CONTENT DURATION

1 Warm up 5 - 10 minutes DETAIL PREPARATION

Game: Find out what make up a cell phone How: Divide the class into small groups. Each group is given a set of tag with different parts of equipment on it. Their task is to classify and choose which of the parts are component of a cell phone. Markers Set of tag papers made from 1 sided papers.

2

First approach of how a product is made 10 minutes Hold the cell phone and ask participants: - Where are the materials that make up this cell phone from? Which part of nature and on Earth did they come from? - Where was it produced? - In your opinion, what has it been through before reaching our hands?

4 The life circle of products 20 minutes Watch the video clip “The story of stuff” In depth discussion: - What do you like in the clip? - Is there anything you do not like in the clip? - Which questions raised up when you watched the clip? - How do you feel when you think of changing your relationship with stuff you throw away? What can make it more difficult/easier to throw them away? - Any value remains?

4 Conclusion 20 phút Sum up ideas from participants, come up with the concept of products’ life circle Present some facts and statistics about the impact of shopping on the planet and human being. Summarize lesson learnt Projector, screen

Projector, screen Video

SAMPLE 2: IN CLASS – INTRODUCTION ABOUT SHOPPING AND SUSTAINABLE SHOPPING

• Learning objective: - Participants understand the concept of sustainable shopping and its relationship to stakeholders. - Participants are aware and understand the necessity of sustainable shopping in the current context and its linkage to every aspect of life. • Duration: 90 minutes • Agenda

NO CONTENT DURA TION -

1 Warm up 5 - 10 minutes Game: what have you bought last week How: list on papers, each item on one small piece of paper Marker Set of tag paper made from 1 side papers

DETAIL PREPARATION

NO CONTENT DURA TION -

2 Introduction to shopping 10 minutes

3 Impact of stakeholders in sustainable shopping 45 minutes Raise questions: • What is shopping? • What are different forms of shopping? • The negative impact of shopping on the planet and on our lives? Trainers choose 2-3 answers for each question from participants.  Presentation: introduction about shopping and the impact of shopping habit on our lives and on the planet. Projector Screen

Group activity Divide the class into 3 groups, each group will discuss about the impact of one in three stakeholders in shopping: • Government • Business • Consumers Trainers give 3 concrete examples: • Nu Spaarpas campaign of the government of The Netherland • PaPa’s Dreamer brand • Ms Heidemarie Schwermer – a moneyless woman in Germany who founded “Give and take” – the first model in Germany that exchanges goods, skills and do not use money. Follow up questions: • How did the policy in The Netherland impact shopping activity? Why do citizens support Nu Spaarpas campaign? • Walmart is the world leading retailer, what benefit would they get when they support sustainable shopping? What benefit would consumers get? • How can human live independent from stuff? How can we limit the number of stuff we buy everyday or every year? Projector Screen

NO CONTENT DURA TION -

4 Conclusion 20 minutes Sum up answers of participants Summarize lesson learnt Projector Screen

SAMPLE 3: PRACTICAL LESSON – SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

This activity will bring participants an experience of a shopping day. The learning objective is for participants to know how to make shopping plan, understand which products is necessary, which is vital, which is not needed and can be crossed out. • Duration: 90 minutes • Preparation: - Eco-bags (for all groups) - Ask participants to bring notes and pens - 200,000 VND put in an envelope for each group • Steps: - Divide the class into small groups (4-5 members each) - Hand out eco-bag and envelope to each group - Mission: with 200,000 vnd, prepare a birthday party for those in the class that have birthday this month. The birthday party must include: sweet food for 5 persons, decorations and at least 1 gift. - Time to shop: 60 minutes (Choose location in walking distance to a market or supermarket) • Brainstorm questions: - Before shopping, what you should do to make sure you can get enough items with limited budget? - What would you do if you don’t have enough money? - Is it necessary to buy new decoration? - Is it necessary to buy something for a present? - Which products should you choose to have a fun yet green party?

• How to submit result:

After 1 hour, all groups come back with what they buy, present about why you buy those products and the impact it might have on the environment.

• Evaluation:

Trainer gives feedback, comments and recommendations for each group.

SAMPLE 4: FIELD-TRIP

With the topic shopping, trainers can choose many locations for field-trip such as: visit a sustainable company, a store that sells natural products, a family in the class, a non profit organization that supports sustainable entrepreneur, a garbage dump, a mall/market.

You can choose the location based on: (1) Objective of the field-trip (2) Resources available: time, human, budget In this section, we would like to share a plan for the field trip to Papa’s Dreamer Natural Soap workshop. • Duration: half a day • Learning objective: Participants understand how to produce a natural soap, how they build business regulation that fits consumers while respects the environment. Participants can practice making natural soap Participants can link this to their life.

• Agenda:

No CONTENT DURATION

1 Opening 15 minutes

2 Practical activity 2 hours DETAIL

Introduction about Papa’s Dreamer and get to know each other

- Learn about natural soap - Learn the brand’s development policy and incentives to encourage sustainable shopping - Practice making natural soap

3 Summary 30 minutes Sharing Questions and answers Create personal action plan related to using environmentally friendly products (changing shampoo, soap, find out more about environmentally friendly brands…)

PART 05

APPENDIX

In addition to taking buying sustainable products into account, why don’t we make our own ecofriendly products which help to save the environment and reduce daily expenses and meet our basic demands?

How to make detergent from the soap nuts

We can make soap nut detergent for laundry, cleaning, dish soap, jewelry polish, glass and table cleaning and insect repellent. Besides, soap nuts can be used as fertilizers.

Note: Add herbs with essential oils such as dried lavenders, star anises and lime peels for pleasant aroma. Ready-made essential oils can be used because they produce stable aroma and delay the expiration of the detergent. However, an excessive amount will make it hard to produce foams. Source: Le Le - Discovery section

Ingredients:

• Soap nuts • Cinnamon bark • Lemongrass or oranges and grapefruits peels • Rock candy or brown sugar • Water

Instructions

• Soak the soap nuts for about 12 hours overnight.

• Bring boil soap nuts and cinnamon and simmer for 45 minutes. • Grate grapefruit peels to get the essential oil. • When soap nuts are almost done, brew the grated grapefruit peels. • Get the liquid from boiled peels and pour it into the pot simmering soap nuts. • Let cool and strain through a cloth. • Pour detergent into a bottle (spray bottle is recommended as it helps making foams and is more convenient).

Protecting equipment: Alkali exposure can cause adverse effects on health, so you must protect yourself with the following equipments: • Long-sleeved rubber gloves • Protective goggles • Face mask

Soap making equipment:

• Electronic scales, the smallest division from 0.01 - 0.1gr • Plastic heat-resistant bottle • Enameled pots (use aluminum pots under no circumstances because they are easily

corroded by alkali) • Silicone stirring spoon • Hand-free mixer (can be replaced by electric mixer) • Wood molds • Wax papers

• Supporting tools: wooden stirring stick, disposable plastic cup, alkaline plastic spoon

Công thức:

• Olive oil: 120gr • Coconut oil: 90gr • Palm oil: 90gr • NaOH (caustic soda): 45.52gr • Distilled water: 105gr

Instructions (strictly complied with the formula)

• Pour water into a heat-resistant flask. Slowly pour the alkaline powder into the water (do not do not vice versa) and stir the alkaline completely. Close the bottle. Be careful as the bottle is hot. • Melt fat but do not bring to boil. • Let alkali and fat cool (at about 27-32oC), use stirring stick to slowly pour alkali into the fat mixture and stir slowly. Gradually increase the speed, stir as quickly as possible if stirring by hand (average speed if stirring with a mixer). • Add flavor and quickly stir until it is condense and pour into wood molds.

• Wrap the mold with a thick towel to keep it warm. Remove the mold after 18-24 hours. • - Cut the soap into pieces because it will be hard if it is cool. Store soaps into boxes and place them in a cool dry place.

Source: Hieu Nhi - Health and family topics

How to make tooth powder at home

We should limit the everyday consumption of industrial fluoride toothpaste because it damages our mouth and unfriendly to the environment. If we have time, we can make eco-friendly tooth powder from available ingredients suggested by Hoàng Ngọc Phố.

Ingredients for 10 units of tooth powder:

• 4 units of crude rock salt • 4 units of grapefruit/ orange/ lime finely chopped peels • 1 unit of charcoal/ bamboo charcoal powder • 1 unit of other optional ingredients (e.g. nabifar powder, cassava flour powder)

Instructions:

• Stir fry grapefruit/ orange/ lime finely chopped peel with medium heat. Turn off the heat when the peel turns bright brown. • Pound rock salt and charcoal powder together and stir fry the mixture until it is dehydrated. Add stir-fried peels and optional ingredients for another 2-3 minutes. • Leave the mixture cool and pound or blender it to have a fine mixed powder. Store in a jar for use. Supplementary natural tooth whitening products: Betel leaf boiled water to rinse and eliminate diseases in the palate, dried areca fruits (made use of from altar offerings) to scrub teeth, coconut oil, a mild detergent, to polish teeth, inner side of banana peels and Terminalia catappa young leaf wine. In short, practice according to natural conditions. The nature is diverse and rich, so it will always support human life. Source: Hoàng Ngọc Phố