Green Ambassador Program
Welcome to the inaugural year of the Green Ambassador Program! Coordinated by the City of Huntsville’s Green Team, in partnership with corporate sponsors, our goal is to motivate, educate and incentivize local youth to adopt sustainable environmental practices.
The Green Ambassador Program is open to K-12th grade students, teachers and administrators in the Huntsville community who are interested in supporting future sustainability practices through experiential education. Through this initiative, Huntsville’s youth can work with their teachers and sponsors to communicate, coordinate and collaborate on student-led sustainability ideas.
HOW IT WORKS
The Green Ambassador Program supplies “Green Kits” filled with curricula information and litter clean-up supplies to support education and awareness of environmental best practices. The Green Kits will be provided to approved applicants from a K-12 school in Huntsville.
Approved Green Ambassador teams may earn points for each lesson or activity aligning with the program’s mission. At the end of the academic year, Green Team will host an awards ceremony to provide prizes, cash awards and gift cards to teams with the most points or who demonstrated exemplary performance. Top schools may also be referred to the Alabama State Department of Education for its Green Ribbon Award Program.
GETTING STARTED
- Complete the Green Ambassador application.
GREEN AMBASSADOR APPLICATION - Choose Green Ambassadors. School participation can be organized through an after-school club, classroom, grade-wide or school-wide club. Once a school has identified its Green Ambassadors and a core team is solidified, Green Team will provide Green Kit with all the materials and information needed to get started.
- Decide what programs to implement. Each Green Ambassador team will outline a plan they believe will be most successful. It may include programs such as teaching lessons outside or incorporating environmental education into the lesson plan. Teachers could also choose to utilize materials in our online toolkit. Schools may choose to run recycling programs, community or school-wide cleanup events, as well as recycled art shows. Mentors and coaches from the Green Team Ambassador Committee are available throughout the program year to assist with starting and maintaining programs.
- Send proof of programming and receive points. Teams should document and submit monthly progress updates by sending photos of student events, programs, or education sessions, along with a brief description of the activity. Green Team will assign a point value to each activity completed. At the end of February, we will count all the points and each school will receive prizes based upon participation.
GREEN AMBASSADOR ACTIVITY POINT SUBMISSION FORM - Green Ambassador Awards Ceremony. Green Team will celebrate participants’ success at an annual awards ceremony. At least two representatives from each school’s Green Ambassador Program must attend the awards ceremony to claim prizes and award money.
GOAL
To motivate, educate, and incentivize sustainable environmental practices, litter reduction, and beautification to students, teachers, and administrators in the Huntsville Area and to ensure that young leaders are at the forefront of green initiatives.
PROGRAM
There are numerous opportunities throughout the school day (and after school) to help teach and involve children in adopting and championing sustainable best practices. Our Green Ambassador mentors are available to work with teachers to help craft programs that are age-appropriate.
Some ideas are listed below, and we look forward to exploring creative ways to keep our planet clean and green.
Classroom
Academic programs may include topics that help youth become good stewards of our planet. Nature-based education programs may include:
- The importance of plants and trees
- Composting
- Gardening
- Benefits of farm-to-table
- Detrimental effects of littering our environment
- Four R’s of sustainable futures – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Environmental events/programs
Examples of programs include:
- Community Cleanups
- Food Waste Audits
- Plastic-Free Days
- Zero Waste Lunch Days
- Recycled Art Shows
- Classroom-Wide Recycling Programs using Target and Publix as drop-offs for recycled materials