Who better to begin the process of sustainable behavior changes than the people at the top? School boards and administrators have the power to implement policies and regulations that can not only enforce sustainable behaviors until they become habits but can have a hand in showing the school community how important environmental issues are. In 2012, Portland Public Schools shared a document in which the school board directed their community to:

1. Embrace sustainability practices to enhance student learning 

2. Use resources efficiently 

3. Reduce waste 

4. Consider environmental, societal, and financial implications in decision making 

5. Encourage activities that will reduce pollution

With recommendations like these, school communities should be more willing and motivated to put in the effort to act sustainably. I urge you to encourage your school boards or other administrators to make a similar statement to show their support of sustainable behaviors. It would also be great to see schools reward their communities for successes within these recommendations, like recognition as classes compete to see who has the lowest amount of waste in the cafeteria bins after lunch. If the school has the means to, they should consider a school-wide, long-term competition between classes or grades to be rewarded with something like a pizza party. Pizza boxes are compostable, after all!

Big steps are always harder when there are barriers to break down along the way. Something that would be helpful for any school or community would be to have a group of people sit down and identify the barriers that are keeping students and staff from acting as sustainably as possible. According to psychologist Christie Manning, these barriers can be anything physical, social, or psychological. Some examples that Manning offers in her guidebook “The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior” are barriers of infrastructure such as a town having no bike lanes, social barriers like being looked at strangely when you bring your own reusable cup to a coffee shop, and psychological barriers like kicking your soda habit that has you drinking two plastic bottles a day. 

In schools, these barriers might look like a lack of financial resources or infrastructure such as a compost collection service, or breaking the habits of students who are used to buying a plastic water bottle in the cafeteria every day. If school communities can identify their barriers, they can then decide which ones they can begin work on right away and which will need to be addressed in the future. If the school doesn’t have the flexibility to hire a new staff person to manage all of its green action plans, maybe the responsibilities can be divided between existing members who are willing to take on a little extra work. If your town doesn’t have an industrial composting facility to contract with, it might be best for the school to create its own backyard-style compost and a community garden to go along with it. The same goes for behavioral changes. If it’s too much to ask students to never forget their water bottle at home and end up buying a plastic one instead, ask them to try their best to do it less often. Don’t let barriers discourage you or your students from taking the first, sometimes small steps. A school full of imperfect environmentalists will always make more impact than a handful of people doing everything perfectly!

For any sort of campaign to truly be successful, it needs to be accessible to all members of the community. Especially when it comes to sustainability, it’s important to meet people where they’re at. While some students may be well-versed in the recycling process, others might not have much experience with the practice. In order to address the school community in a way that feels accessible to everyone, make sure that information is being shared with vocabulary that’s familiar to everyone, whether or not they are familiar with the ideas that the vocabulary is being used to describe. When I was a sustainability advocate for my freshman residence hall, part of my job was to make sure that people were putting their waste in the right bins between the compost, recycling, and trash bins. What I noticed was that, since the compost bin was labeled “organics recycling,” people who didn’t know what that meant were just throwing in anything that had the word “organic” on it, like food packaging (which isn’t typically made of compostable materials). This problem could have been avoided simply by labeling the bin “food waste” or “compost.” 

Another accessibility issue that can arise in a setting like public school is the difference between cultural and political beliefs of community members. Some cultures or religions have different relationships with the environment than others, and so sustainability might look different for them. It’s important to recognize that there’s no such thing as a perfect environmentalist, and that any amount of sustainable practice is better than none and is enough to make a difference.