Increase Your Green Activity Ideas

Saving Hours of Energy

Most of these are simple things (turning off lights, equipment, and so on) that will require very little time and some reminders—most people don’t know that just turning off lights can actually save a lot of energy and money!

Brainstorming:

Get a group to brainstorm all the electronic equipment in your school. Think about all rooms the school: classrooms, the cafeteria, computer lab, etc., and equipment such as radios, computers, stereos, printers that can and should be turned off or put into sleep mode when not being used.
List who regulates the equipment: teachers, librarians, the secretary, students, to see who to talk to about turning off the machines at night and/or during the weekends.

Things you can do:

Turn the lights off in rooms that aren’t being used (i.e. during recess and lunch).
Light bills accounts for over 50 percent of the electric bill — you can save money and energy by simply flipping a switch!
Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
CFL’s produce the same amount of light but use 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. (Keep in mind that CFL’s have mercury, so they can’t be thrown out in the regular trash).
Use natural lighting when possible. On nice days, encourage people to go outside for class or host lunchtime picnics to get everyone out of the cafeteria! Use natural light in your classroom.
Studies show that students who study by natural daylight can learn as much as 26% faster than students who learn in artificial light!
Let your computers snooze. You can change the settings to hibernate after 10 (or fewer) minutes of inactivity.
Monitors use up about 80% of the energy that a computer uses as a whole, so turn them off whenever you can, or use the “Energy Saver” options rather than screensavers.
Unplug! Toasters, coffeemakers, hair dryers, cell phone chargers use a lot of energy when they’re plugged in, even if they’re not being used. Hopefully you’re not bringing your hair dryer to school, but you can remind people what to do at home. If everything is plugged into a power strip, then you can just flip it off at night and for the weekend.
Control the thermostat.
Just a few degrees can make a difference: Try 68 degrees for heating and 78 degrees for cooling. And just like with lights, talk to whoever’s in charge of turning everything off when it’s not being used.
Fans use 90% less energy than air-conditioning. Ice pops and cold drinks are also cool . . . and delicious!
Make sure that you’re making the most of the cold air/heat that you need. For example, you can keep bookcases and other big items away from vents so they don't block the warm (or cool) air that should be coming into the room. You should also make sure that windows and doors are closed so that the cool/warm air isn’t escaping.

Recycling, Reducing, Reusing Waste

General Recycling Tips

Know what you can recycle.
There’s a good, short guide here
A simple run-down is: You can and should recycle unbroken glass, cans, paper (including newspaper, mixed paper,cardboard boxes), plastic, plastic bags (such as grocery bags), and scrap aluminum. There are also other things that might take more work but should still be disposed of properly, such as motor oil, batteries, and household toxics. You should also recycle computers, eyeglasses, household goods, and ink cartridges.
Remind people to recycle. You can make signs. Recycling also needs to be available and easy. Find out how to get recycling bins or make recycling containers out of things that would have been thrown away otherwise.
Create recycling centers where community members can bring their stuff to be recycled, then arrange for pickup or transport them to recycling centers. You can make a difference in your community as well as save energy by carpooling with friends to drop off the stuff in less car trips.

Recycle

Remind others to recycle their cans, bottles, plastic bags and aluminum foil.
Think about the things that might be harder for some people to recycle or dispose of properly. For example, diskettes, CD’s, DVD’s, cell phones, PDA’s, pagers, digital cameras, handheld games, CD players, and MP3 players, batteries. Let other people know about the possibilities! Electronics contain valuable resources that should be recovered and reused, such as precious metals, glass, and plastics
Hold a recycling drive. Irvington High School held an E-Waste Drive. They took in monitors, televisions, laptops, flat screens, cell phones, ink jet cartridges, and computer components, and charged $5 to recycle stereos, CPUs, cameras, VCR’s, DVD players, printers, fax machines, copy machines, and type writers.
You can look up where to recycle these items through some of the links we have provided in our “Local Resources” section, or you can also donate them to non-profit organizations and/or local charities.
Think before you toss. You could probably recycle it somehow! Old towels from sports teams can be donated to a local animal hospital rather than thrown away.

Re-use

Create a recycled gift store or catalogue (online, or on recycled paper and double-sided, of course) with recycled crafts like flowerpots from recycled boxes, use old CD’s as coasters and glue some felt or fabric to the back, film canister toothbrush holders—just cut a hole in the top, make a beach bag by sewing together the bottom of an old tank top.
Charlestown High School Do Something Club’s collected discarded paper and created crafts such as origami miniatures and calligraphy art on recycled paper.
Compost! Instead of throwing away your food scraps from lunch, you can turn them into fertilizers. There are some tips to creating your own here. Or you can collect scraps from people and then bring them to a local compost center.
Have a school-wide swap/yard sale where people can buy or swap used things like clothing, books, toys, computers, and other electronic equipment. Or donate them to a library, shelter, or charity.
Reach out to local businesses and ask if they want to donate used stuff, or put up flyers in the stores in your area.

Reduce

Print and photocopy double-sided.
Set your computers to print double-sided.
Designate space in your classroom for paper that's been printed on one side. Use it for notes or scrap paper.
Ask your teacher if you can send assignments in on a disk or through email rather than on paper. Print out only what you really need—there are a lot of things, such as magazines and newspapers, that are available online now.
Talk to the secretary at school and see if there is a lot of junk mail coming through. Those can be mailed back. Many also have a phone number that you can call to be removed from the mailing list. It’ll save paper from being used up, plus your secretary will probably be grateful about not having to go through all that junk mail!

Awareness

Not all of these will count for direct points, but these are events that should definitely help you inspire and educate people to understand what they are doing to contribute to global warming and what they can do to stop.

Have people figure out their carbon footprint here before and after the contest.
Plan skits and fun PSA’s for school assemblies on conserving energy.
Host a fair to kick off your competition! You can have games such as:
Use old boxes to make a 'Wheel of Recycling'! When they spin it, if they answer questions correctly they win prizes!
Instead of how much candy in the jar, get people to guess how many cans in a bag (which you can recycle after!)
Have a recycling relay where people race to sort stuff into different containers.
Create posters to show people how to be more environmental around school.
Write letters to Congress and local legislators about supporting legislation for energy conservation.
Write editorials to newspapers and magazines to educate others about global warming.
Get businesses to sign pledges that they will conserve energy by turning off their lights, conserving water, and so on.
Have a movie night. Check out "An Inconvenient Truth", "The End of Suburbia", and "Who Killed the Electric Car". Feed people with popcorn and food from local stores as snacks.
Sponsor a “wear green” day to remind students to save energy.
Create a buddy system! It’s easier to be on good environmental behavior when you have someone holding you accountable. You can help younger kids at your school/ local middle and elementary schools learn about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. You could also make presentations at the schools.

Other Activity Ideas for beyond the contest:

Get people to record if they made lunches out of food that is locally grown and produced. The average local meal travels 200 miles, whereas a meal that is not local travels an average of 1,200 miles. A truck travels about 10 miles per gallon of gasoline, so it requires 100 gallons of fuel to transport food the excess distance.
Count how many people you got to agree to carpool, walk, or bike to school.
Count how many buses you stopped from idling and the average time that they turn their engines off rather than idling.
Have a smart lunch:
Ask people to bring reusable silverware to school rather than having the school provide plastic utensils.
Bring lunch boxes instead of a plastic/paper bag for lunch every day, and use cloth napkins you can wash at home.
Bring your own lunch instead of buying packaged foods. You’ll produce less trash and also eat healthier!
Get together with friends to make lunches from food that is grown/ produced locally.
Have people bring reusable water bottles to school rather than buying new one and throwing them away every time.
Carpool with friends, take the bus, bike or walk to school. You’ll help reduce pollution while also getting more fit!