Intriguing environmental projects can distinguish your club and attract new members. Creative and well run events spread your message and stick in the minds of your fellow students. Trash pickups, movie nights, and recycling games work well at first, but eventually become repetitive. Advanced projects tell environmental stories and create a lasting impression. They can be as part of an earth week or as stand alone events.
Earth Week:
Earth week is a series of earth days designed around an environmental theme. In my senior year of high school the environmental club hosted an earth week. On meatless Monday, we eliminated meat from the dining hall menu and ran a community dinner which featured an interactive slideshow and trivia game. On Wednesday we broke ground on a community garden and Friday capped off the week with showing of a new film made by an alumni of my school: “Happening: A Climate Revolution.” We also removed the paper take-out cup option for hot drinks in the dining hall for the earth week.
Dark Day of Enlightenment: ( or A Day Without Light )
In my ninth grade year, a friend and I organized a “Dark Day of Enlightenment.” This is a school day run without the use of electricity. The event had a memorable impact on students and therefore proved it to be totally worth the effort. A school day without lights, printers, computers, and projectors requires planning and compromise. A simplified dark day could be the turning off of lights at meal time to convey the idea. Here is the outline we used to plan the event:
Logistics:
- Pitch idea to administration and facilities team
- Decide which buildings to include and duration of event
- 8:00 start of school day to 3:00 end of school day
- Best done in spring of fall
- Design safety protocols
- Spaces like staircases must be lit
Planning:
- Inform teachers ahead of time so they can adapt lesson plans
- similar to teaching class outside
Results:
- Interesting and memorable class, a school day still talked about!
- Relaxed students
- Reduced CO2 emissions
- Total emissions of 1 building: 100 lbs of CO2
- Calculate energy saved and present to school
- Compare day with monthly average
Recruitment strategies to attract guest speakers:
- Attend local environmental events
- Talk to local people
- Work with alumni department
- Search for alumni
- Reach out by email with no specific request, just to say hi
- Say that you are interested in what they are working on and that you wanted to introduce yourself
- If you have a specific request, openly state it at this time (see suggested details below)
- If think possible event, email alum again to pitch idea
- In second email: connect on personal level, teachers, clubs or sports in common
- Weird but real example: “A funny coincidence, I believe my dorm room was given by your family”
- Plan and research like crazy
- Do your homework
- Favorite two pre interview questions are: “Looking back at this event in 6 months, what would it look like if it were successful, what would hit it out of the park?”
- “what areas would you like to talk about or that you would like to avoid? Remind them that they have the final cut during the edit
- Be engaged with university events
Community Computing and Carpooling:
- Carpools and buddy walking programs for safety
- Create community experience while being eco friendly
- Make walking or biking easier by helping people who live in similar areas to connect and travel together
- Create groups of people to promote green travel in more dangerous road conditions
- Rewards program and incentives for sustainable travel
- Encourage and support people who don’t travel sustainably or who are slightly too far away to bike or walk
- Discounts on food or environmental gifts like water bottles if shown effort to sustainable travel
- Reimburse people who often travel sustainably to continue that practice even in difficult weather conditions
- Make their efforts recognized
- Post a photo of them walking or biking on website
- $10 reward for their effort
- Eco map
- Map out where people live and travel routes to create community experience
- Message board forum to create peer pressure to continue activity
- Cumulative points and final end prize
Divestment campaign from fossil fuel industry:
Divestment campaigns are used to create economic pressure in favor of a cause. The mechanism of change is the selling of stocks or bonds invested in businesses which should no longer be supported. Loss of equity from investors puts financial pressure on these establishments. Divestment can be seen as solving a problem at the root cause because it threatens the financial security of the problem itself.
Divestment was used extensively on college campuses in 1985-6 to protest apartheid in South Africa. (1) The anti apartheid divestment movement was successful because it attracted apolitical students, brought people together from different backgrounds and views, and each campaign, although separate and run privately, was still part of a larger social movement. (2)
The divestment strategy can be applied to the energy sector to put pressure on fossil fuel companies. The hope is that divesting from fossil fuel will help accelerate the transition to an electric economy.
There are many reasonings for divestment. The most important being the moral issue of supporting fossil fuel companies during a time where the effects of climate change are becoming more apparent. The more quickly we transition to clean energy, the lower number of climate issues will occur. The moral logic of supporting fossil fuel companies at this time is questionable because we understand burning fossil fuels is a direct cause of climate change. School values should reflect their actions and use of money. The priority of any organization is directly reflected in how they choose to spend their money. Large amounts of money should promote a better future, not a polluting industry.
Economic factors also play a role in divestment tactics. One argument against divestment is that institutions will lose money when they leave the fossil fuel industry. This is not always the case. Each campaign is different and the purpose is to sell holdings because of a moral obligation to the future and in an ideal situation it preferably should be done whether or not money is lost. The opposite of divestment is investment. These funds can be used for buying stock in companies who are positive agents of change or where these investments are profitable in the green energy sector. Money could also be used to buy solar panels or wind turbines in order to set up a microgrid for the school. Similarly, the funds could be used to purchase renewable power. Because it is now less expensive to purchase renewable power, the university can lower its electricity cost and get green power.
There is similar logic to investing in clean energy now as there was when institutions first invested in fossil fuels. Energy production for the foreseeable future be important and the divestment campaigns merely reflect the changing of one technology to another. It is important to notice future trends and selling fossil fuel stocks today may avoid losing money in the long run. A good campaign anticipates opposing arguments and develops eloquent counter responses.
Arriving at positive divestment results take many months of campaigning. Running sustained projects requires consistent effort and long term thinking. At the same time as the campaign is in session, there should also be a side project for club members not interested in divestment. The main lessons from the anti apartheid divestment campaigns were that side projects were necessary for retaining members only interested in divestment. (3) Showing that the environmental club is continuing environmental projects in other areas shows the commitment to the sustainability cause. Another strategy is that while spreading the message of divestment on campus, an effort would be made to suggest the idea to a select few trustees early on. This way there can be administrative support during the campus discussion phase. Sharing progress reports of your campaign and talking with other colleges about their work can help tie the cumulative successes into a broader national effort.
Extra reading- counter arguments and tool kits:
The Washington Post has a great article about why divestment may not be the best course of action for many universities. This is because universities are not required to take any action. Not divesting is a legitimate option and continues to keep the university a place of debate without taking a side. Divestment can be a slippery slope and sometimes it is better to be nonpartisan and focus on delivering the best education possible. Divestment should only be considered once a university has put in the hard work of becoming green.
Citations:
(1): Countryman, Matthew. "Beyond victory: lessons of the divestment drive." The Nation, March 26, 1988, 406+. General OneFile (accessed December 6, 2018). http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A6485507/GPS?u=s0937&sid=GPS&xid=24d51898.
(2): Countryman, Matthew. "Beyond victory: lessons of the divestment drive."
(3): IBID
