Workshop 2: Green Change in Schools
Big Idea: Creating ‘effective’ green change in school
In this workshop, we will explore the importance of school-based initiatives in the overall environmental scheme and then move into ways in which you can judge your school’s attitude to the environment and from there, how to find the most meaningful methods to effect green change in your schools.
PRIDE Framework
When you embark on your very own Green initiative, it is important that you continuously understand and reflect on what you (as a CCA/interest group/individual) wish to achieve and the situation you would hope to change. This PRIDE planning framework provides a good guideline for some questions you should ponder over throughout the execution of your green efforts. The aspects to consider, as seen in the diagram, can be broken down into 5 main parts: Purpose, Reading the Ground, Influence, Delivery, and Evaluation. Zoom into the diagram to read more!
Rationale: The entire idea of enacting green change and promoting environmentalism is huge and it is sometimes overwhelming when you look at implementing green change. Hence, it is important to have a clear goal and purpose in mind when pushing out ideas and working towards green change, both for your benefit when figuring out what events to hold, and for the school population to understand where all of you are coming from
Breakdown and elaboration of diagram:
I. Methods to engage your school population
Educate: Raising awareness about the climate crisis and the need for climate mitigation. It will mainly take the form of information dissemination but you can be creative as to how you go about it!
Appealing: Engaging the school population. This will involve having more active initiatives that students take part in such as quizzes, or social media challenges. Having good publicity is key and it is essential for more in-depth planning and execution for it to have the greatest impact! People are usually only concerned with themselves, so try and organise activities that benefits or is relatable to people. One suggestion is to coordinate with your school admin/teachers to make it a compulsory activity which demands participation from every student.
Inspiring: Getting others on board environmental change and activism. This will involve a lot more dedication and the school population should already have some level of interest in the environment (cultivated from the top 2 methods). There is no standard way to do so, but a key part would be to always stay true to what you promote, walk the talk, and share not just facts, but stories of people who work in the environmental scene.
(e.g. “Everyday Advocates” is an Instagram series @hc_green which features stories of students involved in the environmental scene)
II. Possible environmental issues to consider
It would be good to choose 2-3 aspects of the environment to focus on and really promote in your term in school. You can decide on which to focus on based on a few factors such as…
– Any current trends/hot topics
– What your school is interested in (from gathering reading the ground :P)
– How receptive your school is to green efforts: if receptiveness is low, it would be good to focus on more ‘visible’ issues such as zero waste, fast fashion, energy use which are more interactive and obvious. If receptiveness is higher, you can focus on some intangibles and activism-based initiatives
Even as you focus on some key issues, don’t forget to remember the bigger picture of the entire climate crisis, that ultimately, what is most important is collective action and collective interest in the environment.
It is important to strike a balance between focussing on a topic and promoting the bigger idea of the climate crisis such as by linking the significance of individual action to the overall movement.
You should ultimately aim to empower the school body towards green change.
Focus: Providing a set of suggestions on getting to know students in your school, and how to craft feedback forms
Quick tips to understanding your ‘clients’ (schoolmates):
1. Ask questions: Simple as this may seem, it is the fundamental principle to better understand others.
2. Be genuine: When asking questions, be SPECIFIC and remove any bias. Focus on a single area at a time
3. Bring it up in conversations: Casually ask your classmates/friends about what they think about green initiatives
4. Participation in events: Organise events that directly involve the school population
5. Always take different perspectives: There are many angles to any one thing, and green efforts are no different.
Put yourselves in the shoes of your schoolmates and take a look at the view from there.
4-step guide to craft a (somewhat) meaningful feedback form:
Relevant links:
Straw Poll – https://www.strawpoll.me/
Crowd Signal – https://crowdsignal.com/
How to analysis feedback – https://qualaroo.com/marketers-guide-surveys/analyze-survey (for ref.)
Ground-up vs Top-down change
Ground-up Change
Involves: obtaining the inputs from students, and taking their feedback into consideration
Pros: Greater satisfaction of the school population, more support
Cons: Requires more effort to (i) Find out what students want, and (ii) Plan and execute
How to implement group-up change – a quick 4 step guide
Step 1: Gather Input
– Obtain feedback from students regarding what kind of projects/initiatives they are interested in
– Important step to determine what students are ready for and what they are interested in
– Survey questions have to be clear and concise – refer to second tab on “Reading the Ground” for more
Step 2: Evaluate the Gathered Input
– Categorise the inputs into different categories
e.g.“Opinions similar vs Opinions contradicting” or “Positive vs Negative”
– For similar opinions (to yours) or positive points, look at what suggestion is provided and how you can improve your existing programme model by incorporating those feedbacks
– For contradicting opinions or negative points, look at the reason behind their disagreement, and how you can circumvent those issues to fix any shortcomings of your project
Step 3: Collaborate with you CCAmates/Team members ^̮^
– Share you ideas with one another and exchange feedback and comments
Step 4: Publicising your event**
– Effective publicity is important. While planning an innovative, elaborate and organised event is important, getting a substantial audience is equally if not more important!
Some ways to do so:
Employ your personal relations: Get your friends/classmates etc to be your first audience!
Plan an innovative publicity campaign: Some considerations: What platforms: Instagram, your school’s message board, mass email etc. would reach out to the most students? How can you design publicity graphics in an impactful and eye-catching ways What other interactive features can you use to engage your audience: e/g quizzes, competitive elements in your social media campaign!
Top-down Change
Involves: fundamental administrative changes where you directly design and implement a program to solve an issue identified. The student body is less involved in the initiative and decisions.
Pros: Quick and tangible changes made, and everyone is forced to be involved in it
Cons: Students may not like it and you must be able to persuade your school admin to adopt your suggestions
– Hence, it is important to consider the various stakeholders affected and how to mitigate any issues or tensions
E.g. a disposables ban means that if people want to pack food and forget to BYO, they won’t be able to buy food. This may lead to unhappiness in the school population. How do you think this can be mitigated?
How to implement top-down change
Step 1: Identify a key issue/area of concern which requires top-down action
Step 2: Understand what the school population thinks of it and the stakeholders involved
Step 3: Set clear objectives and plans and share your plans with the teachers/student population
Step 4: Propose the changes to your school administration
– Some tips to persuade your school administration:
(i) Take into account their considerations and make sure your proposal aligns with their values
E.g. HCI (College) implemented a ban on most disposable items in 2019. To do so, the Green Council at that time had to understand their concerns (i.e. cleanliness) and emphasised the benefits on these other aspects as well.
(ii) Link your proposal to other tangible considerations by the school
Eventually, the main aim is to persuade your school administration to make adopt your proposal.
To aid in your project execution and approval, here are some templates you might use as guides to craft a good proposal.
For ground-up initiatives:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rJKaR3dG2TxioRJ_ij_rBqC6vxQFW-4WpQMeJ-Hrmm8/edit?usp=sharing
For top-down changes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ivixw4hvip-Z9Vql8c6r_YNepQMuQPdR5RXMRGSLyEs/edit?usp=sharing
Do note that these templates are just simple guides as to how the information you have gathered can be presented. What is most important is the dedication and information gathering by all of you (ง’̀-‘́)ง (｡◕‿◕｡)