Get Involved Early Ideas

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Get Involved Ideas is an example of the early ideas that framed the development of the campaign. Get Involved was one of the early working titles of the project.

Contents

Initial Ideas

Get Involved is the working name of the Campus Climate Network's project to educate, inspire, engage, and support BC's youth in climate action in their own lives, on their campuses, and in their communities.

Get Involved will leverage the incredible opportunity for youth to be involved in creating the solutions that will shape our society for generations to come. The B.C. Campus Climate Network is currently working with over 15 post-secondary institutions across B.C., mobilizing the energy, the innovative ideas, and the leadership of today’s youth to initiate climate action on campuses and the broader community. Through Get Involved our project partners aim to add depth and breadth to the projects youth start on their college and university campuses by catalyzing the movement through a common campaign that provides more effective support to this dynamic population.

Get Involved is currently in the program design phase over the summer. In the fall of 2008 Get Involved will have a full launch on three campuses, TRU, UVic, and UBC, with a rolling launch bringing the campaign to all 15 partner campuses within the year.

We want your ideas, and we want to connect our work with yours. Please check out the Project section below for the ideas that we have develop so far and the ways to connect with us.

Goals, Objectives and Funding

Get Involved has received significant funding from the BC government's Climate Action Secretariat. We thank the government for their support and their trust. The following are Get Involved's goals and objectives.

The Get Involved campaign will:

  • Educate students about the science and solutions for climate change in B.C.
  • Inspire youth to “make carbon smart lifestyle choices” that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Engage youth in creating larger climate solutions, particularly in participatory planning processes to move our campus communities beyond climate-neutral.
  • Support youth groups to implement initiatives that will change behaviour and help create climate solutions.

Get Involved will contribute to the B.C. government's LiveSmart program by using it as a resource to change behaviour in peer-to-peer networks of youth. Get Involved will also contribute to the B.C. government's goal of achieving carbon neutrality in public sector organizations by equipping students to work with their administrations to develop and implement effective climate change strategies.

The major outcomes of this phase will be to:

  1. Program design and evaluation for a province wide launch in January 2008.
  2. Full program launch on three B.C. campuses and preparation for a rolling launch

across the province.

  1. Develop a communications strategy and online platform for the campaign.
  2. Train student leaders in a diverse set of skills.
  3. Develop partnerships for campaign implementation.

The Project

This section has the ideas that we are developing for Get Involved.

"Get Involved" is our working title - help us Name the Project!

Concept

Get Involved is rooted in bridging people from awareness to personal action to community involvement and leadership on climate issues. Imagine youth on a spectrum from not caring on the one end to committed leadership on the other. We will identify the different segments of this spectrum and work to shift them one spot:

  1. Educate people that don't know about climate change and its solutions.
  2. Inspire people that are aware to make changes in their lives.
  3. Engage people that are aware and making changes to become involved in creating solutions that are larger than themselves.
  4. Support people that are already working in organizations and with their communities with the capacity to make a bigger and bigger difference.

Across the Campus Climate Network we will share our knowledge and experience to make Get Involved more and more effective at achieving these goals.

Program Ideas

The following is a list of ideas from our brainstorms and work to date. We're trying to get a lot of different ideas before we begin refining them into some key strategies.

General

  • Do a baseline values survey
  • Find mentors and buddy them with our teams on campuses
  • Look for strategic partners, planning partners for now and implementation partners for later.
  • Do a review of best practices

Educate

Educate youth about the science and solutions for climate change in B.C.

Formal Education

  1. Have a core class and/or new course content on climate change integrated into curriculum on every campus by 2010 (mandatory) (UVic e.g. of 300 courses with sustainability content)
  2. Organize a province-wide teach-in, where over the course of a week, teachers from a variety of disciplines at schools around B.C. dedicate 20 minutes of class time to climate change, linking the issues to the content of their course. This would act as a great stepping stone for more sustained climate change content into courses, and begin working with professors to integrate community-based learning.
  3. Work with professors from a wide spectrum of faculties to develop community- based learning courses that work to solve specific climate challenges an institution is facing. (good example is the SFU course Mark Roselin taught and Duncan was in that looked at how the school could achieve carbon neutrality in a number of areas; also, Agsc 450 at UBC)
  4. Add "to what extent does this instructor integrate sustainability into course work" type questions on teaching evaluations.
  5. Enhance networking, experience sharing opportunities around curriculum change.
    • Host an experience sharing workshop at one of the events to allow for informal strategy sharing
    • Create a list of people who are working/ have worked on curriculum change along with their contact info
  6. Create tool kits for achieving curriculum change and disseminate.
  7. Work with students and faculty to develop Independent Study Courses, which allow students to focus on the climate change work they are passionate about and earn credit for their efforts.
  8. Work to change curriculum in the education department specifically - that way we can make strong connections with the highschools and we can ensure that sustainability content shows up early in our education system - Maggie and Bonnie Fenton
  9. Establish PD days and workshops for professors to help them develop their course content on climate change -UCFV
  10. Guest lecturers - UCFV
  11. Into curriculum!! Across disciplines, not just geography – have it be a mandatory, have in all disciplines - UCFV
  12. Reward professors for putting it in their curriculum, awarding students for writing relevant essays -Cam Carew
  13. Links between climate change and biodiversity. Cutting GHGs seems like a pretty anthro-centric way of saving the earth, and really doesn't do much for the mass destruction for dwindling ecosystems and species.-Genevieve


Outside Curriculum

  1. Provide materials to support student-fee referendums that would pool money into coordinator positions or GHG reduction projects.
  2. Set up “Speakers Corners”, to get public opinion on directions for climate change action, and for campus community members to share the actions they are taking in their own lives.
  3. Create lecturing teams to educate people and a registered speakers list.
  4. Have booths at campus events with people adept at spreading the message.
  5. Ensure there are solid resources to refer people to aid education and recruiting (i.e. website).
  6. Host "Green Dinners" to allow for conversation on climate change topics.
    • Perhaps in residences?
    • Vegetarian of course
  7. Host "predator prey" games
    • Same principle as survivor game
    • Would have information packets
    • Sarah, please help me out! Your idea sounded brilliant, but I just don't understand it
  8. Create climate change simulation games
    • Could be done at residences
    • Each residence is a country (e.g. Sorry Burma, your rice crop has been wiped out by cyclones)
    • Ties climate change to ideas of global equity
  9. Build ties between universities and high schools, high schools and middle schools, etc.
    • Could provide work experience opportunities for teachers to be
  10. Host workshops
    • Both on larger issues and on practical things people can do
    • Learn to bike seminars - Jayme Collins
  11. Host forums on climate change issues.
    • Catered with vegetarian food
  12. Also educate/cater to meat-eaters - Educating people about locally produced food (especially in the Interior where there are a lot of range/beef areas) is important, and many people will avoid these sorts of dinner nights if they have to eat food they don't like...in other words, some people may not show up to the climate action dinner night if they have to eat tofu, so give them locally produced, grass fed, organic beef and use it as a teaching opportunity -Genevieve
  13. Combine events with demonstrations of low-carbon technologies.
    • Hopefully combined with things people can do
    • Coordinate classroom presentations with curriculum
    • E.g. half a lecture on food insecurity, other half presented by Students for Sustainable Food on their actions
  14. Create a map of where food comes from. - David Marechal
  15. Hold workshops on urban gardening. - David Marechal
  16. Train students in carbon footprint calculation. - David Marechal
  17. Host climate change focused candidates debates during election campaigns (local, provincial or federal). - Spencer Rasmussen
  18. Initiate conferences. - Jayme Collins
  19. Show students exactly what they can do in their own lives – people know there is a problem but don’t know what kind changes they need to make
    • Ex. bring a mug, double sided printing etc -Cam Carew
  20. Education on BC's climate mandates


Ways of Presenting the Message

  1. Link personal responsibility to going climate-neutral and opportunity to create larger solutions to going beyond climate-neutral.
  2. Use budget language - the earth has a finite global carbon budget and then questions are: who spends it? on what? and how fast? This links to climate justice issues directly.
  3. Get people to backcast from a climate-neutral 2050 to the actions that they should take today.
  4. Present all information with things to do - link knowledge to action
  5. Make clear that action is required from all of individuals, governments, and buisness.
    • Illuminate the steps that each of these can take
    • Pay special attention to the role of governments; this allows voters to make informed choices
  6. Ditch the doomsday schtik. - Jayme Collins
  7. tons of educational, emotional campaigning, pictures that really hit nerves (starving kids and polar bears, forest fires, that sort of thing) - I really think that the major barrier to change is that people just don't know the gravity of the situation -Genevieve

Inspire

Inspire youth to “make carbon smart lifestyle choices” that reduce green house gas emissions.

Actions

  1. Using the LiveSmart program, identify the high-impact areas for emissions reduction opportunities and tailor campaigns that educate and encourage lifestyle choices to reduce emissions in these areas.
  2. Create personal commitment programs to be carried out on campuses. The program would have individuals commit to actions, provide follow-up and resource support, and create small group peer-support to motivate follow-through.
  3. Use face-to-face recruiting with people that have taken the commitment. Have a "rally" every week to get more and more people, with more canvassers at more locations.
  4. Train youth to effectively communicate climate science and solutions and recruit other youth to participate in Get Involved. Expand the “Climate Cafes”, an initiative based on the ‘philosophers cafe’, which create learning and support circles for diverse people to dialog about how they can make better choices.
  5. Showcase climate solutions, possibly with demonstration projects on campuses, and produce media that highlights success stories.
  6. Develop scripts, documentaries, plays, art shows, entertainment to make this happen.
  7. Use forum theater. - Jayme Collins
  8. Have competitions, partner with businesses for awards.
  9. Form a traveling circus of sustainability.
    • Going from university to university, and perhaps to high schools highlighting inspiring initiatives
    • Would serve to show province-wide nature of movement, builds sense of community
  10. Host competitions for personal behaviour change
    • Photos could be posted on the web of changes in peoples lifestyles and habits
    • However, it might not sustain behaviour change
  11. Ecolympics - http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/04/28/oberlin-ecolympics-wrap-up/
  12. Recycling campaigns - David Marechad
  13. Coordinate with Earth Week. - David Marechad
    • Compost everything day
    • Turn the thermostat down day
    • Etc.
    • Bike to work week -Cam Carew
  14. Create Hug a Tree contests. - Jayme Collins
  15. Provide more avenues for local food. - Jayme Collins
  16. Make biking easier. - Jayme Collins
    • Provide lockers, showers (or lobby to have them created)
  17. Host big-name speakers who can educate and inspire (ex. Marc Jaccard) and then right there and then create avenues for people to get involved - Duncan, UCFV
    • Hosting events and forums – an assembly of students; having an educated guest speaker
    • Have a ‘travelling roadshow’ of one well-known person (ex. David Suzuki) go to all the schools; the people that were trained to do the al gore talk; people from LEEDS, BC Hydro, etc - Cam Carew
  18. Get a wall donated by the institution for a mural and work with arts departments to envision what a low-carbon and sustainable world looks like. Then paint them! A very visual, positive reminder of what we're working towards, and different ones on every campus! -Maggie
  19. Consumption really triggers people! One of the mass materials we produce could be wallet cards with 5 questions printed on one side, and our logo/contact info on the other: -Maggie
    • Is this a want or a need?
    • Will having this add meaning to my life?
    • Is purchasing this item the best way to care for myself and the planet?
    • What is the true cost of the item to: My own health? Other species? The environment? Other cultures?
    • Is there something more worthwhile I could do with my money?)
  20. Have a couple people sign onto an 'inside the footprint' challenge. For a year they would have to live within a just carbon footprint (<2 tonnes/year I believe) We could do updates, interviews, or features on them regularly, or we could hire them to do a blog. This could be a good avenue for us to frame up more of the climate justice sides of things too – since their carbon footprint would be accounted for by giving all people on earth an equal share to our atmosphere -Maggie
  21. Responsible Consumption Week (already happening at UBC, we could see if they would partner, help create resources)-Maggie
  22. Have groups register their initiatives with us, and we help them with baselining and tracking the emission reductions they create
    • Have a ‘counter’ on the front page that accounts for the amount of carbon we’ve reduced through our projects. -Maggie

Strategies

  1. Make explicit link with student interests (sports, math commerce, etc.)
  2. Focus on opportunity, not sacrifice, in making change.
  3. Make explicit the ethics of climate change.
    • Tie action on climate change to core, deeply held values
  4. Provide small actions for people, with a clear path to larger ones.
  5. Create partnerships with other organizations working on similar things - for example the Sierra Club CERCLES and House Cooling Parties
  6. Develop a vision of where where’s going and what we want that makes a connection between individual actions and bigger collective change (number and more than numbers).
  7. Emphasize the actions of other institutions (i.e. governments and buisness) and people.
    • Nobody wants to act alone
    • Therefore, we show them that they wont be
    • Attempt to show size of our wagon
    • Buttons could provide a visual demonstration of our strength
    • Talk about successes of government and business, not just shortcomings
    • But this could be a catch 22 if we also want people to increase pressure on governments and businesses
  8. Talk about community of the university.
    • You are taking part in a collective effort
  9. Connect university with larger community
  10. Be focused about which behaviour changes we are seeking. - Jayme Collins
  11. Use big whacky things to get attention. - Jayme Collins
  12. Be personable, welcoming, cool - its a great way to attract newcomers. - Jayme Collins
  13. Show people how the little things add up (when they use double-sided printing, turn off the lights)-Duncan
  14. Start with smaller projects that are successful and build, as opposed to having students bite off more than they can chew and set themselves up for failure - Duncan
  15. Make it fun and easy
    • Sidewalk chalk!
    • Having a network – having conferences, training sessions
  16. Produce swag that people really want/use: no more cloth bags or reusable mugs! -Maggie
  17. University leaders need to teach/lead by example. Our professors that we look up to need to respect the concepts and actions that we are encouraging and promoting
  18. Create a core group of confident student leaders who aren't too preachy or strict and who show the right path in a positive way...trying to make change look "cool" -Genevieve

Engage

Engage youth in creating larger climate solutions, particularly in participatory planning processes to move our campus communities beyond climate-neutral.

Strategies

  1. Need to go where people are: commerce students, gyms, library, parking lot, residences, athletics
  2. Need to track success and modify program accordingly
  3. Use a personal commitment to bridge people into becoming engaged, first by recruiting more people.
  4. Develop partnerships so that the purchasing power of the people that we are inspiring and engaging can make a difference in their local economy.
  5. Provide small steps for people to take, leading people down a path to larger and larger actions.
  6. Give sense of larger initiative.
    • Hold events that that will allow people to form communities which will sustain their involvement and behaviour change
    • Keep a core group of people coming consistently
    • Keep continuity of brand to enhance sense of larger-than-yourself action
  7. Provide multiple avenues for involvement.
    • Each to his or her own
  8. Carefully manage image of "environmentalists."
    • Perhaps large-scale stunts are necessary
  9. Develop connections with administration and professors to enhance legitimacy.
  10. Have students reduce the emissions of the on-campus fleet vehicles
    • Partner with FBC on fleet program - the fleet is registered and then emissions tracked and reduced over time; is called E3 fleet www.e3fleet.com.
    • Also - idle free BC program
  11. Partner with FBC to more strongly connect schools with their regional communities: Community Action on Energy and Emissions gives money to municipalities, regional districts and First Nations to do community energy plans
  12. Be clear about the value of the experience that students will get through their volunteering(ex.develop skills – networking skills, dialogue skills, research skills) - Duncan
  13. Social gatherings - UCFV
  14. Surveys -UCFV
  15. Focus on specific high-emission areas such as transportation -Cam Carew
  16. Have an orientation package or presence – get students involved early!
    • If it’s something we distribute province-wide, allow space for each school to tailor it to their context -Cam Carew
  17. Make sure all workshops,documentary screenings, lectures, etc. came with free snacks or water bottles or something - students will show up to just about anything for free pizza.-Genevieve
  18. suck them in with prizes until they realized it isn't that difficult in the first place ! -Genevieve


Actions

  1. Facilitate the creation of collaborative beyond climate-neutral plans that link institutional greenhouse gas emissions reduction (carbon-neutral by 2010) strategies with research and educational opportunities for students, faculty and community members.
    • Provide resources for promoting student involvement in these strategies
  2. Connect youth with existing projects and organizations on campus and in the community.
  3. High visibility tracking of initiatives and successes (e.g. thermometer at entrance to campus measuring emissions reduced)
    • Multiple campus groups involved
    • Counting and tracking (digital)
    • Track each initiative
    • Track participation
    • Track GHGs reduced
    • Track leaders trained?
  4. Examples of small initial steps
    • Stuff swaps
    • Plastic for cloth bag exchanges
    • Incandescent for CFL light bulb exchanges
    • Selling of eco-friendly products (e.g. fair trade, organic roses and chocolate for Valentines Day)
  5. Set up white boards.
    • "How can we move to beyond carbon neutral?"
    • Can be valuable even if nothing comes of answers
  6. Competitions catered to interests - most sustainable...
    • Art work
    • Film
    • Business venture
    • Engineering project
  7. Climate day of action -UCFV
  8. Make it harder to drive – take out parking lots and offer subsidies for alternative modes!
  9. Provide more student housing on/near campuses, or offer incentives for students to live closer - reduce need for driving -Cam Carew
  10. Set up a footprint calculator that actually follows up and supports people with individual change:
    • For the individual, it would be a 4-8 month commitment, where they fill out the calculator to get their footprint baseline and then tick off a number of actions they are going to do (lets say in the areas of food, transportation, housing, etc…) for every area they tick they can (if they choose) receive (somehow automated?) biweekly tips on how they can meet their goal
    • Every so often (3 or 4 months?) an email is sent to them that prompts them to recalculate their footprint. Then we all have a party at the end and celebrate how much we collectively reduced our footprints.
  11. Existing programs we could work with to engage students and see tangible change:
  12. Significantly cutting back on garbage creation. School cafeterias should have compost containers and recycling bins that are easily accessed and well marked. These bins could be labelled with fast facts about garbage and landfills. Many people just don't know that landfills release TONS of GHGs. If they did, I think they would be more likely to take action. - Genevieve
  13. Faculty footprint Challenge -Genevieve

Support

  1. Support student groups to implement initiatives that will change behaviour and help create climate solutions.
  2. Offer a series of training summits throughout the year to help students develop the skills they need to run effective campaigns. Provide training on:
    • Organization
    • Dealing with bureaucracy
    • Leadership
    • Social Marketing
    • Media Relations
    • Public Speaking
  3. Establish a micro-granting program to support student groups undertaking GHG emissions reductions projects on their campuses and in their communities.
  4. Create a number of easily adoptable campaigns for student groups, complete with How-to Guides and Tip Sheets. Such campaigns will allow students to build skills, knowledge and capacity, while fostering a culture of sustainability on their campus. A number of these projects would have educational components, creating feedback into the project. Some potential campaign options include:
    • Residence Energy Challenge
    • Film Festivals - to reach new audiences and create a climate-conscious culture. Winning films would go ‘on tour’ to campuses across B.C.
    • Climate Neutral Spaces - easily scalable to be meeting rooms, classrooms, buildings, faculties or schools
    • Alternative energy powered events - for instance, a solar or bicycled- powered concert can raise awareness around specific issues on a campus
    • A Waste Weigh-In, engaging students in waste audits,
    • An Anti-Idling Ticketing campaign
  5. Organize sessions in communities so that youth leaders feel supported by their broader communities. Find role models.
  6. Create links among administration on different campuses.
  7. Develop an online database of current initiatives.
  8. Host issue caucuses.
  9. Help get academic credit for work on climate change.
  10. Develop a revolving green fund for emissions reduction initiatives.
  11. Hold bi-monthly talks among campuses.
  12. Integrate climate change/low waste initiatives into studio/lab operations.
  13. Create mentoring programs either between students on each campus, or between member of the larger community and students.
  14. Hold inter-campus calls dedicated explicitly to sharing experiences on specific topics.
  15. Develop connection with student unions.
  16. Legitimate student groups through clear connections to larger campaigns.
    • Use University and College Presidents' Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada
  17. Start Rent-a-speaker. - David Marechad
    • Form a team of high-quality speakers
    • Loan them to student groups for little or no money
    • Could be graduate students, profs, ENGO staff, etc.
  18. Provide groups with tools to help quantify emissions from facilities. - David Marechad
  19. Develop systems to coordinate lobbying efforts. - Jayme Collins
  20. Share volunteer lists between like minded groups. - Jayme Collins
  21. Create easily-accessable resources - ECI
  22. Provide resources and tools, giving students help to get things going, getting them to meet with others like them, sharing strategies across campuses; help people understand the concept of collaboration as central to sustainability - Duncan
  23. Addressing high turnover - UCFV
  24. Have all events and meetings marked well in advance (online calendar?) so people can effectively plan their involvement -Maggie
  25. Recognition – one of the biggest problems is that there are so many people who could volunteer, but they find they don’t get recognition or have the perception that they won’t get anything out of it
    • Being clear about what people will get out of volunteer work (how it will contribute to their career) – advertising the skills; showing them the difference they’ve made -Cam Carew
  26. We can see ourselves as the driver that spreads what’s been done on campuses already – they way, we’re truly by youth, for youth and don’t have to reinvent the wheel or tax the campus leaders we’re working with
  27. sometimes overworked students just need a little recognition. Perhaps a bi-monthly party or awards party for high achievers. -Genevieve

Contributors

The following people have participated in one-on-one consultations to generate the above ideas:

  1. Julien Thomas
  2. Jayme Collins
  3. David Marechal
  4. Cam Carew
  5. Bonnie Fenton, Walkingthetalk
  6. Duncan Wlodarczak, SFU
  7. Genevieve Pelletier, TRU (written submission)

The following people have participated in group consultations to generate the above ideas:

  1. Sarah Nyrose
  2. Michelle Lam
  3. Emma Hodgson
  4. Jessica Baas
  5. All those in attendance at the March 15th general meeting
  6. Alicia Horner (Emily Carr Institute)
  7. Alex Achtem (Emily Carr Institute)
  8. Members of UFV Enviro Club: Danielle, Helen, Daniel, Trevor, Cameron, Chryssy, Melissa

Your Feedback

On the weekend of May 31st to June 1st the Campus Climate Network will host a Get Involved Summer Summit to develop the project. We would love for you to come to that summit and share your ideas with us. Whether you can come or not we would also like your ideas on the project.

There are four questions that we have for you and your group:

  1. Are you interested in leadership training opportunities this summer?
  2. Would you like to be involved in 'Get Involved' project planning?
  3. How can we contact you through the summer and in the fall?
  4. Please brainstorm ideas of how you would like to see Get Involved develop and add your ideas on how to further Educate, Inspire, Engage and Support youth through Get Involved

To connect with us contact Spencer Rasmussen at spencer_2312@hotmail.com to do any of the following three things:

  1. Participate in the weekly Content Group calls
  2. Sign up for an phone/Skype interviews
  3. Submit a written answer to those questions

Governance

We are currently developing a governance structure for the program design phase that will be both inclusive and effective in developing the project to launch in a short time period.

The draft governance document here "Get Involved" Governance Structure-Draft

The Sierra Youth Coalition, Common Energy, and UBC Sustainability Office are the primary project partners.

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