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Eco Actions you can do

Just Do it! Leap into Action! An "A B C" of Action Project Ideas

There are many types of action projects you and your friends, class and school can do. Here are a few ideas to help get you started. Good luck and let us know how it goes!!

• Adopt a tree, stream, park, beach, lake, forest, or mountain to care for.


• Avoid buying products that harm our environment.


• Avoid pouring harmful chemicals like paint or motor oil down the drain.


• Buy products with the least amount of packaging, or in bulk.


• Community/family info night - Develop and deliver presentations and displays, and invite school, community and family members. Try to organize an event for Earth Day, April 22.


• Donate the clothing you no longer use to people who can use it.


• Ecological footprint - Calculate your classroom, your school or your family's ecological footprint. Try to improve and re-calculate a few months later. There is a cool calculator to try out at: www.mec.ca/Apps/ecoCalc/ecoCalc.jsp


• Food: organic, locally grown, Fair Trade: Check out how to get more of these food products into your school cafeteria.


• Fair Trade: check out ways to promote fair trade coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit - sell them as fund-raisers.


• Fill a one-litre container with water and put it in the toilet tank to save water.


• Fundraise - Pick an environmental cause or organization and brainstorm ways to raise money for them.


• Get Action into Your School newsletter - Create an eco-column with tips, facts and news about issues, events or facts.


• Hold a walk or run-a-thon to gather pledges for action projects.


• Keep a jug of cool water in the fridge to avoid running that tap….!


• Litter-less lunches - Challenge your fellow students to bring a litter-less lunch one day (or even five days!) per week.


• Make rain barrels to collect rainwater to use to water your yard.


• Make some Posters - Make educational posters to hang in the hallway to make other students and teachers more aware of your issue.


• Organize clean-up days to pick up litter in your neighbourhood.


• Peer teaching - Prepare a presentation and visit another class/school to teach them about your topic and personal actions they can take to help.


• Personal pledge - Create and take a personal pledge. Take David Suzuki's Nature Challenge (visit www.davidsuzuki.org/kids), or make up your own.


• Plant a tree, bush, shrub, or native plant, and label it.


• Protect your parks and beaches - organize a volunteer bike patrol.


• Read and learn more about our planet, and the plants and animals we live with.


• Recycle by buying and selling things at garage sales.


• Start a petition - Collect signatures of people who support your cause and present the petition to your local (or provincial) politicians. See the "Leap into Action!" Action Sheet 3 (pdf) for tips on writing a petition.


• Slip on Slippers and sweaters: Warm up your body before you heat the whole room.


• Take shorter showers instead of baths to conserve water.


• Take the One Tonne Challenge - see what steps you can take to help combat climate change. Check out www.climatechange.gc.ca/onetonne.


• Turn off lights, TV, radio etc. when you leave a room.


• Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth.


• Use the bus, carpool, bike or walk to cut down on air pollution.


• Write A Letter - Letters DO make a difference. Decision-makers need to hear about your issue. Check out "Leap into Action" Action Sheet 1: Write a Letter! (pdf) for some tips. Organize a letter-writing bee to get as many written as possible. Don't forget to write to your local papers as well.