3 minute read
Earth Day Guide: how to organize a company clean-up event
Follow these steps to organize a company clean-up within your local community
The waste humans produce is an enormous strain on the environment. It pollutes ecosystems, animals mistake litter for food, and toxins leak into the soil or water.
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So get your teams together and collect waste in a localpark, beach, river, or any shared space that inspires you toget outside and clean up!
Step 1: Choose a local outdoor space that could use a spruce
Pick an outdoor space that means something to the people of yourcompany: maybe it's the park where employees take their breaks on anice day or an iconic beach that's emblematic to the city or town.
You'll find that your people are much more likely to participate if they'reserving a space in their local community that means something tothem. Plus, it means spending the whole day there with their teammates!
Step 2: Familiarize yourself with regulations
Different towns and cities have their own rules about how we interact in public spaces. Make sure there aren't any guidelines about these kinds of clean-up events before sending your troops out there to clean up!
Step 3: Pick a convenient date and meeting point
Take a poll to find the day that works for everyone's schedules! Or, if youoffer volunteer hours off, let your teams know that they can use theirhours towards this event.
Then decide where in the outdoor space you plan on meeting. Send exactlocations and pictures for reference so everyone knows where they'regoing on the day.
Step 4: Organize and distribute the supplies
Other than your employees, the outdoor space, and a nice day, there'snot much more that you need to throw an amazing clean-up event! Justremember to pick up enough trash bags for everyone and provide orinstruct participants to bring sanitary gloves.
It may also be good to organize water and snack supplies if you'll be out inthe sun for a long chunk of the day.
Step 5: Make it fun
To make the event even more interactive, break up into teams and add a competitive element. Here are a few ways that you can gamify the experience to make the act of collecting trash more fun:
Incentivize teams by offering a reward for the group that collects the most trash. Think something earth-friendly like a reusable water bottle, sustainable food wraps, or a certain number of trees planted in their name. Play "Trash Bingo" featuring typical waste that might be found along the way. Every time a team throws away one of the items on the list, they get to check it off until they hit bingo! Ask teams to take pictures of themselves in the process - the most creative photos win! Plus, this is a great way to generate content to use on social media to share the success of the event.
Step 6: Plan a team-building lunch or talk for after
Make the event even more special by having a picnic in the (newlycleaned!) park or by inviting a speaker to reflect with the group on theimportance of taking care of our green spaces.
Step 7: Partner with a local nonprofit for more impact
If you'd like to take your event to the next level, collaborate with a localplanet-driven nonprofit to maximize on impact. This could also be agood opportunity to make your clean-up a more regular event foremployees to participate in.
