Individual Projects

In the Harvard Green Campus Initiative Green Living Program (GLP), we encourage student employees to pursue one individual project during the year. Generally reps begin to think about their individual project between October and November. Depending on the project, they create a plan of action to occur during the winter or spring. An individual project can focus on the reps’ own dormitory, such as running a clothing swap for their dorm mates or painting a mural in the recycling depot area. It can also focus on the wider college community and campus, such as running a speakers’ event. Some individual projects may blossom into projects that involve the entire GLP team, as was the case at Harvard with the Rolling Sunlight event and GLP Earth Day booths.

Purpose

The purpose of an individual project is to give reps the flexibility to tackle an area they are specifically interested in, as well as to give them the opportunity to create their own plan of action. Individual projects help reps develop their leadership skills because they become even more invested and engaged in the process of the project. Whether it is assessing the context for the project, utilizing the knowledge of the GLP co-captains and coordinator to come up with solutions, or using their skills and vision to craft an approach, reps are at the helm of their individual projects.

Time

Generally, individual projects take five to fifteen hours throughout the year, although some reps go above and beyond in their commitment to their project. The project can happen in one week alone, or it can be spread throughout the entire year, depending on its scope and the vision of the rep.

Coordination

It is very helpful for the co-captains and coordinator to check in with the rep periodically on the individual projects to help with guidance, if necessary.  Periodic check-ins are helpful so that you can make sure reps are linked in with the resources they need, and you can help them gauge their timelines and expectations for the project.

Topic Areas

Projects can range from simple to very complex. Projects can change behavior or infrastructure. Projects can be carried out by the reps on their own or in partnership with other campus groups. The ideas below are suggested for Green Cup Eco-project teams, but are also great brainstorming suggestions for reps’ individual projects:

  • Place artfully painted recycling bins in a dorm courtyard.
  • Place solar panels on a dorm roof.
  • Develop composting in a dorm garden.
  • Persuade a student-frequented business to stock environmentally preferred product alternatives (and encourage students to purchase them).
  • Develop an organic vegetable or flower garden.
  • Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in student lamps.
  • Make notebooks from recycled paper.
  • Run a clothing or jewelry exchange
  • Organize a trip to a used clothing store, such as The Garment District in Cambridge, MA.
  • Raise awareness about recycling by running a recycled art sculpture competition.
  • Install occupancy sensors in common areas.
  • Encourage a switch from bottled drinks or water to tap or filtered water.
  • Consult with hosts on how to hold environmentally friendly parties.
  • Create an environmental education animation for the dorm's website or a video featuring dorm residents.
  • Arrange a dorm field trip to a recycling, water treatment or energy plant or to a nearby green building.
  • Develop a way to display real-time metered utility data in a dorm common space.
  • Collaborate with your dining hall on reducing food waste and dishware loss.
  • Develop a dorm-based media campaign of environmental role models.
  • Host a sustainability speakers, activity or film series in your dorm.
  • Encourage every dorm resident to pledge to buy at least 30-percent post-consumer recycled content paper and ask their professors and colleagues to do so for course materials.
  • Create discussion circles on sustainability, simplicity and other lifestyle issues because "good conversation is the first step toward changing the world."
  • Raise money to purchase green power for your dorm.
  • As a dorm, purchase carbon offset credits for air travel over spring break.
  • Label your dorm buildings with explanations of which aspects are and are not resource-efficient
  • Offer a class on cooking with local foods.
  • Run a workshop on how you can print using less paper.
  • Work on reducing waste at an event in your dorm, such as a Parents' Weekend reception, dance or other large gathering.
  • Work with your social committee to develop an online website for selling, exchanging and sharing infrequently used items in your dorm.
  • Coordinate with the appropriate facilities managers to do a dorm trash audit to identify how much and what items could be recycled rather than trashed.
  • Develop a model dorm room and give a tour explaining its features.
  • Create a team from your dorm who carries all their trash for a week around campus with them (a Green Cup tradition!).
  • Find volunteers to test alternatives to toxic laundry, cleaning and other products and to share their experiences.
  • Develop a team to help students clear out built-up recycling piles before the end of the year.
  • Use an online calculator to determine the overall ecological footprint of your dorm, then discuss how it could reduced.
  • Challenge your dorm to pick one category off a socially responsible shopping list (available online from Better World Handbook and Conscious Consumer) and commit to buying items only from a company rated as "excellent."
  • Arrange a group pickup of clothes needing dry cleaning to be taken to an environmentally friendly dry cleaning business, such as Ecoluxe organic dry cleaners in Brookline, MA.
  • Determine whether student group funds could be held in a more socially responsible bank or credit union, such as Wainwright.
  • Collect cardboard boxes being recycled by local businesses and store them for use by dorm residents when it come time move out for the summer.

And, of course, there are many other areas that could be focused on for an individual project.  The possibilities are endless!