Svanhild’s Travels learning concept by the Swan label

The Svanhild's Travels learning concept aims to inspire children to learn about sustainability and to teach that each person can have an impact on the environment by making sustainable choices. The goal is to engage children and parents on an emotional level in order to create a mindset that inspires good consumer choices. The objectives for the Svanhild learning concept are linked to one of the objectives for daycare education in Norway, which is stated as follows: "It is a goal that children shall begin to understand sustainable development early. This includes nurturing the love of nature and creating an understanding of the interplay in nature and between nature and people." The Swan label has developed a communication concept for small children between ages 5 and 6, which instead of focusing on distributing general environmental information, uses stories built around a Swan labelled product's lifecycle to teach about sustainability and sustainable consumer choices. The stories all include a different voyage made by the well-known Norwegian story figure Svanhild, where the stops along the route are defined by the different phases a products goes through in its lifecycle. The stories aim to illustrate and inspire good consumer choices. The communication concept includes web pages where the stories are illustrated by an interactive application. The application can be used by daycare teachers and parents with young children. The concept also includes mobile applications for smart phones and i-pads, which enable older children to engage through a media they are familiar with. The applications are free and can be used both at home or, as a more advanced version, at daycare centers. The concept, furthermore, includes an activity pack for daycare centers interested in using Svanhild's Travels in their teaching. These activity packs are provided by the Swan label and aim to initiate nature awareness in children. The daycare center activity pack includes the following elements: • seven stories, which can be read aloud in seven different daily gatherings of daycare children • a postcard from Svanhild • postcards the children can take home • a large poster, which can be used in group meetings to illustrate the discussion • tasks and suggestions for inspiring activities In addition to the above, a magazine is distributed through partners and other channels and online information is provided for teachers. The online information aims to give guidance and support to teachers for teaching sustainability related subjects. Success Factors: Key success factors to promote the adoption of the Svanhild learning concept in daycare centers are building awareness of the concept, training the daycare workers in using the concept and raising competence of the teachers in sustainability related matters. Effective communication and marketing as well as training are essential to do this. Key Results and Achievements: The activity pack, which is part of the Svanhild's travels concept meant for daycare centers, has been distributed to approximately 600 daycare centers. The concept was initially tested in several daycare centers and the feedback received was very positive. The children like the stories and the tasks they get to do, and the teachers feel that the concept is easy to use. Feedback from parents indicates that children now make sure that their parents buy Swan labeled products when purchases are made. Exact numbers are not available for how many families or children use the applications, but feedback received from the users so far has been positive. Challenges and potential for development: Limited funds have been available to communicate the concept. More resources would be needed for getting the material to daycare centers and for communicating the concept more effectively.