What we’re planning to do

Our environmental plan will help us to keep supporting our members as they do great things to protect the environment.

Making sure that we’re sustainable and have a positive impact on the climate will be a long-term commitment. We’ve already achieved great things together to help protect the environment. But there is always more to learn and do. Our plans will evolve over time as we continue to learn more about climate action.

This is what we’re working on and what we’re aiming to do.

1) Build awareness and knowledge about sustainability

By 2028, all Girlguiding volunteers, girls and staff will be well informed about what we can do to help protect the environment. We'll be ready to change behaviours and take action, both as individuals and in groups. Here’s what we’re going to do:

• We’ll review how we do things at Girlguiding to make sure we’re considering the environment in all that we do –including how we buy things and how we travel.
• We’ll make sure volunteers and staff have the guidance and support they need to feel ready to make a positive impact in their communities.
• Recruit people with the right knowledge and experience to lead our environmental plan, and make sure everyone knows how they can contribute.

2) Encourage sustainable guiding

By 2028, we’ll have researched, promoted and adopted ways of offering more sustainable guiding. This will be called eco guiding.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

• We’ll offer girls and volunteers even more activities and ideas focused on protecting the environment, giving them opportunities to make a difference both at home and with their units.
• We’ll launch an award​ to celebrate members who take action to become more sustainable.

3) Inspire and drive change in wider society

By 2028, we’ll inspire change throughout society as well as our organisation. We’ll become a recognised advocate for girls on environmental issues.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

• We'll work with our advocates and ambassadors to represent girls' views. This will help us to make sure girls' voices are heard on key decisions around sustainability and climate change.
• We’ll take part in climate-focused networks, campaigns, and actions wherever possible.
• We’ll explore how we might further help more girls feel empowered to enter careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), setting them up to make an impact on climate action in the future.

4) Reduce our carbon footprint across Girlguiding

Reducing our carbon footprint is one of the most important things we can do to improve sustainability and tackle climate change.

In 2023, we looked at our carbon footprint across every area of Girlguiding. This helps us to understand exactly where emissions are coming from, and how we can make improvements. By 2040, we’ll cut our carbon footprint by 50%.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

• We’ll start moving away from gas heating and look into more sustainable heating sources.
• We'll improve the buildings owned by our association to make them as energy efficient as possible.
• We'll begin moving to Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO)-backed energy tariffs. This will help us understand how much of our electricity has come from renewable sources.
• We’ll take action to create more sustainable processes and supplier chains for our shop.
• From 2024 to 2026, we’ll be working to redesign our uniforms. As part of this, we’ll review our existing uniform’s carbon footprint. Where possible the new uniforms will be made using more sustainable, durable fabrics, designed and manufactured to last longer. When they have reached the end of their life, the uniforms can be easily recycled, and where possible, recycled into yarn to create new textiles.