13 Earth-Day “Green” Strategies For Grants And Nonprofits

Green strategies strategically placed in your grant application can help your grant get funded, while publicizing your green team successes in newsletters and annual reports will score you added points with current and potential donors.  In this article, you will discover 13 green strategies to will help you make your agency and projects greener while giving you a head start on creating a Green Plan that you can include in your grant proposal and tout in your newsletters and annual reports.

“We do not inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
      -Haida Indian saying

13 Green Strategies

  1. Reduce Paper Consumption – Convert as many documents as possible to electronic forms and online surveys. These can be stored on computers. Follow the example of the federal government that now requires that most applications be submitted online on Grants.gov. 
  2. Reduce Waste By Practicing The 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. More info
  3. Include Sustainability and Green Concepts In Curriculum and Classes – Train educators in how to include sustainability concept into the curriculum and classroom. Include students in sustainable research projects for the agency and community. Include discussions around environmental topics like quality of water; quality of air; pollution reduction (reuse, reduce, recycle); protection and safety; and waste. More info
  4. Increase Green Awareness – Help your clients, employees and stakeholders become familiar with environmental issues and potential environmental and human health risks caused by pollution.
  5. Donate and Recycle Old Computers and Other Electronic Products – Track down the local information in your community around donation and recycling programs for batteries, computers, cell phones, and other electronic products. Distribute this information to your employees and clients. More info
  6. Conduct A Green Assessment – Identified problem areas and prioritize the risk to the environment, quality of life, and economic vitality. Survey the needs of your business, clients, employees and community.  Determine consumption levels and patterns, prioritize top environmental and green problems, solicit solutions and suggestions for improvement, identify transportation needs, and more. More info
  7. Conduct a Green Trend Analysis – Look at current trends and activities, the direction your agency is headed. Paint a picture that helps your agency and the potential funder visualize their future if nothing is done to intervene. More info
  8. Create a Green Vision Statement – Visioning is the process of focusing on where your agency or community wants to be 5, 10, 20 or 30 years down the road. Visioning empowers the community to move beyond the probable future scenarios developed in the Trend Analysis. Visioning can lead to the desired future of a healthy environment, a strong economy, and a high quality of life. More info
  9. Create A Green Action Plan – Include activities that focus on such factors as environmental stewardship, recycling, transportation, public facilities usage, and energy conservation. Use environmental indicators that generate scientifically-based data that describes environmental conditions and trends, such as vehicle miles traveled, electricity consumption generated from nonrenewable & renewable sources, energy usage and air quality. More info
  10. Reduce Transportation – Driving releases harmful chemicals into the air. Research car pooling, public transportation and non-carbon emitting transportation alternatives in your geographic area like walking and riding bicycles. Distribute this information to stakeholders. More info
  11. Conserve Water – Modify water use habits to achieve more efficient use of water and reduce overall water consumption by an industrial/commercial facility.  Modify existing equipment at a facility, such as plumbing and fixtures. More info
  12. Join An Adopt A Watershed Campaign – As a community service for employees and clients, try joining an EPA-backed “Adopt Your Watershed” campaign. To encourage stewardship of your community’s water resources, join those working to protect and restore your “valuable rivers, streams, wetlands, lakes, ground water, and estuaries.” More info
  13. Create An Adopt A Tree Campaign – Nonprofits, charities, schools and state and local governments use a lot of paper. Develop a strategy that counters the environmental footprint left by cutting down trees. Replenishing trees used to make paper and books.

MORE GREEN RESOURCES

Phil Johncock

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From Phil Johncock – The Grant Writing Professor