Grade of Green’s Energy Earth Tips provide your school with a library of environmental tips you can us to spread awareness and inspire and educate your school community about ways to care for the environment by conserving energy. You can publish these Energy Earth Tips in your school’s e-newsletters, say them over morning announcements, or add them to bulletin boards. Because it requires a minimal time commitment, it is a great starter Grades of Green Activity! Additionally, if you’re looking to take energy conservation to the next level, this is a great Activity to layer on to existing energy-related Grades of Green Activities.
ESTABLISH YOUR SCHOOL’S GRADES OF GREEN TEAM. Ensure your school has established a Grades of Green Team to help implement Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips and any other Grades of Green Activities your school takes on in the future.
Step 2
GET YOUR SCHOOL ON BOARD. Set up a meeting with your school’s Grades of Green Team leaders and your principal and campus leaders to discuss implementing Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips. Let them know why you think it's important for your school to spread awareness about the Earth conservation and protecting the quality of the Earth. Click here for an example email to send to your principal and an example agenda. Encourage your principal and Grades of Green team leaders and members to register on Grades of Green’s website and affiliate themselves with your school’s profile page so these leaders can track your school’s progress. If any questions come up during the meeting, please contact Grades of Green at (310) 607-0175 and we can help answer them. You can also email us here in advance with any additional questions, to get additional tips, or to schedule a practice meeting to help prepare.
Step 3
SET GOALS AND START TRACKING. What do you want to accomplish by implementing Grades of Green’s Earth Tips Activity? Whether it’s setting a goal of the number of students involved or the number of gallons of water saved, trees planted, or waste diverted, set a goal and begin tracking your progress so you know when it’s time to CELEBRATE! Record your starting baseline metrics before beginning so you know when you’ve accomplished your goal!
Step 4
SHARE WITH YOUR SCHOOL! Make sure your school community knows your school is implementing this Grades of Green’s Activity, as well as the positive impact that this Activity will have on your school. Share facts over the morning announcements about the importance of taking on this Activity, and add them to bulletin boards around campus, to your school’s newspaper or to take-home packets to inspire parents, students, and teachers at your school to get involved!
Step 5
FIND A LEAD VOLUNTEER Find a volunteer to manage the Energy Earth Tips' distribution at school. This Activity is an initiative that students can help manage for parents or teachers who are looking for a smaller volunteer project to lead at the school.
After you’ve viewed the above list of Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips above, select the one(s) you think will be the most impactful to students at your school. Once you’ve narrowed your top choices down, ask your Grades of Green Team for input and start mapping out your publicity plan. You can also get creative and research your own Energy Earth Tips, just be sure that your sources are credible. Check out this National Wildlife Federation Page for more ideas on how to conserve energy.
Step 7
WHERE WILL THE ENERGY EARTH TIPS BE PUBLISHED? Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Select a few different ways to communicate each Energy Earth Tip to students, parents, and teachers. The more ways you’re able to add Energy Earth Tips into your school community, the more likely people are to see them and implement the tips. Everyone has different learning styles, so challenge your Grades of Green Team to brainstorm ways to share the Energy Earth Tips visually, verbally and even make them interactive. Click here to learn more about adapting information to different learning styles. Here’s some examples of how other Grades of Green schools have used our Energy Earth Tips:
- Add to your bulletin boards
- Ask students in your Grades of Green Team to read tips over morning announcements
- Add to your school's e-newsletters
- Add to your school's social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
- Cut the tips out and make a collage-style display board
- Get creative and make campus-wide poster displays
- Kick it up a notch! Ask local businesses, your city council, school district or local community center to share your selected Energy Earth Tips around the community to spread the message far and wide.
More ideas? Let us know how you used the Energy Earth Tips so we can add your ideas to the list.
Step 8
MEASURE THE RESULTS. Remember that goal you set earlier? How’d it go? How many students did you reach or how many gallons of water did you save, or how many trees did you plant, or how much waste did you divert? Measure the results of taking on Grades of Green’s Research and Advocacy Activity.
Step 9
CELEBRATE AND SHARE THE RESULTS Congratulations! You completed Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips and we couldn’t be prouder. You helped inspire and empower students to care for the environment, and the earth is just that much better off as a result. Email us the results you achieved and tag @gradesofgreen on social media so we can help share your story. Whether it’s “before/after” photos or videos showing how you took on the Activity, or a shot of your Grades of Green Team in action, tag us on social media so we can shout it from the mountains (or at least on our website, e-newsletter, and social media).
Step 10
MAKE IT SUSTAINABLE. What can you do to make it this Activity sustainable at your school for years to come? Brainstorm with your Grades of Green Team ways to make the Activity sustainable and part of your school’s everyday culture. We suggest making Grades of Green positions permanent, as well as adding tips and suggestions to your PTA or volunteer handbook, and adding a date to the calendar now to re-educate students next year as well!
Benefit to Students
By receiving Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips, students will learn about how and why to protect the environment. For those students in charge of publishing the Energy Earth Tips, this initiative will empower them to take concrete action to protect our earth by educating their campus community about easy ways they can care for the environment.
Benefits to the Environment
Grades of Green’s Energy Earth Tips will motivate students and the wider school community to learn more about the issues affecting the environment, as well as take simple actions to care for the environment.