Looking for a way to get your office or community group involved in “greening” your city? There are many great ways for small groups of people to make a difference, all it takes is a few hours of your time, a commitment to the environment, and a few warm bodies to help coordinate and promote the event.
Here are 10 great ways to get a group together and rise to the challenge of helping your local community go and stay green:
- Cleaning has vacant land. Ask your neighborhood coalition to help you transform it into a small park with plants and playground equipment. In the big cities, many of these properties are auctioned off once a year for the tax sale, so keep an eye on your local IRS website, you may be able to raise funds for the property!
- Adopt a neighborhood! First, you’ll want to do a massive cleanup day event, so make sure you have some snacks and rewards on hand. Take a half Friday with your staff every few weeks to keep the neighborhood clean. Your city may even have a program where you can put up a sign that your organization is the one keeping the neighborhood clean!
- Plant trees and flowers in common spaces in your community, such as median strips and green areas near the sidewalk. If you’re digging, be sure to call Miss Utility so you don’t hit a gas or water line.
- Organize an electronic recycling event. Ask people to bring old cell phones, old computers, and other technology. Reward all of your donors with a free cookout, coupons for green retailers, or treats to take home.
- Organize a newspaper and magazine recycling campaign. Let’s face it, most of us who work in offices simply let our business publications arrive in the mail and collect dust. Why not go from office to office and collect these publications? Donate them to schools, libraries or send them to the recycling plant.
- Organize a “best garden” contest in your neighborhood with different categories. Focus on rewarding gardens that are friendly to nature, such as gardens that attract bees and butterflies and those that use green measures like rain barrels.
- Form a group and plant wildflowers in unexpected places. Create flower seed bombs to fill in small patches of dirt on public land, like a patch of dirt next to an urban convenience store.
- Are you in a city that has a lot of renovations going on? It’s a great time to build relationships with contractors and ask them to donate their reusable waste. Those big 55-gallon paint discs can be redecorated into trash receptacles at community centers and parks. The wood would make a great donation to local theaters, gardens, and other communities that build things!
- Host workshops in your local community and involve utility companies. Have the experts come in and explain the simple changes they can make to save water, energy, and money.
- Adopt a park! Twice a month, invite volunteers to help keep the park clean while providing free drinks and pizza. If the park doesn’t have recycling facilities, volunteer to start a program!