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C A P s
All of the resources you need to build a successful Climate Action Plan!
Explore this page for inspiration, a step-by-step guide, a planner, and other helpful resources.
climate action plans
join our ambassadors program to build a CAP! (see link under Events tab)
What's a Climate Action Plan?
A Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a project to address climate change in your own community. A CAP can be anything: a beach cleanup, a movement to advocate for legislation, a petition for Meatless Mondays, an education program for elementary school students, or a plan to reduce plastic waste at your school. We youth hold tremendous power in advocating for climate change solutions -- let's use it!
Steps
To build a successful Climate Action Plan! Click 'Read More' on each step for ideas, resources, and more!
STEP 2:
Develop a Project Idea
Develop a project idea from the brainstorm session. What topic areas will this project cover?
STEP 3:
Set Goals
Set up 3-5 goals for this project that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
STEP 5:
Action Steps
What steps do we need to achieve to accomplish our goals? Split up into short-term and long-term steps.
STEP 6:
Funding
What funding do we need to accomplish our goals? What materials do we need? (supplies, money, time, etc.)
STEP 7:
Measure Your Success
How will we measure our success? Who will monitor? What methods can we use?
STEP 8:
Communication
Develop a project idea from the brainstorm session. What topic areas will this project cover?
Clothing Swap
Zoe organized a showing of the True Cost, a documentary depicting the polluting and exploitative fast fashion industry, and hosted a clothing swap afterwards to educate people about buying clothes second hand to avoid feeding profit into fast fashion, one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.
TerraCycle
A program that has various types of boxes available where materials can be recycled that would otherwise not be able to. For example, Urban has TerraCycle boxes all over the school to recycle chip bags and snack bar wrappers with foil insides. When they are full, the material is sent to TerraCycle and recycled. Your school’s environmental team could put plastic bag recycling boxes in the lobby, pen and pencil boxes in classrooms, or glove and mask boxes in the science rooms. There are a ton of options and the program is overall a great way to reduce what your school sends to the landfill
Bee Gardens
Planting a bee garden is a sustainable and environmental friendly alternative to water-guzzling plants such as lawns. This will contribute to the expansion of the vibrant flowers’ population that the bees will thrive on by pollinating them. The bee and other pollinator populations are decreasing rapidly, and bee gardens are a fun way to go outside and help protect these vital species. Bee gardens are also prime locations of photography opportunities. By sharing the experience of observing bees in their habitat, we are able to build a connection with the bee population to inspire their conservation with others. "After planting a bee garden with my Girl Scout troop in 2013, I was inspired to contribute to their conservation. This is a picture that I took while observing bees in action in my neighborhood". -Faline Howard
Chalk Art Activism
Find a street or sidewalk near your home and draw a picture of the Earth or nature. You can write a climate message encouraging people to eat less meat, ditch single use plastics, or ride their bike. You can also write that people should sign up for our Bay Area Youth Climate summit and tag @bayareaycs. It can be a good way of outreach and education
Community Garden
Green Team students at Long Lake focused on rebuilding their community garden. The Green Team purchased gardening materials to build a garden shed to house all of their community garden equipment as well as other supplies to revitalize their community garden. These materials include things such as a dumping wagon to help move supplies and debris, plants and students helped plant them, hand tools and rakes.
Earth Day Celebration
Students organized an Earth Day celebration to educate and inspire action for climate change and general environmental awareness. As part of the Earth Day celebration students used Wild Center grant money to purchase composting buckets, cell phone solar chargers, Smart energy strips, and a parachute (for parachute for the planet project). These items were used as part of education stations and are now used in the science classrooms. In addition to the earth day stations, they organized a community clean up and worked with the technology teacher to incorporate the school wide quarterly STEM Challenge to use recycled material to create something useful. Green team students also went into the elementary classroom to make planters with old soda bottles.
Water Bottle Refill Station
The Homer Green Team’s climate action plan focused on reducing the use of plastic water bottles in their school. The green team installed a water bottle refill station using grant money from The Wild Center’s mini grant program. The Green Team also raised awareness about this issue and educated fellow classmates.
Solar Charging Station
Trevor Day School students wanted to raise awareness about clean energy by offering solar panel phone charging stations with educational posters.
the Green Market
The Green Market was a community climate awareness event which doubles as a
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
Clothing Swap
Zoe organized a showing of the True Cost, a documentary depicting the polluting and exploitative fast fashion industry, and hosted a clothing swap afterwards to educate people about buying clothes second hand to avoid feeding profit into fast fashion, one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.
TerraCycle
A program that has various types of boxes available where materials can be recycled that would otherwise not be able to. For example, Urban has TerraCycle boxes all over the school to recycle chip bags and snack bar wrappers with foil insides. When they are full, the material is sent to TerraCycle and recycled. Your school’s environmental team could put plastic bag recycling boxes in the lobby, pen and pencil boxes in classrooms, or glove and mask boxes in the science rooms. There are a ton of options and the program is overall a great way to reduce what your school sends to the landfill
Bee Gardens
Planting a bee garden is a sustainable and environmental friendly alternative to water-guzzling plants such as lawns. This will contribute to the expansion of the vibrant flowers’ population that the bees will thrive on by pollinating them. The bee and other pollinator populations are decreasing rapidly, and bee gardens are a fun way to go outside and help protect these vital species. Bee gardens are also prime locations of photography opportunities. By sharing the experience of observing bees in their habitat, we are able to build a connection with the bee population to inspire their conservation with others. "After planting a bee garden with my Girl Scout troop in 2013, I was inspired to contribute to their conservation. This is a picture that I took while observing bees in action in my neighborhood". -Faline Howard
Chalk Art Activism
Find a street or sidewalk near your home and draw a picture of the Earth or nature. You can write a climate message encouraging people to eat less meat, ditch single use plastics, or ride their bike. You can also write that people should sign up for our Bay Area Youth Climate summit and tag @bayareaycs. It can be a good way of outreach and education
Community Garden
Green Team students at Long Lake focused on rebuilding their community garden. The Green Team purchased gardening materials to build a garden shed to house all of their community garden equipment as well as other supplies to revitalize their community garden. These materials include things such as a dumping wagon to help move supplies and debris, plants and students helped plant them, hand tools and rakes.
Earth Day Celebration
Students organized an Earth Day celebration to educate and inspire action for climate change and general environmental awareness. As part of the Earth Day celebration students used Wild Center grant money to purchase composting buckets, cell phone solar chargers, Smart energy strips, and a parachute (for parachute for the planet project). These items were used as part of education stations and are now used in the science classrooms. In addition to the earth day stations, they organized a community clean up and worked with the technology teacher to incorporate the school wide quarterly STEM Challenge to use recycled material to create something useful. Green team students also went into the elementary classroom to make planters with old soda bottles.
Water Bottle Refill Station
The Homer Green Team’s climate action plan focused on reducing the use of plastic water bottles in their school. The green team installed a water bottle refill station using grant money from The Wild Center’s mini grant program. The Green Team also raised awareness about this issue and educated fellow classmates.
Solar Charging Station
Trevor Day School students wanted to raise awareness about clean energy by offering solar panel phone charging stations with educational posters.
the Green Market
The Green Market was a community climate awareness event which doubles as a
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
Clothing Swap
Zoe organized a showing of the True Cost, a documentary depicting the polluting and exploitative fast fashion industry, and hosted a clothing swap afterwards to educate people about buying clothes second hand to avoid feeding profit into fast fashion, one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.
TerraCycle
A program that has various types of boxes available where materials can be recycled that would otherwise not be able to. For example, Urban has TerraCycle boxes all over the school to recycle chip bags and snack bar wrappers with foil insides. When they are full, the material is sent to TerraCycle and recycled. Your school’s environmental team could put plastic bag recycling boxes in the lobby, pen and pencil boxes in classrooms, or glove and mask boxes in the science rooms. There are a ton of options and the program is overall a great way to reduce what your school sends to the landfill
Bee Gardens
Planting a bee garden is a sustainable and environmental friendly alternative to water-guzzling plants such as lawns. This will contribute to the expansion of the vibrant flowers’ population that the bees will thrive on by pollinating them. The bee and other pollinator populations are decreasing rapidly, and bee gardens are a fun way to go outside and help protect these vital species. Bee gardens are also prime locations of photography opportunities. By sharing the experience of observing bees in their habitat, we are able to build a connection with the bee population to inspire their conservation with others. "After planting a bee garden with my Girl Scout troop in 2013, I was inspired to contribute to their conservation. This is a picture that I took while observing bees in action in my neighborhood". -Faline Howard
Chalk Art Activism
Find a street or sidewalk near your home and draw a picture of the Earth or nature. You can write a climate message encouraging people to eat less meat, ditch single use plastics, or ride their bike. You can also write that people should sign up for our Bay Area Youth Climate summit and tag @bayareaycs. It can be a good way of outreach and education
Community Garden
Green Team students at Long Lake focused on rebuilding their community garden. The Green Team purchased gardening materials to build a garden shed to house all of their community garden equipment as well as other supplies to revitalize their community garden. These materials include things such as a dumping wagon to help move supplies and debris, plants and students helped plant them, hand tools and rakes.
Earth Day Celebration
Students organized an Earth Day celebration to educate and inspire action for climate change and general environmental awareness. As part of the Earth Day celebration students used Wild Center grant money to purchase composting buckets, cell phone solar chargers, Smart energy strips, and a parachute (for parachute for the planet project). These items were used as part of education stations and are now used in the science classrooms. In addition to the earth day stations, they organized a community clean up and worked with the technology teacher to incorporate the school wide quarterly STEM Challenge to use recycled material to create something useful. Green team students also went into the elementary classroom to make planters with old soda bottles.
Water Bottle Refill Station
The Homer Green Team’s climate action plan focused on reducing the use of plastic water bottles in their school. The green team installed a water bottle refill station using grant money from The Wild Center’s mini grant program. The Green Team also raised awareness about this issue and educated fellow classmates.
Solar Charging Station
Trevor Day School students wanted to raise awareness about clean energy by offering solar panel phone charging stations with educational posters.
the Green Market
The Green Market was a community climate awareness event which doubles as a
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
Clothing Swap
Zoe organized a showing of the True Cost, a documentary depicting the polluting and exploitative fast fashion industry, and hosted a clothing swap afterwards to educate people about buying clothes second hand to avoid feeding profit into fast fashion, one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.
TerraCycle
A program that has various types of boxes available where materials can be recycled that would otherwise not be able to. For example, Urban has TerraCycle boxes all over the school to recycle chip bags and snack bar wrappers with foil insides. When they are full, the material is sent to TerraCycle and recycled. Your school’s environmental team could put plastic bag recycling boxes in the lobby, pen and pencil boxes in classrooms, or glove and mask boxes in the science rooms. There are a ton of options and the program is overall a great way to reduce what your school sends to the landfill
Bee Gardens
Planting a bee garden is a sustainable and environmental friendly alternative to water-guzzling plants such as lawns. This will contribute to the expansion of the vibrant flowers’ population that the bees will thrive on by pollinating them. The bee and other pollinator populations are decreasing rapidly, and bee gardens are a fun way to go outside and help protect these vital species. Bee gardens are also prime locations of photography opportunities. By sharing the experience of observing bees in their habitat, we are able to build a connection with the bee population to inspire their conservation with others. "After planting a bee garden with my Girl Scout troop in 2013, I was inspired to contribute to their conservation. This is a picture that I took while observing bees in action in my neighborhood". -Faline Howard
Chalk Art Activism
Find a street or sidewalk near your home and draw a picture of the Earth or nature. You can write a climate message encouraging people to eat less meat, ditch single use plastics, or ride their bike. You can also write that people should sign up for our Bay Area Youth Climate summit and tag @bayareaycs. It can be a good way of outreach and education
Community Garden
Green Team students at Long Lake focused on rebuilding their community garden. The Green Team purchased gardening materials to build a garden shed to house all of their community garden equipment as well as other supplies to revitalize their community garden. These materials include things such as a dumping wagon to help move supplies and debris, plants and students helped plant them, hand tools and rakes.
Earth Day Celebration
Students organized an Earth Day celebration to educate and inspire action for climate change and general environmental awareness. As part of the Earth Day celebration students used Wild Center grant money to purchase composting buckets, cell phone solar chargers, Smart energy strips, and a parachute (for parachute for the planet project). These items were used as part of education stations and are now used in the science classrooms. In addition to the earth day stations, they organized a community clean up and worked with the technology teacher to incorporate the school wide quarterly STEM Challenge to use recycled material to create something useful. Green team students also went into the elementary classroom to make planters with old soda bottles.
Water Bottle Refill Station
The Homer Green Team’s climate action plan focused on reducing the use of plastic water bottles in their school. The green team installed a water bottle refill station using grant money from The Wild Center’s mini grant program. The Green Team also raised awareness about this issue and educated fellow classmates.
Solar Charging Station
Trevor Day School students wanted to raise awareness about clean energy by offering solar panel phone charging stations with educational posters.
the Green Market
The Green Market was a community climate awareness event which doubles as a
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
farmers market. There was live music, a Farm to School Lunch competition, and
A presentation on Climate Reality with the Plattsburgh High School Green Team.
Examples
Once you make progress with your CAP, you will have the chance for your project to be featured here!
Sasha Hahn
El Cerrito High School
Nya Wang-Jethi
Harvest Park Middle School
Elli Rande
Gunn High School
"Over the past few weeks I’ve made so much progress in this project and grown as a leader but more importantly a team player."
"This program has taught me so much about how to get involved in climate activism and the different major climate issues. This was my first experience working on a climate action plan, and I hope to continue!"
"Through organizing the beach clean up, I improved at writing emails, designing flyers, and strengthening my problem-solving skills."
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