Girl Scouts Forever Green Take Action Projects, is a national effort for girls to lead their families, schools and communities in improving the environment and protecting natural resources.

Girl Scouts Brownies from St. Ann Bartlett are setting out to recycle broken crayons. The troop will collect crayons from their school, friends and families to melt and make new. They will then give them to Pre-Kindergarten classes at their school. Pictured are left to right: Alexis, Meghan, Madyson, Brianna, Katy, Natalie, Lindsey, Emma, Penny R., Alyssa, and Emma Pratt (not pictured)

We are asking individual girls, troops, alumnae and service units to advocate for greenerschools and communities. Our goal is to bring 100 sustainable, environmental changes tocommunities or schools across our council jurisdiction.

There are a variety of environmental focus areas to choose from, including water use,energy efficiency, waste management, air and green spaces. These suggestions are only the beginning – feel free to create your own project to suit the needs of your school and community.

Guidelines for Green Success:

1. Keep it Simple: Choose a project that can be completed in a 6 month period. Look over the suggested focus chart and choose a topic that you feel passionate about and that you think can be achieved in this timeframe
2. Get Connected: The more people you have participating in your project, the greater chance of success for your project. Consider connecting with other girls, troops, science classes or environmental or civic clubs who might also have an interest in your project idea.
3. Think Long Term: When planning think of how to make your project sustainable. Can you get your school to recycle all aluminum cans? Plant trees at the local park? Replace your showerheads to low-flow models?

air quality

Indoor Air Quality

Goals

• Cleaner Indoor Air
• Reduced Asthma and Allergies

Project Examples

• Reduce toxic cleaning supplies by using green supplies
• Train teachers and staff about green cleaning
• Educate people about the importance of clean indoor air in reducing allergies and asthma.

Outdoor Air Quality

Goals

• Increased carpooling
• More trees
• Cleaner outdoor air
• Reduced school bus idling

Project Examples

• Assess transportation patterns and encourage mass transit, carpools and bicycling.
• Campaign to turn off the engine of school buses and cars when unloading/loading at school and bus stops 
• Create no-idling zones in carpool lanes
• Plant native shrubs and trees

green space

Create green space and improve existing green space

Goals

• Increase square footage of usable green space
• Increase number of students-hours of green space use
• Increase species diversity

Project Examples

• Plant Native trees, shrubs, and flowers
• Educate school officials and community members about the benefit of creating and preserving green space.
• Start community or school vegetable gardens.
• Clean up trash in a local park or green space at your school.
• Clean up a trail or improve the usability of a trail by spreading mulch or woodchips over the trail.
• Work with schools to plan activities that integrate curricula and green space.

water conservation

Improve Water Quality

Goal

• Improved particulate count

Project Examples

• Remove garbage and other waste from a local body of water.
• Implement a plan to improve water quality by refocusing on education and advocacy.
• Plant native shrubs and trees around water body to prevent erosion.
• Sand dune restoration

Conserve water inside and outside of buildings

Goals

• Reduce water consumption
• Reduce impact of water on municipality for water treatment

Project Examples

• Campaign for people to reduce their shower time.
• Educate people about reducing water consumption and pledge to reduce consumption.
• Replace shower heads, toilets, and faucets with low-flow models.
• Irrigation controls, xeriscaping of schoolyards, and plant trees and native plants.
• Campaign and help school officials install plants that do not need lots of water.
• Build a rain garden

energy conservation

Energy Conservation – Buildings

Goal

• Reduce energy usage

Project Examples

• Create a project designed to reduce energy use at home and/or school by using more energy efficient lighting and equipment.
• Make small reminder signs to post near light switches and computers that say “turn off the lights” or “turn off the computer”.
• Use a kilowatt tool to measure the energy usage of appliances and replace inefficient appliances.
• Advocate for building to use Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager to evaluate energy performance.
• Educate people about energy usage and alternatives and how to reduce their energy usage.
• Advocate for long-term budgets to include solar panels or wind turbines.

Energy Conservation-Transportation

Goal

• More carpooling and bicycling
• Less fuel used by school buses and cars
• Lowered use of energy

Project Examples

• Implement plan for conserving energy by changing transportation patterns
  
  • Bike racks and bike paths
  • Carpooling program
  • Walking school buses
• Educate about alternative fuels and campaign to reduce energy usage, and/or have people sign a pledge to reduce their energy consumption.
• Plant trees and shrubs strategically to reduce heating and cooling costs.
• Educate people in the community about green vehicles which have higher than average mileage and produce fewer emissions.  

waste management

Reduce

Goals

• Reduced greenhouse gases
• Reduced purchase of food containers and reduced waste

Project Examples

• Reduce quantities of disposable food and drink containers consumed.
• Reduce waste of weekly junk mail . Join the Catalog Canceling Challenge and contact mail sources.
• Reduce waste of bathroom supplies. Install hand driers in bathrooms.
• Print paper double-sided (for example, adjust printer default for automatic double-sided printing.
• Educate and advocate for reduced consumption of goods.
• Decrease the amount of trash produced. Encourage others to recycle, reuse, and donate items and to buy items in minimal packaging.

Reuse and Recycle

Goals

• Decreased volume of waste and less impact on local resources and landfill space
• More recycled aluminum cans, plastic, newspaper, paper, and electronics.

Project Examples

• Donate usable items – sporting goods, food, electronics, clothing, books, and furniture.
• Form a waste exchange to trade unwanted consumer goods.
• Start a compost program in your school, home, or community (check state regulations first).
• Reuse paper
• Place trays or boxes for paper used on one side for others to reuse before recycling.
• Make notebooks by binding papers used on one side with cereal boxes.
• Educate people about benefits of recycling.
• Start/promote recycling programs and install recycling bins in visible and convenient locations (for example, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, e-waste, Capri Sun pouches, snack wrappers).
• Increase use of reusable water bottles through educational efforts.
• Plan a Waste Reduction Week where events occur on theme days. (for example, Monday is Reduction Day, Tuesday is Compost Day, Wednesday is Zero Garbage Day, Thursday is Conservation Day, Friday is Reuse or Exchange Day and tie to national environmental events.)