What You Can Do During Go Green Week
Try to keep in mind the key aims of Go Green Week:
Organise events that cut 10% off your school or colleges carbon footprint
Get your school to sign the Go Green 10:10 Pledge
Raise £100 for People & Planet
Get local news interested in your Go Green Week
Remember you can email Alys if you need help with anything, or if you just want to brag about how great your week will be!
Fall In Love With Your Climate
With Go Green Week 2009 happening in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to get all romantic and Fall In Love With The Climate.
And what better way to show your love by getting your school or college to sign up to 10:10
Go Green at the Eden Project
Create a mini windfarm with our windmill petitions, or send your headteacher a valentine’s card to persuade them.
Check out the Schools and Colleges Go Green Week action guide for loads of great ideas and advice, or take a look at some of our suggestions below.
Go Green Day
You don’t have to fill the whole of Go Green Week with activities and events. Why not just have a Go Green Day? You could do a couple of awareness-raising and fundraising activities during the day and still be part of the whirlwind of activity during Go Green Week.
Check out the ideas on the left and decide which ones you could during a day. Or come up with your own. Just doing something small during the week is really important for increasing the pressure on your school or college.
Reduce the carbon yourself!
Show your teachers how it’s done and organise a week (or just a day) of carbon reductions. Find out how to measure the reductions in the Go Green Week Guide
Car-free week Ask students and teachers to cycle, walk or get the bus into school for a week. You could even ask them to donate the money they would otherwise have spent on petrol to P&P. People will soon realise how much money they spend on unnecessary journeys – and how much it’s costing the planet.
Zero-waste week Get everyone in your school to make sure EVERYTHING is recycled or composted in this week. Or better still challenge everyone to produce no waste at all for a day or week – schools and colleges spend lots of money every year buying things that they don’t need, and throwing away things which could be recycled or reused by others. Get in touch and we’ll provide you with a free can recycling pack from Every Can Counts.
Eat Green Week Veggie food is much healthier for the planet. Try and persuade your canteen to switch to a vegetarian menu for the week, or just to try a meat-free Monday. Students will discover how yummy veggie food can be, and your school/college will see that you don’t have to put expensive meat into every meal. You could even try to raise some money by getting people to sponsor you (or how about a teacher?!) to go veggie for longer.
Switch Off Week This is the easiest way to persuade your headteacher that being energy-efficient is the way to go – encourage everyone in your school or college to turn off the lights and not leave computers on standby all week. You’ll save loads of energy and money. Why not form a Power Rangers Team to go around school/college at the end of every day and make sure things are turned off. Make stickers and posters and introduce CO£2 fines for teachers who don’t follow your Switch Off Code.
Carbon Speed Dating If you really want to go all out then why not organise a Carbon Speed Dating event in a lunchtime or after school? People will find out their carbon footprint, and maybe even their carbon ‘sole’mate! Check out the step-by-step guide to holding a really successful event
Have a Green (Af)Fair Turn your common room green for the day! Green décor, a P&P stall, bike powered smoothie makers, recycled arts and crafts, eco-fancy dress (or just get everyone wearing green!) - anything goes, as long as it’s green!
Hold a Pledge Signing Ceremony Once you’ve convinced your school or college to sign up to the 10:10 campaign and reduce their carbon emissions by 10%, then why not seal the deal by holding a pledge signing ceremony. This could be in an assembly, during lunch or after school. Make sure you take lots of photos and why not use our sample press releaseto try and get a story in your local paper!
Get facepainting. Get loads of green facepaint (and a little bit of some other colours) and offer to paint people’s faces for a small donation. You don’t need to be an artist, just some fancy swirls and patterns will do the trick. Or you could write the words ‘Go Green’ across their faces!
Let them eat cookies. Make and sell Go Green Week Vegan Cookies. Make them heart shaped and convince people to buy them for their Valentine. You’ll not only raise some money for P&P and get people talking about Go Green, but because they’re vegan, you’re helping the planet too!
Valentine’s Delivery! Get a group together and offer yourselves as a discreet Valentine’s cards delivery service for everyone in your school. You could make some cards out of left over coloured paper, and charge CO£2 to buy a card and get it delivered to the object of their affection!
- Hold a Go Green Stall. Set it up in a prominent place. Use some posters and other decorations to make the stall look appealing. Have plenty of Go Green information on the stall along with any petitions or actions (such as the Valentine’s cards) for people to sign.
Put on a Go Green club night or ‘End of Half Term’ party. Get people to dress in green, have green drinks promotions, offer face painting (mostly green of course) and sell cakes and snacks. Your union or student council might be able to help you arrange the night.
Hold a Go Green film night. Show a relevant film or two, charge for entry and sell ice cream, popcorn and drinks. Turn it into a ‘Cans Film Festival’ by making people recycle an aluminium can to get in, or ask for donations for People & Planet.
Uncover Climate Crime Scenes. Take photos of all the ‘climate crime scenes’ at your school or college. This could include lights left on, a full car park or waste not being recycled. Make some fake police tape from strips of white paper, tape off the climate crime scene and take photos. Make a display and present the photos to your Head/Principal or write an article on the crime.
Go Green Art Attack. Pretend you’re Neil Buchanan for the day. Wrap trees in green crepe paper and rubbish, make words and images out of rubbish or attach Go Green signs to sign posts to really raise awareness and get people to take notice. You could even attempt your own Big Art Attack with a Go Green theme.
What have other groups got planned?
To find out what other groups have already organised for Go Green Week, check out the What’s On page. You can also give us the details of what you have planned here.
Got any ideas we’ve missed out? Let us know and we’ll be happy to add them here.
