Structuring the Work

There are four basic steps to transforming the goals of your green living program (GLP) into specific tasks that your student reps can accomplish in their limited number of work hours.

1. Set Goals for the Year

What are the yearly goals for your GLP? If your two main goals are to reduce energy consumption and waste (or increase recycling) on campus, then the projects you take on should target those outcomes. Thinking through your personal, funders, and student leaders’ goals will allow you to map out a vision for what you would like to accomplish throughout the year.

2. Craft a Yearly Calendar

Based on your goals, craft a calendar for the year, inserting projects that reflect ways to target your fundamental goals. It is very useful to create a schedule of expected activities to help the coordinator and captains plan throughout the year and stay on track with the initial vision for the program. Because projects may arise throughout the year based on feedback from the reps, you may want to leave room for movement. Block in major events that you hope to have occur at the same time every year, such as an annual waste audit, Earth Day celebration or heating campaign. Plan to have a meeting before large GLP events to make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Break the Calendar into Checklists

Decide how often your GLP will meet—once per week? once every two weeks? once per month? Considerations to factor into your decision include the following:

  • What does your funding allow?
  • How many hours per week do you think the reps can work based on your budget?
  • How many hours of your own management time does that translate into?
  • What is the academic calendar?
  • How does the academic calendar match with your GLP calendar?

Once you figure out how often you will be meeting with the reps, you can break your calendar into checklist periods. It is helpful to choose one major theme for each checklist to enable reps to fully concentrate their time on one big issue. For example, your first checklist could focus on recycling, your second on water conservation and laundry efficiency (to get reps into good habits for the rest of the year), and the third on heating efficiency (before the heat comes on for winter).

Note that students’ social capitol, creativity and ownership are key for a GLP's success. Make sure your student employees have a say—along with the captains, coordinator and steering group members—in determining projects. Everyone has to feel invested in the projects they are working on, which translates into communication between everyone involved with the checklists and campaigns.

4. Break Checklists into Specific Tasks

Once you have an idea of the topic area (or areas) you would like your checklists to address, you can easily break the topics into specific tasks and hour expectations. For example, if your reps work for 4 hours per week and your focus for the next two weeks is on recycling, then the tasks could be as follows:

  • attend a meeting with a steering group member who is an expert on recycling and where educational materials about recycling are passed out (1.5 hours)
  • table in the dining halls to disburse recycling information (2 hours)
  • help with a waste audit (1.5 hours)
  • meet with dormitory superintendents to review how the recycling bins could be better located (1 hour)
  • poster and email students about recycling FAQs (1 hour)
  • do GLP administrative work like reading email updates and filling out checklist (1 hour)

If possible, try to have one big group activity, such as a waste audit, be part of each checklist. Also try to diversify the tasks reps will be doing during the checklist period, mixing activities that can become mundane very quickly, such as postering and emailing information, with more fun and interactive activities like tabling or meeting with administrators.