Environment Community for Students
Note:
The GSP Community Portal is now closed.
If you wish to take a look at the summary of the month-long environment community portal for students, please scroll down to the heading ‘Summary’.
The Community Portal of Green Schools Programme (GSP) is live again! The community portal is an online hangout place for students and is a fun platform designed to connect all those who are concerned about the environment and
To know more about what the community portal included, steps and process, scroll down to the heading ‘What is the Community portal?’ and start reading!
If you wish to play, learn and earn more points for your best green practices, take a look at GSP Audit@Home here.
Summary
CSE’s Green Schools Programme (GSP) launched a month-long interactive initiative for students to connect all those who are concerned about the environment, want to make a difference and be a part of the student environment community. The community platform opened for participation from October 8 and closed on November 6 2020. Students from 21 states participated across the country, with the highest participation from Tamil Nadu (399 registrations), followed by Uttar Pradesh (353 registrations).
The initiative was organized for grades 6 onwards, though around 100+ students from primary grades also participated. More than 1800 students from 115 schools across India engaged in discussions, uploaded posts about the environment while continuing to learn about green practices, from their home environment.
There were five levels in which students moved from Green Cadet (1211 students out of the 1800+ were rated a Cadet) to Green Officer (328), Green Captain (98), Green Admiral (46) and finally Green Crusader (158 students earned the highest rank). To know more about the rankings, scroll down to Rewards System and Green Points.
What is the Community portal?
The community portal is an online hangout place for students and is a fun platform designed to connect all those who are concerned about the environment and want to make a difference. All you have to do is register and be a part of the green community. There are no charges. (Note: The portal is now closed)
The portal will help you to share your thoughts, ideas and green practices with your friends and classmates and inspire them to learn from you and you to learn from others and put your thoughts into action.
Who Can Join?
Any school student residing in India! It doesn’t matter where you live in India or which school you go to. The Community Portal is open to all students who want to enrich their lives and improve our environment by sharing ideas and taking concrete action.
Why Join?
In the present scenario, most of our environmental issues go neglected, and we fail to form connections between our actions and its impact on the environment. Have you made the connection of emissions from human activities to climate change? Or understood that extreme weather events, rising sea-levels and so on are consequences of climate change? If you believe in the conservation of the environment and ensure, on a regular basis, that you do not abuse what has been provided to us, then this community is the perfect place to announce their actions.
Not only will you be recognized for your actions, the awareness you spread through the community will encourage your schoolmates and friends to follow in your footsteps. If you feel you are not contributing enough to this cause, go through the checklist provided and start practicing the simple ideas that have been listed. You will be surprised to learn that some of your daily habits and activities do qualify as a green practice.
What’s the Goal?
This community’s goal is to spread environmental awareness on an individual level. Have you ever wondered how green you are as an individual? Do you take initiatives towards a clean environment in your personal life now that you have been at home because of COVID 19? Do you switch off appliances or use solar-powered appliances? Do you segregate and separately dispose of your household waste?
How Easy Is It to Use?
The site has been designed such that it is easy-to-navigate, interactive and feature-rich. You can post pictures of you taking part in green activities, latest news about new practices, fun facts or trivia to make the community vibrant and drive environmental consciousness. The portal will help you to share your thoughts, ideas and green practices with your friends and classmates and inspire them to learn from you and you to learn from others and put your thoughts into action.
On the community website, you can spread your green ideas, update your peers on your latest green activity, post, share, like and even comment. Each member will be the keeper of the website. It is with active engagement from each of you that the GSP community portal will come alive and progress towards our common goal of saving the environment.
Rewards System and Green Points
The community portal rewards you with “Green Points” for your various actions you perform – both online and offline. A few simple ways of scoring points include the following:
- Declare your green activity
- Support your activity with evidence, such as a picture or a video or a document
- Become an active participant of the online community by commenting, interacting and implementing ideas shared by others
- Start discussions on green issues or contribute to them
- Nominate your friends and schoolmates to join the community
To give you an example: If you upload evidence that you are using reusable/cloth masks to protect yourself from COVID 19 to minimize the burden on landfills, you gain 200 points. If you have planted saplings as a green initiative and the trees have survived, then all you need to do is find the activity in the list provided on the website, upload a picture of them and you get 100 points! Yes, it is that simple! If you post a comment on the forum, you will be awarded with 50 points! Thus, for every such green practice you share, you get rewarded, which helps you to build your green profile in the community. You can keep track of the number of points you have gained, your current position and rank on your profile.
Once you complete all the activities listed on the website, you and your friends will be able to see if you are truly a green warrior! You have a maximum of one month to complete all the activities listed on the portal. Why have we given you one month? Because there may be some activities that you have never done before, and you can plan ahead.
Join the Revolution Now?
To find out when the Community portal will open for participation next, please visit www.greenschoolsprogramme.org. When the portal is open, please visit the community portal registration page and fill out the form, following which you will receive an email to complete your registration and join the community. It’s that easy! How do you know you have completed all the activities?
The goal is to reach 10,000 points, and the dashboard on your left will show the progress of yours and your friends’ activities. Also, the field will turn completely green – for points earned, trash will be cleared from your very own field!
