Are you committed to the environment and want to make a real impact at your school? You can create change as a teen by conducting a campus-wide eco audit! In this blog, you'll learn all about how to conduct the audit of your school, the significance of this process, and how to excite your school community to be more eco-conscious. Let’s go!
What is a Campus-Wide Eco Audit?
An eco audit of the university is a systematic review of the environmental impact of your schools use of resources. You’ll examine how your campus utilizes energy, water and materials, and identify opportunities to cut waste, conserve resources and generally make your school more sustainable. Starting and leading a campus wide eco audit while in high school is a really great way to develop leadership skills, raise environmental consciousness and set the stage for lasting change.
Why should teens conduct a campus wide eco audit?
Teens are inherently change-makers! Getting a campus-wide eco audit off the ground will:
Teach students and staff to be more environmentally aware.
Point out bad habits and promote good things.
Encourage your school community to be green.
Form enduring institutional cultural changeover time towards sustainability.
What’s more, heading up a campus-wide eco audit is a fantastic opportunity for college applications, and it allows teens to practice research, teamwork, and project management and helps teens build research, teamwork, and project management skills.
Step 1: Get Permission and Build Your Team
Before you go ahead with your campus-wide eco audit, you need to speak with your school principal or advisor, and explain what you're planning to do and what support you need. When you get permission, assemble a team of excited teachers and students, a solid team will have a better experience and have more impact during your campus-wide eco audit!
Tip: Try to have members from different grades and backgrounds to bring different perspectives to the team.
Step 2: Establish the Goals of Your Campus-Wide Eco Audit
What is the goal of carrying out an eco audit of your campus? Here are some examples:
Reducing energy use by 20%
Scraping out single-use plastic from the cafeteria
Increasing recycling rates
Turning down water consumption in restrooms and gardens
Once you’ve determined your goals to narrow your search, use the six Ps you uncovered in step two to re-defining the specifics of you want to accomplish (be as concrete and measurable as you can)._THIS Will help you keep your strategy on track and relevAnt, and MonItor your School wide eco audit aS You go.
Step 3: Organize your On Campus Eco Audit Step 3: Planning your Campus-Wide Eco Audit
When used as a component of a solid plan, a campus-wide eco audit is most impactful. Decide:
What areas will you audit? (classrooms, cafeteria, restrooms, exterior, etc.)
What resources will you target? (energy, water, waste, transportation)
What tools will you need? (clipboards, check-off lists, measuring tape, cameras, apps)
Develop a timeline for the eco audit you will be performing at your campus, that includes when you will collect data, when you will assess results, and when you will do field studies as well as present with others to students.
Step 4: Gathering Data for Your Campus-Wide Eco Audit
It’s now time to get your hands dirty with data collection! Here’s how to gather data for your campus-wide eco audit:
1. Energy Use
Are electronics and lights being left on longer than necessary?
Determine how many energy-efficient appliances and lightbulbs there are.
Are doors and windows properly sealed to prevent energy loss?
2. Water Use
Are taps or toilets leaking?
Are water efficiency measures included?
How often are sprinklers or hoses used in gardens?
3. Waste Management
What are recycling bins like—clearly marked, used correctly?
Measuring cafeteria waste.
Are composting options available?
4. Transport
Investigate how students and staff get to school (by car, by bike, by bus, or by walking) .
Count the number of bike racks and how many bikes are in them.
Take photos, notes, and records of your observations. Don't forget the more data you collected, the better the eco audit for your whole school will be!
Step 5: Analyze your Whole-School Eco Audit Data
Once you have collected all your data the next step is to analyze it. You can look for patterns and areas of improvement for your whole school. For example:
Are they leaving lights on in most classrooms when they are not in use?
Is there a lot of waste generated by plastic in the cafeteria?
Are people in your community using recycling bins properly?
You should present the data using charts and/or graphs. It will help you share your eco audit with people.
Step 6: Present your Whole-School Eco Audit Data
Now you are ready to share your whole school eco audit results with your school community. You can:
Make a presentation for a school assembly.
Make posters or infographics to put around the school.
Write up an article for the school newsletter.
Remember to focus on both What your school is doing well and Where you could make improvements. You can tell people to stop shooting owls as well as suggesting how to make their school more eco-friendly.
Step 7: Suggest Solutions After Your School-Wide Eco Audit
Now that you have some recommendations, you can encourage some action items at your school to improve their sustainability. Below are some ideas to explore,
Do add more recycling bins and clear signage.
Begin a composting program in the lunchroom.
If there's an energy efficiency challenge going on, run a "lights out" program.
Encourage people to bike and carpool to school.
Work together with the administration of your school to create the conditions for action. Remember that even little steps can have a big impact!
Step 8: Track Development and Honor Achievements.
Recognizing that a campus-wide environmental audit is a continuous procedure rather than a one-time event is crucial.Your school should have some system to monitor progress and then celebrate successes over time.
For example you could,
Hold monthly check-ins to assess energy or waste reductions.
Recognize classes or groups that show the most improvement.
Announce important successes at school assemblies and share on social media.
Celebrating successes will keep everyone inspired to engage in sustainability efforts.
Tips for a Successful Eco Audit Across Campus
Be positive: This is about finding solutions, not just the problems.
Use your imagination: To engage your peers, think about using strategies like games, movies, competitions, etc. that promote peer participation.
Engage everyone: Students, faculty, and staff can all contribute to making your campus greener.
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