Older persons and green volunteering : the missing link to sustainable futures?

Abstract

The empirical study featuring in this paper is contextualised within the statistics provided by a national survey on older volunteerism. Older volunteers are nowadays viewed as a valuable resource, a reliable and experienced labour pool. In Malta, many persons aged 60 and above volunteer many hours each month in local environmental organisations in their goal to preserve the earth for future generations even though they will not personally see the benefits. Through the data emanating from a qualitative survey this paper highlights the possible positive returns accruing from green volunteering in later life which are of a physical, cognitive, and social nature. It thus argues that there is a potential for a greater number of older people to volunteer in green nongovernmental organisations. It is on this basis that a number of policy options and action strategies to improve the engagement of older persons in green volunteering are recommended. These include expanding the participation by older persons who are ageing actively, presenting green volunteering as a course module in pre-retirement educational programmes, advertising green volunteering as a means of self-actualisation rather than as a form of unpaid work, and designing green volunteer roles that do not necessitate high levels of education.