Let's do it! World
Let's Do It! World is a global civic movement developped around the idea of mobilising large numbers of people for one-day nation-wide cleanups to clean up illegal waste. The model was pioneered in Estonia on {{|date=2008-05-04}} with their nation-wide cleanup called Let's do it! (in Estonian: "Teeme Ära!") engaging Template:Valpeople or 4% of their population, cleaning up Template:Val tons of waste in one day.[1] Over a decade, the movement has spread to practically all countries of the world and mobilised millions of people to participate in cleanups.
Contents
The identity of Let's do it! World
In some countries, the campaigns used the original graphic identity and the name, either in English or translated to their own languages, while others have chosen different names and graphic identities and the extent of affiliation with the Estonian Let's do it! World organisation.
Since 2018 a new graphic design was adopted and the global campaign adopted a new name: World Cleanup Day.
For the most time the movement has been spreading by a combination of the targeted efforts of the staff and volunteers from Let's Do It World Foundation in Estonia and mostly scattered efforts by individuals and organisations around the world. Since 2017 these efforts became better concerted.
Until 2018 the movement didn't have an official global franchise or membership, so national organisers were free to decide how to liaise with the initiators from Estonia. This has resulted in a diversity of adaptations of the graphic identity and execution of national campaings around the same core concept of mobilising as many people as possible to pick waste on one day.
In most countries the campaigns were grassroots initiatives, coordinated bottom-up by teams of volunteers, in most cases young urban people concerned about the environment. In some countries, the initiatives have later grown into stable organisations with substantial budgets and employees, repeating the nation-wide cleanup annually and developing various other projects, while in other countries the initiatives fluctuated, sometimes organising the cleanup only once, often on a much smaller scale -- regionally or locally.
Membership
Let's do it! World is a highly inclusive movement and it is easy to qualify for membership. While national coordinators are encouraged to organise large cleanups emulating the model of the most successful countries, small local cleanups are just as welocme under the banner of Let's do! World.
The Let's Do It Foundation has been the driver of the global movement from 2011 to 2019. The crucial element for the growth of the movement were annual conferences organised by the Let's Do It Foundation bringing together up to 250 people from as many as 90 countries.
From 2018 on, a more global structure has developped with membership and a democratic process held by the global network itself, establishing its own decision making structures. The team in Estonia has split into two parts, one supporting the global network of cleanups under the identity of World Cleanup Day, and the Let's Do It Foundation started focusing on the so called Keep It Clean Plan, based on the principles of circular economy, and embedding Zero Waste practices. [2]
The History of Let's do it! World
From the beginning in 2007, until 2020 the movement has spread from Estonia to over 180 countries and engaged 21 million volunteers.
Some key milestones:
- {{|date=2007}}: the first meeting of initiators of the Estonian cleanup where the ideas was born
- {{|date=2008-05-04}}: the first cleanup in Estonia under the name of Let's do it!
- {{|date=2009-02-17}}: a 5-minute video about the Estonian cleanup was published on Youtube
- Spring 2009: The first countries to emulate the Estonian model, were the two neighbouring countries, Latvia and Lithuania, with 250.000 participants
- January 2010: the 1st World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, connecting the first teams from about 15 countries
- 17 April 2010: the Slovenian cleanup, engaging 13.5% of the population, has set a new bar of how many people it's possible to motivate to participate
- April 2011: Let's clean the Balkan conference in Slovenia brought together people from almost all the countries of the SE of Europe. This has lead to most of these countries organising very successful nation-wide cleanups.
- January 2012: the 2nd World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, bringing together 90 participants from more than 30 countries
March to September 2012: The first Let's do it! World Cleanup campaign had motivated some cleanups in 96 countries.
- November 2012: at a conference in Nepal there were participants from about 10 contries of the SE Asia; at the same time another conference was held in Kiev, Ukraine
- January 2013: at the 3rd World Cleanup conference in Tallinn.
- February 2014: the 4th World Cleanup conference took place in Prishtina, Kosovo. That
was the first international koference of such sort in a young European country.
- February 2015: the 5th World Cleanup conference was held in Riga, Latvia.
- January 2016: the 6th World Cleanup conference was held in Bursa, Turkey.
- January 2017: the 7th World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia.
- January 2018: the 8th World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia.
- 22 September 2018: World Cleanup Day took place with 16 million participants in more than 150 countries and regions.
- January 2019: the 9th World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia.
- 15 September 2019: 20 million participants in 180 countries.
- January 2020: the 10th World Cleanup conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia.
Prizes
- 2017: European Citizens' Prize
- 2018: The UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development
External links
- Template:Official website
- Official Youtube Channel
- Video about Let's Do It! Estonia
- Video about the global action - Let's Do It! World
References
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