Together, communities are changing consumption

This Green Action Week, 27 community-led initiatives across 19 countries are showing how sharing knowledge, skills and resources can make sustainable consumption part of everyday life.

For many consumers, making more sustainable choices is not simply a question of individual choices. Access to affordable alternatives, reliable information, practical skills and supportive communities can all shape what is actually possible.

This year’s Green Action Fund awardees are responding to those barriers in different ways, rooted in the realities of their own communities.

Their projects and campaigns will bring people together to exchange ideas, develop practical solutions and strengthen community connections – from repairing and reusing everyday goods to growing food, preserving traditional knowledge and reducing waste.

Green Action Week is the annual campaign of the Green Action Fund, supporting our Members to engage communities and promote more sustainable patterns of consumption. The fund is made possible by our partner the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC). The theme “Sharing Community” reflects a simple but powerful idea: when communities work together, ripples are generated, and sustainable choices can become easier, more affordable and more accessible for the masses.

Making sustainable choices easier

Community repair hubs in Kenya, sharing and reuse initiatives in India and Rwanda, and food-waste reduction activities in countries including India and Cape Verde will give consumers practical ways to make better use of what they already have.

Other projects will connect consumers with local producers, markets and businesses -helping make locally produced, less wasteful and more sustainable options more visible and accessible. Across Asia, Africa and Latin America, initiatives will bring communities together to support the continuation and sharing of traditional food, farming and preservation practices. Indigenous seeds, traditional grains, yams, recipes and food-preservation techniques are being shared between generations and communities.

In Fiji, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Togo, India and beyond, this work connects cultural knowledge with contemporary challenges including food security, biodiversity loss and climate resilience.

These initiatives show that there is no single way to make consumption more sustainable. Different communities are building their own knowledge, resources and local relationships to develop practical approaches that respond to the challenges they face.

They also show that making sustainable choices easier is not only about changing individual behaviour, but creating better conditions for people to access, use and share more sustainable alternatives in their everyday lives.

Through the GreenLiving Initiative, CADEF (Nigeria) is equipping participants to grow food in the spaces they have and pass that knowledge on.

Consumer VOICE (India) conducts a women-focused workshop in Jahangirpuri built on sharing rather than instruction: participants exchanged practical tips, no-waste recipes and traditional food knowledge.

Turning consumers into community changemakers

The projects also recognise that change can go further when people share knowledge, skills, resources and practical solutions with other in their communities.

A person who learns how to compost can show a neighbour. A retailer trained in safer battery disposal can become a source of advice for customers. A young person learning about food waste can take those practices home. A farmer sharing seeds can help protect varieties for the next generation.

Small actions can travel through social networks, community groups, schools, markets, radio and local businesses, helping knowledge and practices reach beyond the original activity.

A global movement, built locally

The 2026 Green Action Fund awardees may be working in very different contexts, but their approaches share a common thread: change starts with people coming together around practical solutions and actions that work in their communities.