Green Liberty
Green Liberty (“Zaļā brīvība” in Latvian) is a non-profit NGO founded in 1993. Our mission is to contribute to the development of a society where people live in harmony with each other and the environment.
Green Liberty aims at raising awareness about social and environmental implications of current trends in consumerism, trade and globalization, empowering people to make meaningful decisions connected with their lives directly and indirectly and opposing abuses of power.
Green Liberty participates in several international networks: CEE Bankwatch Network, Climate Action Network Europe (CAN), European ECO Forum, European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Reloop, and national networks: Association ‘Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia’, Environmental Consultative board, and Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS).
Green Liberty organizes press briefings, conferences, exhibitions, public lectures, expositions, and runs webpage and online campaigns. Green Liberty publishes environmental information, organizes different cultural and environmental actions, as well as does studies on socio-environmental issues and works on sustainable development and lifestyles, development issues and particularly on fair trade, climate and energy and waste related issues. Green Liberty also advocates government on sustainable development and environmental policy integration in various sectoral policies.
Key Areas of Activity and Expertise
Global or development education
Green Liberty works in global education via projects that are focused on media, solidarity economy, fair trade, and sustainable tropical fruits and supermarket private label products. We are organizing CSO seminars, workshops, and lectures. We actively engage people in discussing development issues, inform them about connections between development and environmental issues, and global impacts of local processes. We also work on fighting myths and misconceptions about development.
Climate and Energy
Green Liberty is actively involved in advocacy work with national decision makers regarding climate and energy policy. At the same time, we follow European and international policy developments and we are a member of Climate Action Network (CAN) and CEE Bankwatch Network. We promote a climate-friendly lifestyle and work on climate education and research (carbon footprinting). Recently we published joined book with University of Latvia “Climate and sustainable development“. Our work contributes to informing society in Latvia about the implications of climate change and building an understanding of low carbon development and climate change-related global and local challenges.
Sustainable consumption
Green Liberty has longstanding experience in sustainable consumption. We have been involved in several projects related to the topic, e.g. EU 7th FW funded project “Action Town” looking for the ways NGOs can provide new insights for research on sustainable consumption and production with the goal of reaching absolute decoupling of economic growth from resource use. Green Liberty has published Consumer guide on sustainable living and regularly worked with media to popularize sustainable behavior. We have also done several studies on sustainable consumption and related topics, e.g. „Current Status and recent changes in consumption and production patterns in Latvia”, the background report for UNEP.
Waste and Circular economy
We are advocating for efficient use of resources, by promoting green public procurement, eliminating unsustainable subsidies and promoting green budget reform in Latvia. We have also done research and implemented campaigns to promote the zero-waste concept and the introduction of a deposit-refund system in Latvia. Currently we are working on the issues of food waste and global development.
Our team
We participate
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Contact us
Lapu iela 17, Rīga, LV-1002Latvia
Tel/Fax: +371 67 225 112
E-mail: info@zalabriviba.lv
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ZalaBriviba/