Start Planning a Green Awareness Week

It’s not too soon for Green Teams to plan how they will honor Earth Day. One popular and customizable idea is to host a Green Awareness Week. Similar to a traditional spirit week, students wear a specific color each day of the week to increase visibility of an environmental issue. The Green Team can give daily announcements and hang posters in common areas outlining the key facts and actions needed. Many schools choose to start or end the week with an assembly.

Below are seven easy steps to host a successful Green Awareness Week at your school.

STEP 1: As a team, brainstorm your school’s top environmental issues. Examples include reducing food waste, recycling better, composting, reusing materials, reducing pollution from cars, using less energy, conserving water, and planting and caring for a garden.

STEP 2: Choose your top five issues, one for each day of the week. Assign each issue a color. Examples include black for energy conservation and turning off unused lights, blue for recycling, yellow for sunshine and gardening, etc.

STEP 3: Talk to all key stakeholders to gain support and approval for your event.

STEP 4: Design an advertising campaign. Ask and answer key questions. Who is responsible for promoting the event? What color will you wear each day and why? Where will you announce the event? We recommend promoting your event in multiple formats, such as announcements, posters, through student council or teachers, on the school website, and in the newsletter. When will you start the ad campaign and how often will you repeat messaging to reach the most people?

STEP 5: Do the work. Create all advertising materials, posters, and announcements for the week. Solidify roles of the team.

STEP 6: Arrange for school and or local media coverage of your Green Awareness Week. Talk to the school newspaper staff to see if they are willing to take extra pictures and write a story about the event. Talk to the principal about including the story in the newsletter.

STEP 7: Host an awesome Green Awareness Week and celebrate your successes!