Succession Planning

I've been wondering for a long time as to how I'm going to keep this project alive once I graduate from school. I realized a while ago that I'm not going to be there in school anymore to keep it going- so i have to put some system in place to ensure that my efforts are not short lived. My Project Manager termed this as 'Succession Planning' (doesn't that sound so fancy?) Here's what I intend to do:

1. Draft out a list of responsibilities for the Environment Monitor: During the course of this project, I was chosen to be the Environment Monitor of the school. I was surprised to find that there were no specific environment-related duties assigned to me. So I've decided that I'll put pen to paper and write down what I feel should be done by the person who holds this post in the future, and hand it over to the teacher-in-charge. It will be a good way to sustain many of my green initiatives!

2. Popularize the Green Award: True, this is one of the activities in my Grand Plan, but it also falls under succession planning. That's because the Green Award is a big motivator for students to participate in eco-friendly initiatives. Since it's an annual award that's been instituted in the school, it will be given every year without exception. If students are aware of its existence, it will be more sought-after. That's exactly what I want, because then students will have to compete to win it, and the competitive spirit will encourage them to participate in more and more environment-related activities!

Go green!

Newsletter completed!

I'm all done working on my Green Newsletter. It's an eco-awareness initiative also named Environ (as I mentioned in an earlier post). It will take a few days to get uploaded on the school website- following which I will post the link in my blog! Unfortunately, it's not possible to directly upload the newsletter on the blog- only a link can be pasted here. But I'm very excited about it!

Go green!

What's in a name?

A friend asked me last week why I named my project Environ. It was only then that I got thinking about it. The actual reason I named it Environ was because it was a part of the word 'Environment'. Besides that, when I set up this blog, one of the few available URLs that I liked was www.environconsciousness.blogspot.com, so I thought it would make a good name. And finally, it sounds very classy! I just Googled the word, and I was surprised to find that there are several global and Indian environmental companies named Environ! Maybe someday my project might just get a website of its own  :)

Go green!

Green Award

I planned to get a 'Green Award' instituted in my school to encourage students to participate in eco-friendly initiatives. Unexpectedly, I found that such an award was already in place in my school! After a little investigation, however, I realized that not too many students were aware that such an award existed (I wasn't either, till a few days ago!).

I spoke to my teacher and gleaned more details about the prize. Instituted by the Bala Bhavan Educational Trust, this rolling shield is given every year to a student who has shown keen interest in environmental activities both within and outside school. This matched what I had in mind when I initially made out my plan.

So I modified my Grand Plan a bit- instead of getting a new award in place, I have decided to popularize the existing one through my green newsletter, by making announcements about it in my school assembly and by putting up notices about it on the school notice boards.

I was extremely surprised to learn about the award (and a bit sad also, because I was quite excited about getting a new one instituted!), but I think it would work out well for the school as well as my project if I spread awareness about the existing prize.

Go green!

Impact Assessment

Impact assessment was another concept that I learnt at the iL2L Summit this June, and I plan to use it in every step of my project. (It's always been at the back of my mind while I was working on my project, but now I have a proper name for it!)

Here's the Wikipedia definition:

Impact assessment (IA) is "a process aimed at structuring and supporting the development of policies. It identifies and assesses the problem at stake and the objectives pursued. It identifies the main options for achieving the objective and analyses their likely impacts in the economic, environmental and social fields. It outlines advantages and disadvantages of each option and examines possible synergies and trade-offs".

It talks about the methods employed to reach the main goal such that there is maximum impact in economic, environmental and social fields. In my project, I plan to spread environmental consciousness not only among the student community in my school (the target population), but also to students in other schools and the public in general. This is the larger aim of my project.

As suggested by my Project Manager, I plan to do this by requesting a local newspaper to highlight the green initiatives launched in the school. Hopefully, this would inspire students in other city schools to replicate such programmes!

Go green!

Measuring my success

I learnt several project planning techniques at the iLive2LeadIndia Summit. In the International Summit, I was exposed to more advanced planning ideas which I am going to keep in mind while carrying out the rest of my Environmental Consciousness initiative.

Measuring my success is one such skill that I thought would be very useful for me while I conclude my project.

At the end of my project, it's important for me to be able to show concrete results to prove that my efforts have created a difference (or not- so that I can improvise!). Thus, I need to quantitatively measure my progress at regular intervals.

Here's how I plan to do this:
a) My survey (refer my blog post dated 16th June 2011, Thursday)- I have conducted a survey among a random sample of thirty students to measure their initial awareness levels. Once I finish carrying out all my green activities, I will hand out the same survey to the same set of students to check if there is an increase in awareness levels, and if so, by how much. These percentages will give me a rough but clear idea about the effect that my project has had on the target population in consideration.

b) My blog- I'm keeping track of how regularly I've been updating my blog. With 13 posts so far (including this one!), I've covered all aspects of my project that I think will help in spreading consciousness or that I want others to know about. I also check how many hits I've received every time I login. The numbers seem good with 102 hits since I began this blog!

c) Feedback- Some of my initiatives are well-received by my peers while others are not. Direct feedback in the form of comments or reports (for example, refer my blog post dated 31st July 2011, a student's view about the talk on eco-friendly lifestyles held in the school) are preferable because I know exactly what was well-done and what needed improvement. Indirect feedback is easier to obtain, like observing the number of students willing to volunteer for an eco-friendly event or the teachers' willingness to conduct a green class activity. However, I find it more difficult to document this kind of feedback!

Using these three forms of measurement, I hope I will be able to measure the impact of my project on my community!

Go green!

Next up- green newsletter

A green newsletter is next on my to-do list of green activities! The tabloid I plan to bring out is both to promote eco-awareness and to recognize students' participation in environmentally friendly initiatives in and outside school.

I have a rough outline of what's going to be in there- as well as a fantastic painting that will form the cover page! This in-house newsletter will be interactive and student-friendly. I plan to host it on the school blog, and if possible, even the school website! Both these sites are accessible to students of our two sister schools as well, apart from the students in my school. That's quite exciting, because a larger number of people can be influenced to become eco-friendly (which is the extended aim of this project; my PM aptly called it 'the ripple effect'!)

Of course, I'll also put it up on this blog Environ, for all of my followers and readers to see!

Go green!