It’s time for a game of Eco Trumps!
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Get on your bike and reduce your carbon footprint
Little Miss Green loves nothing more than to thrash me at a game of Top Trumps. Unfortunately I have to endure Jacqueline Wilson ones.
As a young child with an older brother I had to put up with racing cars and aeroplanes.
Fortunately I’ve been rescued by a lady called Paula who has sent me the perfect stocking filler.Eco Action Trumps are trumps cards with a difference. They are aimed at age 9 and above and include the added bonus of educating you about environmental issues and actions while you play.
Our pack includes actions from simple everyday ones like turning off the tap when you brush your teeth or recycling newspapers to more elaborate ones such as installing solar panels or utilising energy from the earth to heat your home.
Each card depicts:
• How much carbon dioxide (CO2), or greenhouse gases (CO2eq), the action saves
• How much, if anything, the action will cost and, correspondingly, how much is saved
• What is the payback – ie the time it takes to recoup the initial investment
• The total resources saved by carrying out the action. Click here for more detail
• The ‘eco-point’ rating, a combined environmental rating.
I loved the game. Instead of the usual ‘highest number wins’ this is a bit more strategic because on some you want the highest number (amount of CO2 saved, total resources saved etc) and on some you need to get the lowest (how much the action costs, payback time etc).
I was at an advantage when we first played because I have more knowledge about what is a good score and a bad score, but LMG soon got the hang of it and was giving me a run for my money. The cards are muted rather than the bright pink Jacqueline Wilson we’ve been using and these ‘earthy’ colours were most welcome.
Later on LMG played Eco Action Trumps with Grandma Green. Grandma Green enjoyed herself and thought it was a fun game with lots of interesting facts. Her comments were that she felt the cards might get damaged easily as they were a bit thin. It took her a while to understand the value of the eco points and resources and she made a fantastic suggestion for improvement which was to colour code whether the winning number was the highest or the lowest.
Little Miss Green, who is at the age these cards are designed for, loved the pictures and muted colours. She found it a bit complicated to begin with, not knowing whether she needed to find the highest or lowest number and suggested the box could have been made more fun to look at in order to make it a better received gift for children. She wasn’t sure whether it was the sort of thing she would give all her friends as a gift, but she certainly felt it was a winner for her ‘eco’ friends.
Overall we give this a thumbs up. It’s the right price for a inexpensive gift for eco kids from ages 9+. Paula’s vision is to see a pack of these cards in every school in the UK and she’s currently trying to get funding to make this happen. There is heaps of excellent information on Paula’s website where you can learn more about the assumptions behind the figures on the cards. It makes for very interesting reading and her data is based on the Energy Saving Trust recommendations where Paula used to work.
The Eco Action Trumps cards are available from Dan at Onya Bags for £4.95
This will be my last post until Santa is safely back in Lapland. I shall be preparing for the festivities here at zero waste towers and I wish you all a happy, healthy and zero waste Christmas / Yule.
Let me know what you’re up to and how you managed to make this your most zero waste festive season yet …
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What a great educational tool. And I like that term “grandma green.”
brillant idea, for my grandchildren, one is nine, We have grown our own veg for christmas, no waste
Now that is a great education gift. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, too.