Pepsi is giving away over a million dollars to fund great ideas which will have a positive impact on communities. 

The Natural Step Canada has submitted an idea in “The Planet: Help improve the environment on a local or massive scale” category.  In each cycle of votes, only the most popular may continue in the next round and hope for the Pepsi funding. 

Please vote in support of this great idea by October 31, 2010.

If we are successful in winning this funding, The Natural Step Canada will undertake this project in partnership with AIESEC Canada. AIESEC is the international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential in creating a positive impact on society. AIESEC provides an opportunity for Canadian students and recent graduates to develop their leadership skills and gain valuble work experience though international internships.

The goals of this project are:

• Thousands of individual actions toward sustainability
• 3,000 young people inspired and empowered by message of sustainability
• 30 Eco-leaders trained and supported
• Increased understanding of sustainability and underlying issues
• Youth engagement and a different way of thinking about our problems

These goals will be accomplished by training 30 AIESEC students to become Eco-leaders who will tap into their networks, each reaching 100 people by facilitating discussions, doing presentations and generally sharing information about sustainability.  This will lead each participant to commit to 1 tangible action toward sustainability and start a deeper shift in how people see the world around them.

This will have these following impacts:

• Shift paradigms: Eco-leaders’ presentations will highlight the underlying causes of un-sustainability, liberating their audiences to radically re-think their own relationship with the world around them.
• Impart information: What is sustainability, why is it important, and what is the basis of our current crisis?
• Become a community resource: Eco-leaders will become the go-to person in their community for sustainability information.
• Catalyze participants to make one tangible commitment before leaving the follow up session.

For more details on the Train Eco-Leaders Project - and to vote - please click here.