How To Use This Booklet
We suggest starting with a group icebreaker like the Equi Distance Game before breaking into small groups for the 15-minute green team activity. Then your small groups can each work on one of the other activities. The group can then come back together to debrief their experiences and share their main takeaways,
There are a lot of ways to use these activities and we hope you’ll share your experiences and outcomes!
Goal Setting
Creating a Sustainability Plan can feel like a daunting task, so we’ve developed a tool to support your green team in the development of a plan that focuses on developing five overarching goals. The sustainability plan creator tool provides examples and resources to support the brainstorming process.
Green Needs Assessment
Answering questions about energy, water, waste, and office conservation will help establish a baseline and provide a better understanding of the opportunities for implementing green actions.
We encourage you to include campers and staff in this process to leverage their support in the data collection and help them think critically about how they can use data to make informed decisions about taking green action.
You will need to register your camp to gain access to the online community where you’ll conduct the needs assessment. In the online community, you’ll be able to download a printable list of the questions if you’d prefer to not use technology to collect the data.
Identify Thermal Energy Loss
Cooling and heating buildings consume a lot of energy and can cost a lot of money! This activity teaches participants about heat loss by using a thermal imaging camera to go on a scavenger hunt around camp.
We like to use a thermal camera that attaches to a smartphone (around $200), but you can also adjust this activity to use an infrared thermometer that only collects temperature (around $20).
What’s a Kilowatt Hour?
This activity explores how to calculate how much energy is consumed by everyday items in our camps and homes.
You can use our calculator to create different scenarios of energy consumption to learn how many kilowatt hours are used, the cost to operate and the pounds of CO2 released from the production of that energy.
Whatcha Got Sun?
This activity explores the amount of solar energy that could be generated from the roof of any building at your camp or home.
If you want to explore more opportunities around installing solar panels at your camp please contact us. We work with a network of solar companies around the country and would love to support your efforts as well as leverage the educational opportunities around going solar.
Waste Audit
The first step in reducing the amount of waste that is coming through your camp or home is to do a waste audit. By understanding what is in your waste stream, you can implement solutions to prevent them from coming into your facility and find alternatives to sending those things to the landfill, like composting or recycling.
How Many Gallons?
The flow rate of a faucet or showerhead is the measurement of how much water comes out every minute. This activity teaches a method for calculating the flow rate so that you can be more aware of the amount of water you consume. By understanding this we can change behaviors or the faucets themselves to reduce our consumption of water.
Rain Barrels
The roofs of our buildings and houses are a great way to collect rainfall using rain barrels. This activity explores the potential amount of annual rainwater capture based on the size of your roof.
