Conduct a student led waste audit

Before beginning your year-long project, we recommend conducting an audit to discover your school's current impacts. Here are some guides on how to conduct various building audits with student participation:

• There are many types of waste. You could focus on food waste, materials waste, or e-waste!
• LAUNCH Waste Audit Toolkit
• Ask your Green Schools Mentor to help you design an audit for your school!

If you're school is serious about sustainability, benchmarking is a great way to track your school's usage over time. There are many great platforms used for school building sustainability tracking:

• Arc Skoru - green building performance tracking
• START - sustainability tracking & roadmapping tool
• Energy Star - benchmarking portfolio manager

Use these project ideas for inspiration to design your own project, or follow one of the step-by-step toolkits linked below under "Project Toolkits & Guides" for more detailed guidance! 

Start a Food Waste Education & Action Campaign at your school

Spend time with students investigating one of the topics below related to food waste. Then collaborate to design and implement a campaign to educate and inspire the school, administration, and/or broader community to make behavior and/or policy changes.

• Develop a composting program at your school.
• Meatless Mondays
• Pitch low to zero-waste measures to your administration, staff, or even school board!
• Create a simple outdoor compost station.
• Research how worms and other insects break down food and create a classroom or schoolwide vermicompost station.
• Make a student cookbook full of recipes using food scraps or commonly wasted food items.
• Create a "No Waste" food station for uneaten apples, chips, etc. Find ways to reuse or donate the leftovers!
• Host a Halloween Pumpkin Smash event! Collect old pumpkins from the community, create some fun smashing events, and donate the scraps to a farm or composting program.

Start a Materials Waste Education & Action Campaign at your school

Spend time with students investigating one of the topics below related to food waste. Then collaborate to design and implement a  campaign to educate and inspire the school, administration, and/or broader community to make behavior changes.

• Waste Reduction Habits Campaign.
• Initiate or improve recycling at your school.
• Propper Waste Sorting in Classrooms Campaign.
• Create a lunchroom waste reduction program- think about plates, utensils, and the use of disposables
• Learn about the types of plastic, discover which types are actually being recycled in your area, and advocate to remove and replace non-recyclable plastics in your school.
• Advocate for compostable utensils and trays in the cafeteria.
• Create E-Waste Recycling Program: gather supplies from the school or hold a community drive.
• Plan/convert a school event to be low-waste.
• Start an education campaign about second hand shopping and clothes waste.
• Start a clothing swap for uniforms or other clothes!
• Host a Second Hand Fashion Show!
• Launch a Green Your Holidays campaign.
• Create a Reuse Supply Storage location: store art, crafts, office, and other scrap supplies for all classrooms to share.
• Crayon Revitalization Project - have students collect broken and worn down crayons to melt down and reshape. You can even have students make crayon molds by repurposing other types of waste like single use plastics, old cardboard, etc.
• Collect waste materials to be repurposed as art supplies (cut up colorful plastic for mosaics, create sculptures with packing peanuts, etc.)
• Investigate merch at your school. Survey students and community members to discover if any school products are not being used and should be eliminated from the offerings.

Pair ILGSP with other grant opportunities

Consider using Illinois Green Schools Project and your Green Schools Mentor to help you and your school apply for an external sustainability grant!

• Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County Waste Reduction Grant - Schools in a SWANCC member community can earn funding to start or expand programs and projects focused on preventing waste – reusing items, recycling materials, or composting food waste.

If you'd prefer step-by-step guidance for your school's project, consider using a free toolkit, or requesting a Learning Lab subscription to unlock sustainability curriculum and additional toolkits. Or use the format of one of these toolkits as a template to help you design a different project with a similar outline!

LAUNCH Free Project Toolkits

• How to Form a Green Team
• Clothing Swap
• Electronic Waste Drive
• Meatless Mondays
• Waste Audit
• Learn about LAUNCH and check out their full list of toolkits!

Seven Generations Ahead Free Toolkits

• Zero Waste Schools Toolkits
• Food Waste Reduction Toolkit
• Lunchroom Waste Audit Guide

Learning Lab Lesson Plans

ILGSP participants may sign up for a learning lab subscription to gain access to lesson plans like:

• Waste Eco-Audit
• Eco Audit Facilitator's Guide
• Cafeteria Waste Eco-Audit Worksheet
• Classroom Waste Eco-Audit Worksheet

Environmental Protection Agency Resources

• Tips for Reducing Waste in Schools
• Food: Too Good to Waste Implementation Guide and Toolkit
• A Guide to Conducting Student Food Waste Audits: EPA
• Environmental Education Curricula
• Statewide Poster, Poetry, and Prose Contest

Additional Guides and Worksheets

• Teaching Sustainability - Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Guide
• Mindful Waste
• SCARCE - Based in DuPage County, focuses on recycling, Reuse Center provides books and school supplies to public school teachers and nonprofit organizations
• Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange - Provides reusable art and school materials at no to low cost
• The Waste Shed - Creative Reuse Center that provides reusable art and school materials at low cost
• Zero Waste Video Series — Ecocyle
• Solid Waste Agency of North Cook County Educator Resources
• Solid Waste Agency of Lake County
• Zero Waste Fashion | EcoSense for Living Series (for grades 6-12)
• Food and Carbon: Garden Activity Guide (for grades 3-12)