Association for sustainable development and environmental protection GO GREEN Skopje

Go Green is a youth environmental organization whose activities are mainly in the areas of: youth training and activism, education for climate change and sustainable development, circular economy, green employment and eco-entrepreneurship, and social inclusion. The mission of the organization is to develop values and principles for sustainable development and to enable education and practical solutions for environmental protection. The vision of the organization is to see the world as a balance between the humans and the nature. Our main target group are young people aged 15-29 years. We also educate pupils from primary schools and include marginalized groups, such as the Roma community. The basis of the organization is the Youth Environmental Network (YEN) which is established in high schools across the country. YEN represents democratic mechanism for students from high schools to become aware and practice their rights as young people and students to participate in decision making processes within their school and local community. The students are self-organized in so called "Go Green Clubs (GGCs)". The GGCs are run by the leadership body formed by the students within the school. The members of the GGCs form the Youth Assembly where they choose their leadership bodies, vote for new Clubs, present their plans and reports. Currently (2019) the organization has more than 70 members from different backgrounds located in 12 schools in 7 cities around the country. The activities that members of the GGCs organize are educational campaigns related to raising awareness about climate change, air pollution, renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, energy democracy, environmental justice, waste management, urban mobility, circular economy, green jobs and eco-entrepreneurship, social inclusion etc. International or EU events related to these topics, that are regularly joined by the Youth Network are: Earth Hour, Earth Day, UN Environmental Day, EU Sustainable Energy Day, EU Mobility Week, EU Waste Reduction Week, World Clean Up Day (Lets do it World) etc. Of the Erasmus projects, Go Green is a leading NGO of K2 project on "Recognition of Youth Work" where 3 research papers on Youth Work are developed. Go Green is also a partner on a K2 strategic project funded by the German NA, named "Trainers Library", where it is responsible for developing tools and resources for the competence area "Civic Engagement". Go Green is also a co-author of the "Whitepaper on Youth Work" published in 2018, by partner NGO from Germany "NaturKultur". The executive director of Go Green, Mr. Antonio Jovanovski is part of the pool of trainers of the Youth@Work Strategic Partnership on Employability and Entrepreneurship. On policy level, Go Green works in the area of youth employment and entrepreneurship, waste management and social inclusion. The project "From door to door" is an innovative approach to inclusion of the informal waste pickers in the country in a sustainable waste management model for picking the waste from households, and bringing it to licensed companies, thus creating a social enterprise that provides the waste pickers (mostly from Roma background) with decent work conditions and insurance. On policy level, Go Green is also driving the initiative of green jobs and green economy with an inter-institutional working group consisted of Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Labor and Social affairs and Agency for youth and sport.