The Westminster Environmental Campus Organization (ECO)

1. The Westminster Environmental Campus Organization (ECO) LEXUS AIR & CLIMATE PRESENTATION

2. What’s The Environmental Topic? • In a poll we took, 57% of students were driving to school from over five miles away—every single day. Between drop-off and pickup, as well as idling on campus, we knew Westminster’s carbon footprint could be improved. • We also knew that many people in the school community would use up many resources between buying gifts, wrapping them, using holiday lights, and disposing of Christmas trees. The production of products and the usage of electricity contribute to air pollution, and we wanted to remind the community that it is possible to reduce our impact, even during the holiday season.

3. The Environmental Topic, cont. • We decided to reduce air pollution and climate change through two major initiatives: • Encouraging students and faculty to carpool on a day we designated a “Carpool To School Day” • Having a booth at Westminster’s annual Alternative Gift Fair, at which we would sell “green” holiday gifts as well as 100% recycled wrapping paper and plantable holiday cards. We would also distribute flyers and talk to customers about reducing energy usage during the holidays and ways to recycle Christmas trees. • Both events would take place on December 2nd, so it was a busy day for ECO!

4. Action Plan: Our PublicizingPlan Carpool To School Day • We publicized the day on Westminster’s Facebook and Twitter as well as added the news on the LED boards at the school entrances • Different members of ECO made announcements to different classes during the week before • We created signs out of reused poster board and posted them around the school Alternative Gift Fair • We posted many green craft ideas on our wiki here for members to find ideas of things to make and for our classmates to see some items we’d be selling: http://westminstereco.wikispaces.com/Alternative+Gift+Fair • In our class homerooms, we gave reminders for our friends to come • The Community Service Office added us in their list of vendors as they advertised for the Fair

5. The Alternative Gift Fair • This year at our school’s Alternative Gift Fair for Christmas, we had a booth and sold items to try and make our community’s holiday more green! • These items all reduce the number of trees that are cut down during the holiday season to make wrapping paper, cards, and more, and therefore reduces the amount of CO₂ released into the air. CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, which causes global climate change • We sold: • 100% recycled wrapping paper • Compostable Christmas Cards • Christmas crafts made from reused materials

6. Crafts from Re-Used Materials • Our crafts were made from reused paper, maps, newspaper, boxes, and other old items. • Each ECO member made at least three pieces over our fall break and labeled them with the materials they were made out of • Not only was this done to raise money for a sustainable charity (that we are still determining), but also to give ideas to people to make their own green gifts Crafts on our table, including bags made out of newspapers and maps, boxes made from books, and journals made from food packaging.

7. Education at the Gift Fair • We also had a poster and flyers for our costumers to look at, which encouraged them to help reduce air pollution and climate change during their holiday by: • Encouraging them to buy natural Christmas trees from a local organic farm instead of plastic trees, which release toxic air pollutants and carcinogens such as vinyl chloride during production • Suggesting that after the holidays, people take their Christmas tree to Home Depot’s Bring one for the Chipper Program, which will reuse the tree as mulch

8. 100% Recycled Wrapping Paperand Compostable Christmas Cards • We sold 28 rolls of wrapping paper made from 100% recycled material (such as old junk mail). Patterns shown above • We sold 12 boxes of Compostable Christmas Cards which are plant-able and will grow wildflowers (example to right) -Bought from: http://greenfieldpaper.com/

9. Carpool To School Day • In the posters we put up, we included facts and statistics about carbon emissions from cars • To reward carpoolers, we ordered stickers that said “I Carpooled To School Today” to give out on the day of the event • We stationed ECO members at different entrances to the school to give out stickers to carpoolers • Afterward, we sent out a survey to all students in grades 6-12 and all faculty to find out how many people carpooled, why they carpooled, and if they didn’t carpool, why not.

10. Carpool Results from Survey • 35% of the 466 polled students carpooled, compared to the 18% who said that they carpool most days • The plurality of carpoolers said that the main reason they carpooled was for the environmental benefits. Giving out stickers to carpoolers! *note: we defined carpooling as driving to school with another person other than a parent or sibling.

11. Gift Fair Results • We did not expect to sell out of all of our 28 rolls of recycled wrapping paper and 12 boxes of wildflower gift cards! Next year we’ll order more… • Hundreds of people came to the Fair, and it was reported that it was the biggest crowd that the Fair had ever had. • We sold about two thirds of our recycled and reused crafts, and we spoke to many people too about how to make those crafts themselves to give to people this holiday season.

12. Examining Our Project SUCCESSES • We reached out not only to people in the Westminster community with the Gift Fair, but also to people not associated to the school who came to the Fair. • Carpool Day was all the buzz at school as everyone saw the stickers, and many people told us how fun it was finding other students to ride with. CHALLENGES • It was difficult finding crafts that would be truly earth-friendly that could be handmade that people would want to buy. • Though we publicized Carpool Day heavily, the main reason polled students listed for why they didn’t carpool was difficulty finding people to carpool with.

13. Remember for Next Year… Gift Fair Carpool to School Day Knowing that many people had trouble finding fellow carpoolers, we learned we need to more heavily publicize how students can find others to carpool with. Since many students’ parents drive them to school, we realized we need to be publicizing Carpool Day to the parents as much as we do to the students since they arrange the rides. • Order more merchandise! • We’ll want to look harder for eco-friendly crafts we can make that people will want to buy • We learned how to communicate with the community service office to set up our booth, as well as how to set shifts for the ECO members to come work and how to distribute the work of actually making the crafts. • ECO also learned how to get in contact with manufacturers to order recycled items at wholesale prices.