key issues + resources
Helpful Hints: How to start a green campus project
To make your green campus project successful, think about the following four steps:
- Education:
- The best way to gain support for your project is education. Come up with creative ways to communicate your project to students, professors, on and off campus organizations, and the local community. Explain not only why your project is important to the environment, but also why it's important to each individual on or near campus.
- Planning:
- Proper planning can make or break any initiative. Be sure to map out the steps necessary to implement your project and assign these steps to specific individuals or groups. Create a budget to understand how much funding will be needed to carry out your ideas and assess the benefits of these expenditures.
- Assessment:
- To really demonstrate the success and benefits of your project, make sure you develop indicators to measure your performance. Consider the conditions before and after your project to show your campus and the mtvU GE ecomagination Challenge judges just how your creativity will pay off.
- Stakeholder Involvement:
- The success of a green campus project depends on the support of the people who are participating and the people that the project will affect. At a university or college there are five primary stakeholders: administrators, faculty, students, operations personnel and the local community. Do your best to include all five during planning and implementation. Gain the support of your student government, faculty who are relevant to the project, your school newspaper and other groups with a voice on campus.