Be a Planet Champion with our Earth Tribe Award

As a movement, we’re at our best in the outdoors. That’s why we’ve always been committed to protecting nature and our precious Earth. From our pledge to ‘leave no trace,’ to our Promise to the Planet and work at COP26, we’re proud to be part of a community supporting environmental action. Now a new award will help all Scouts take action to create a better world.

A Squirrel is standing on grass wearing a red Squirrels t-shirt and a red and yellow necker. Their left hand has a glove on and is holding the top of a spade.

From today, 5 June, World Environment Day, every Scout in each of our six Sections can be part of a global community of Scouts supporting environmental action through our Earth Tribe Award.

Steve Backshall, Scouts Ambassador and environmental campaigner says: ‘I’d like to encourage all my friends in Scouts to become Planet Champions. To my mind, this one single planet we have and the resources it offers us are the only things that are really important – the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil we rely on for our food. Everything else is just noise. So I’m calling on all of you to take part. Protect this precious planet, it’s the only one we’ve got.’

Young people can learn how to better connect with nature, become champions for sustainability and take action to restore nature and stop climate change. It’s about preventing further harm to our planet and building a better world.

Whatever Section you’re in, there’s a way to be a planet champion, as each Earth Tribe Award contains three elements:

Tide Turners – learn about the impacts of plastic on our oceans and how to help turn the tide on this.
Go Solar – understand the importance of renewable energy.
Champions of Nature – learn about and promote healthy plant life and wildlife.

‘The Earth Tribe is a global community of young people passionate about the environment,’ says Callum Kaye, our Chief Volunteer for International. ‘It was created by the World Organization of the Scout Movement and has been adopted by many countries across the world. Now I’m proud the UK’s part of it too.’

There are three key aims:

Understand the world around them, and the challenges our planet faces.
Become environmentally conscious, active global citizens and be a #PlanetChampion.
Take action now and in the future to protect our planet and create a better world.

Why protecting the planet’s a priority

The idea for the award was sparked by young people themselves. Some 78% of young people aged between 8–15 said that looking after the environment was important to them (Children’s People and Nature Survey). Meanwhile, more than 8 in 10 (81%) said they wanted to do more to look after the environment.

How it works

The Earth Tribe Award runs alongside our current programme, but doesn’t replace any current programme awards or badges related to the environment.

The activities for the Earth Tribe Award can count towards these badge requirements too. They can also count towards the Community Impact Staged Activity Badge.

We want young people to be as creative as they like with this, and choose activities to bring it to life in your local community. These could be anything from building bee gardens and learning about local ecosystems, to conserving energy in Scout meeting places.

The badges

The badges are available to pre-order now at Scout Store. They can be worn on uniform by young people on the right sleeve, below County and District badges.