Earth Day On Campus

EARTH DAY on CAMPUS ORGANIZERS GUIDE

  1. Earth Day on Campus 2009: Join the GREEN GENERATION!
  2. Getting Started: Plan for Success
    1. Form a Team
    2. Set a Goal
    3. Choose a Strategy
  3. Organizing Tools: What you Need to Succeed
    1. Developing a Message & Outreach
    2. Building Support
    3. Location, Location, Location
    4. Staying the Course – Timelines & Deadlines
  4. Resources
    1. Campus Climate Change Survey
    2. Sample Volunteer Information Form
    3. Sample Media Advisory
    4. Sample Radio Public Service Announcement

    Return to Earth Day on Campus

1. EARTH DAY & CLIMATE CHANGE INTRODUCTION:

  • Earth Day: The official date of Earth Day is April 22. Earth Day events are often scheduled for the weekends before or after April 22. Many communities and groups choose to organize environmental activities over the longer time period of Earth Week or even Earth Month, with events scheduled throughout the month of April.

Earth Day Network was founded on the premise that all people, regardless of race, gender, income, or geography, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment. Our mission is to broaden and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable environment. We pursue our mission through a combination of education, public policy, and consumer activism campaigns. Our campaigns and programs are predicated on the belief that an educated, energized population will take action to secure a healthy future for itself and its children. Earth Day Network has a global reach with a network of more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world.

We are encouraging organizers to focus on the following activities for Earth Day on Campus 2009:

    • Joining the Green Generation and signing the Green Generation Manifesto
    • Participating in the No Coal Call
    • Educating your campus on coal issues
    • Campus vs. Coal
  • THE GREEN GENERATION: The Green Generation is Earth Day Network’s two-year campaign culminating in Earth Day 2010, the 40th anniversary of the most pivotal moment in environmental history. From Earth Day 2009 to 2010 the Green Generation will be grow to a level that will equal or surpass the impact of Denis Hayes’ pivotal event in 1970. For more information, visit www.earthday.net/greengeneration.

2. GETTING STARTED: PLAN FOR SUCCESS

A. Form a Team: Work within an existing Earth Day effort or start your own. Begin by learning what’s already being planned in your community:

  • Check Earth Day Network’s site and our Earth Day on Campus page to view the latest listing of planned events and to look for contacts and organizers on your campus or in your community.
  • Find core members of your group: two or three dedicated students and ideally a supportive professor or staff member.
  • Talk to other groups on campus and ask what they are planning.
  • Organize a kick-off meeting to identify possible partners. Invite existing campus groups who may already be planning an Earth Day event, or who might be interested in helping with one. Pull together a steering committee (for more on recruiting volunteers see Building Support).
  • List your event on Earth Day Network’s site so that information will be available to people in your community.
  • Form Committees: If you choose to team up with other organizers and establish your own Earth Day group, consider forming committees to oversee basic functions. Committees may include project/event planning, materials, publicity and outreach.

B. Set a Goal:

  • Research you campus’ climate condition. Before you can develop a strategy you must know what the existing campus environmental policies are as well as how best to address your campus’ needs.

You can even find a sample survey in this guide. Conducting the survey will allow you to establish how well your campus is addressing climate change.

  • Set campaign goals based on your evaluation of your campus’ environmental policy. The goal should be clear and ask for quantitative changes (i.e. fifty percent reduction of campus wide greenhouse gas emissions). You can research the successes of other campuses around the country and use their achievements as bench marks for your campaign.

C. Choose a Strategy:

  • Identify your goals and objectives for outcomes. How will you achieve them? Will you rely solely on existing group members or will recruit more members? Will your campaign make extensive use of campus media, or will you try to expand interest into your community? Will your strategy involve building a coalition or retaining a separate organizational identity and focus, or both? There are many ways to craft your strategy. Pull together your steering committee and choose an action plan that is best for you.
  • Educate yourself and others about your campaign. Lots of good information already exists—don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Knowledge of the material is the basis of a good campaign. Make sure you know your stuff before you move forward.

3. ORGANIZING TOOLS: WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED

A. Developing a Message & Outreach:

  • Message Formation: What is the one thing you want people to know about your organization’s Earth Day event?

It could be the theme of your event. Perhaps it is one fact that beautifully illustrates the importance of climate change. Whatever it is that one thing you want people to know and remember about you is your "message" and should be included in every piece of material you produce—just like your logo.

The message should be positive and be a ‘call to action’ that inspires those who read it to get involved and support the campaign.

  • Publicize creatively. Use all you social networking talents. There are also dozens of ways to get your message out. Consider handing out fliers, sitting at an information booth, phoning, hanging up posters, making announcements during other events, attending meetings of other groups, getting listed in campus calendars, or any other form of publicity suited to your particular campus.
  • Media Outreach: Write a press release—a compelling one-page summary about your event or project and your organization. Be sure to cover who, what, when, where, why, and how, and include contact information for your group.

Send the release to campus and community newspapers. Consider including supplemental background materials for outlets that may do an in-depth story.

Give the media plenty of notice. Send out your information a week or two in advance of your event. Send all media advisories to both the general office and those reporters who are most likely to cover the story. Be sure to follow up a few days before your event takes place.

Follow through. Try to establish relationships with certain reporters. If reporters ask for additional information in order to write a story, keep detailed records of requests and follow through in a timely way.

Treat the press well. Reporters like to feel that they are important to your group. Be available for interviews. If you are holding an event, assign someone to greet reporters and show them around. The more personal contact reporters receive, the more likely they are to write a substantial and positive story.

You can find sample press releases and media advisories in the Resources section of this guide.

  • Make a visual impact: Events that have bright signs, big props, and vivid colors are more likely to get front-page stories written about them as well as bring attention to your campaign.

B. Building Support:

  • Do what you do best: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, your heart out! There are so many tools we can use these days to get the word out about our events. Create an event on Facebook or Twitter your friends updates on your Earth Day organizing efforts. Be creative about it!
  • Finding Volunteers: Earth Day is an ideal opportunity for interested students who have never volunteered before. You just need to invite them!

The first step is a recruitment meeting or activity. Invite as large a cross-section of your campus as possible. Make sure notices get posted in all areas of your campus. Send a notice to your school newspapers and list serves stating that you are going to hold an Earth Day organizing meeting at a certain time and place, and that everyone is invited to attend. The key to success in finding volunteers is sending out invitations that cause people to respond.

Start the meeting by introducing yourselves and the plan for the meeting. Give participants some background information on your organization and depending on the stage in the planning process either brainstorm ideas for an Earth Day event or discuss the plans so far and ask for feedback.

At your meetings, always pass around a sign-up sheet for people to give their name, phone number, email address and dorm/address. Following the meeting, ask the volunteers to fill out an information form and sign up for specific tasks they are willing to take on. You can find a sample Volunteer Information Form in the Resources section of this guide.

  • Create organizational systems that will help your campaign or event. As things heat up, you will want to be confident that you can handle the increased workload.

One important aspect of creating good systems and building capacity is having excellent communication tools both within your campaign and for the audience that you hope to communicate with.

Make sure you have a good email list or telephone tree to reach key members of your team in a pinch. Create a database from which you can pull your contact list and break down the list in useful ways. Use email, which is fast and affordable, to get out the word about meetings, events and important news.

  • Reach out to decision-makers. Assess whose approval or involvement you need to make your project successful. This may include other organizations on campus, campus administrators and staff. Go to these people immediately after you have worked up a solid plan. Keep them informed throughout the process and value their input.
  • Location, Location, Location: Decide very early in the planning process where you need to host meetings, post information about your campaign, have rallies or other physical locations that may need prior permission before access to use is granted. Campuses are typically extremely supportive of student activities and will be very helpful.

If you plan to have an Earth Day event, be sure to reserve the location well in advance. Be sure also to have a back-up plan for rain or in case more people than expected show up.

  • Staying the Course – Timelines & Deadlines:
  • From the start be sure to create clear, achievable completion dates—set up your volunteers to succeed by allowing a fair amount of time to produce your desired results. Be sure to check in with your volunteers along the way to be certain everything is moving according to plan.

Know how much time you need, and for how long. Get commitments from your volunteers a few weeks or a month ahead of time, if possible. This allows you time to react and get replacements if something unexpected comes up.

  • Work Backwards to determine all the steps needed to accomplish your goal. For each step ask, "How long before Earth Day must this be done?" Then for each time period, add a week. Keep track of all deadlines on a calendar and stick to them.

 4. Resources

A. Sample Volunteer Information Form

B. Sample Media Advisory

 

C. Sample Radio Public Service Announcement

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