Vietnam is one of five countries most affected by climate change issues with recent natural disasters hitting many parts of the nation.

To raise people’s awareness of critical issues affecting climate change and to highlight the global efforts of the conference, better known as COP 16, being held this year in Cancun (from 29 November to 10 December), the British Council Vietnam organised a month-long campaign called “I am Green” between 10 November and 10 December.

This initiative was the brainchild of the Vietnam Green Team and the nation-wide campaign was all encompassing and designed for customers, students, general public as well as staff. The campaign had the slogan “Think Green, Act Green” and many different activities were organised during the green month.  These included:

• Environmental Talks with Vietnam Climate Champions who came back from COP 15 in Copenhagen. A “Green Champion” documentary film was screened during the talk, this was produced by British Council Vietnam and documented the physical and emotional journey of the Vietnam Climate Champions before, during and after their visits to COP 15, inspiring all who watched it!
  
  
• Wildlife at Risk did a presentation on their work and ran some activities for Young Adult students and Primary school students attended a storytelling session with a theme around the environment led by a guest storyteller.  
  
  
• Green Tip Box competition for Teaching Centre students, customers, visitors and general public: green tips and ideas were sent via email or dropped directly into a “Green Tip Box” in the front of house area. Competition prizes icluded green stationery. Many of the entries were written on recycled paper.
  
  
• “How Green Is Your City” photo competition for Teaching Centre students, customers, visitors and general public. In this competition people were asked to take a photo of their city with a caption of 20 words and send it via email to the British Council. Prizes were green tours to National Parks in the North and South of Vietnam and free English courses and IELTS exams at British Council Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
  
  
• Wildlife Conservation competition was aimed at British Council Young Learners: Young Learners from lower level English classes were asked to design a poster and Young Learners with better English skills were asked to write an essay. Both were asked to present their ideas about how they could protect the environment and wildlife. Prizes included bicycles, environmental books and green stationary. In Ho Chi Minh City, prize winners won a place on a trip to a wildlife centre in Cu Chi which is run by the organisation ‘Wildlife at Risk’.
  
  
• “The Age of Stupid” film was shown to all staff with a public viewing at our Hanoi premises.
  
  
• Staff Green week: staff were encouraged to wear green, cycle to work, save office energy and resources as much as they could. A green tip was sent out via email to everyone each day during the week to encourage people to think and act greener. There was a Clear out Day during the Green week when everyone cleared out their working space and storage areas to ensure the office was cleaner and greener. Also during the week, a Best Green Office idea competition was set for all staff. People submitted their green ideas which needed to be practical and could be used in the office to save energy and resources. The prize was a bicycle.
  
  
• Green Lessons: Teachers prepared and delivered Green Lessons to Young Learner students in classrooms and students made costumes for an eco fashion show.  Teachers also attended a training session on ways they could reduce their teaching resources and make them greener.

The campaign was a big success. The activities attracted over 400 competition entries from people living in different places around Vietnam and almost 200 people attended our events. Quality of the entries was very good and through it we have been able to raise people’s awareness and get them to think and act in a manner that is more responsible to their environment. Prizes were given to 18 competition winners from the North and 16 competition winners from the South at closing ceremonies in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Hoang Thu Ngan (Hanoi) who received 1st prize in the “How Green is your City” photo competition said: “I happened to take the photo in Bach Thao Park without any intention of it becoming the first prize winner. I thought this is a really meaningful activity and I decided to go for it. The photo featured a worker in blue uniform watering the trees in a park - which is a very common image in our life. But no one ever realizes how much this worker is doing every day to conserve the environment. Not all of us can do what she is doing. I want to say that everyone should learn from these workers and pay more attention to the environment. I believe big changes in the current environment only happen when there's a combination of small changes in people's attitudes towards this matter."

Le Nam Duy (Thanh Hoa province) who received the other 1st prize said: “I'd like to thank the British Council and Exotissimo for running this campaign, which has affected me deeply. I've decided to ride a bicycle instead of motorbike for any distance less than 5 km.”

Nguyen Thi Thu Sang, one of the 1st prize winners in Ho Chi Minh City, took a picture of Dinh Thong Nhat Palace on Le Duan Street.  She wrote “This is one of the few green places left in the city center which we should keep and protect for our next generation". To Nguyen Nhu Loan, another prize winner from Ho Chi Minh City,  took a photos of her friends holding hands in a park in Phu My Hung.  Her caption was “Together we make it green!’

Thai Le Thuy (Hanoi) who won 2nd prize of the “How Green is your City” photo competition said: “I want to thank the British Council a lot for holding this competition. As you can see, here are houses for the poor. I took this photo at the Red River bank under Long Bien Bridge. These people don’t have jobs and are surrounded by litter and garbage. I was touched when I saw this scene.”

Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy who won the 2nd prize in Ho Chi Minh took a panoramic picture of the Ho Chi Minh City skyline. Her caption was “Increasing gray cement building leads to decreasing of space for growing trees.  Please paint the picture of Ho Chi Minh City greener to conserve our health”

This success is a result of cross-team and cross-city working. All teams worked very well together from designing the activities to implementing them. The office Green Team members contributed greatly to the content of the campaign and ensured the smooth running of activities. Teachers actively promoted the events to their students and the result of which was that we received a lot of entries from our Young Learner students. The promotion team made sure we had a high level of press coverage. More importantly, we received great support and encouragement from the Senior Management Team who kept everyone on track. Moreover, we found a new partner, Exotissimo Travel, who sponsored first prizes of the photo competition and who happily joined the judging panel for the competition.

All the green tips and ideas were handed to the British Council Green Team to be considered for use in the office.