Activities for individual Lions

Considerate care of the environment by 1.3 million Lions worldwide will make a difference.  Conservation when using natural resources influences family, friends and co-workers.  As environmentally conscious individuals, Lions become "green" consumers.

The following suggestions provide individual Lions with means of becoming stewards of the earth.

Land

• Recycle (paper, glass, aluminum, plastic and all other recyclable products)
• Buy in bulk.  Eliminate unnecessary packaging.
• Purchase recycled paper products.
• Recycle used motor oil instead of depositing in landfills.
• Use cloth baby diapers.
• Give excess paint to a friend.  Don't dispose of this toxic material in a landfill.
• Use rechargeable batteries.  Both mercury and cadmium batteries leak in landfills.
• Use recyclable grocery bags or bags made of string.  Avoid disposable bags.
• Eat more fruits, vegetables and grains. Crop production requires less acreage than raising livestock.
• Avoid purchasing products made from endangered species.  Items include ivory, tortoise shell, coral, reptile skins, and wild animal pelts.
• Avoid purchasing wood products that deplete the rain forest, including teak, rosewood, mahogany, ebony and iroko.  Instead, consider oak, pine, cherry, birch, or maple.
• Avoid purchasing endangered animals, such as cockatoos, marmosets, pythons, iguanas, red-footed tortoises, macaws and ocelots.

Air

• Drive less.  Walk, bicycle or carpool more.
• Maintain car and other motorized equipment to avoid faulty emissions.
• Maintain home and car air conditioners.  Leaky car air conditions are the #1 source of CFC into the atmosphere in the USA.
• Avoid polystyrene plastics.  When polystyrene breaks or is melted, it releases CFCs into the atmosphere which in turn, destroy the ozone layer.
• Check your home for radon gas leaks.  Seal all foundation cracks.
• Insulate your dwelling to reduce energy waste.
• When planting trees on personal property, plant deciduous trees on the south wall.  The trees shade the building from the sun in warm weather yet allow heat from the sun into the building during cold weather.  Plant evergreen trees on the north side to shield the building from cold winds.
• Be conscious of how personal actions such as smoking cigarettes and burning leaves or garbage pollute the air.

Water

• Conserve water when brushing teeth, showering or washing dishes.  Wash only full loads of laundry in washing machines.
• Install water saving devices in showers and toilets.
• Use detergents low in phosphates.
• Reduce water heater temperature by 10 degrees.
• Before disposing, cut the clear plastic packaging rings that surround six pack and eight packs of beverages.  In bodies of water, these rings are invisible.  Water animals often die from entrapment.
• Hold industries and individuals accountable for actions that adversely endanger the general water supply.

Activities for Lions clubs

Working together, Lions clubs can affect the environment in about 200 countries worldwide.  Lions can serve as community leaders in protecting the environment.  Other groups will model their environment programs after Lions programs.

The following are suggested activities.

• Contact local environmental agencies or recycling centers.  Aid their efforts in the community.  If such an agency does not exist, consider forming a grass roots environmental action group.  If this is too large a project for your club alone, recruit the assistance of other Lions clubs or other local service groups.
• If your community needs one, start a recycling program.  Consider paper, aluminum, glass, plastic and other recyclable products.
• Consider supporting recycling programs unavailable in your community, e.g., a telephone book recycling program.
• Create a compost pile for your community.
• Adopt-a-highway and maintain its litter-free appearance.
• Adopt-a-park and maintain its litter-free appearance.
• Organize a tree planting project.  Trees absorb moisture around access roads, lakes, rivers, mining areas, etc.  Fruit trees provide absorption, shade and food.
• Trees are ideal living memorials.  Plant trees in honor of birthdays, anniversaries or the death of a loved one.
• Sponsor an Arbor Day (traditional tree planting day) art or writing contest.  Plant a tree in honor of the winner.  Provide an engraved sign with the winner's name.
• Sponsor a nature or ecology club in a local school.  Ask the science or biology teacher to serve as advisor.
• Launch the ecology club by collecting all of the school's disposable cups, plates, etc. for a month.  Display this mountain of trash as a larger-than-life visual display of the school’s need to recycle.
• Establish a recycling program for the school.  Provide containers for recyclables, organic waste, and non-recyclable waste.
• Encourage students and workers to use reusable lunchboxes and beverage containers.  Discourage use of disposable plastic cups, utensils, bags, etc.
• Sponsor an ecology fair or contest.  Provide an award for the best environmental idea.
• Support inclusion of environmental curriculum in the schools.
• Sponsor a community-wide environment contest.   Present awards to the group(s) contributing the most to the sustainability of the area.  Publicize the contest through the local media.  Present all participating groups with a Green Star plaque suitable for display.
• When sponsoring Lions service activities, arrange for recycling bins for aluminum and paper waste products.
• Carpool whenever traveling to Lions events.
• Organize a community clean up day of a highway, park, forest, beachfront, etc.
• Discourage balloon launches in the area.  Remnants of burst balloons often cause animals to choke.
• Work with the local media.  Provide information on your club's efforts to improve the quality of life and encourage others to participate.
• Conduct an educational program on noise pollution and its effect on hearing.  Offer advice on solutions for reducing noise levels.

Activities for Lions districts

Through sheer numbers, Lions districts can affect change.  Lions districts can contact governments and industries on behalf of the general public.  Lions can help guard our natural resources.

• Consider launching an environmental program on Earth Day (April 22 as  designated by Earth Day International), or World Environment Day (June 5 according to the United Nations Environment Programme).
• The last Friday in April is Arbor Day in the United States.  Planting of trees is traditional on this day.  The countries of Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the Virgin Islands also recognize or celebrate an Arbor Day.
• Sponsor an environmental seminar.  Each club can present a different topic for public debate.
• Consider a special district-wide environmental project such as a sensory garden in a local arboretum.
• Encourage recycling programs by schools and businesses.  Distribute information on how to start recycling programs.  Mention that the international headquarters of your association conducts both aluminum can and paper recycling programs.
• Encourage smoke-free environments in public places.  (Lions Clubs International headquarters is a smoke-free building.)
• Organize a community compost day.  Collect organic debris and lawn clippings.  In a central location, demonstrate the ease of composting.  Repeat the project on a regular basis.
• Organize a toxic waste disposal day.  Arrange for special curbside pick up of household toxins such as paints, household cleaners, motor oils, etc.
• Encourage the clean up of hazardous waste sites in the district.
• Request meetings with grocery store consumer affairs representatives.  Discuss organically grown produce and recyclable packaging.
• Encourage fast food chains and supermarkets to use recyclable or recycled packaging.  (Communities such as Berkely, CA, USA and Suffolk County, NY USA have passed ordinances banning non-recyclable containers.)
• Urge automobile repair shops and vocational training programs to recycle motor oil.  In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that 180 million gallons of motor oil is poured down drains or dumped into landfills every year.
• Discourage the local use of chemical fertilizers.  Encourage organic methods instead.
• Check the radon and asbestos levels of schools in the district.
• Check the amount of lead in school drinking fountains.  Pipes containing lead soder require replacement.
• Alert the media to the district's environmental projects.  Urge the local media to promote environmentalism.