Built Superpowers are those that help us transform our cities, buildings, facilities, services, houses, vehicles, technology, water, and energy infrastructure, to make them more sustainable.
Built Superpowers often involve:
- Advocating for sustainable buildings in the community (e.g., carbon neutral schools)
- Influencing families to invest in sustainability at home (e.g., solar panels)
- Using sustainable transport(e.g., cycling, walking, public transport)
- Using public spaces (e.g., for collective action/strikes)
- Using technological/social media infrastructure for climate action
- Inventing new technologies and solutions to fight climate change.
Actions
Climate change is a complicated problem. To tackle it, we need all sorts of people working on all sorts of actions, big and small.
By taking on one (or more!) of these climate actions, you can use your Climate Superpowers as an agent of change at home, your community and beyond. Each action will also help your superpowers grow even stronger!
So, how do want to use your superpowers today?
In these pages, you’ll find ideas, tips, and resources to help you with your chosen actions. We’ll suggest special actions that we think you’d ace, based on your superpowers.
When you complete an action, you can return here and share notes with other young people who are about to take on a similar action in their own lives. Let’s dive in!
Start by choosing which type of action you’d like to explore first:
Draw from your passion to transform our cities, buildings, facilities, services, houses, vehicles, technology, water, and energy infrastructures, to learn how to make them more sustainable.
Learn about how to manage energy responsibly at home.
Find out what your carbon footprint is and how to reduce it.
Calculating your carbon footprint can be tricky, but there are many tools to help you and once you have your results, they can really help you plan for how to reduce your emissions. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) UK developed the My Footprint App, that you can download from the Apple App Store or Google Play. You can also find it here
Learn about the impact of different forms of transport (including flying) on the environment.
Learn about eco-friendly approaches to building cities and buildings.
Built Climate Superpowers are key to make sure that our lives at home, school and community contribute to climate action. These changes can take time but have long lasting impacts.
Talk to your parents about getting solar panels at home, and other options to save energy.
Help make your school, workplace or university more sustainable, for example, by installing solar panels and reducing waste.
Some tips for helping your school get solar panels:
- Opportunities and resources for your school to switch to clean solar energy will depend on your state and council. The following are examples that can help you, your classmates and school to explore options.
- Solar my School works with selected areas of Sydney and NSW to guide and support primary and secondary schools to transition to clean energy
If your parents are keen to get involved, share with them this link to a petition and fact sheet from Australian Parents for Climate Action
Is your teacher or Principal interested in helping you advocate for a more sustainable school? This resource may be interesting for them.
Advocate for your home, school, university or workplace to switch to renewable electricity provider, and stop using gas.
Switching to a renewable energy provider is usually quick and easy! But the adults who manage electricity bills – whether that’s your parents, school principal, housemates or someone else – might not know that. You can encourage them by explaining that it’s important to you, and providing information to them so all they have to do is click a few buttons or make a quick phone call. Green Power is a government managed program that helps you find renewable electricity providers
You can also advocate for your school to install solar panels.
Save energy and water at home. Don’t leave appliances on when you don’t have to, take shorter showers, don’t leave the tap on while you’re still brushing your teeth or washing the dishes, etc.
Do what you can to ensure that recycled toilet paper is used at your home and school.
Walk, cycle, or use public transport instead of a car to go places, if you can. Be conscious about how much you fly, and the impact it has on the environment.
Built Climate Superpowers give you a unique capacity to imagine new worlds where humans live in harmony with the rest of nature. Your tech skills can also help you find useful information and sources of support.
Go to a place that makes you feel happy, or keep a picture of it as your screensaver.
Download an App for promoting wellbeing and mental health.
Limit your screen time and take a break from social media and the news when you need it.
Clean or decorate your room or house. Having plants around can be good for your wellbeing.
Built Superpowers are essential to develop more sustainable homes, cities, energy and technology. Without them, we would not be able to use science and creativity in a way that protects both humans and nature.
Help campaign for fair transitions to clean energy, for example, by supporting online petitions.
Participate in local projects and consultations about the urban planning of your community.
Support initiatives and organisations that promote fair access to clean water for communities in Australia and the rest of the world.
Ask your council to provide green bins so your food and garden organic waste can be composted, rather than going to landfill. This is single most effective way that local councils can reduce carbon emissions from waste quickly.
