Green Up Our Schools
Double-Sided Copying Campaign
School Name:
Part One – Set a Baseline
Ask the front office or school secretary: How much copy paper does your school go through on average?
This is an extremely important step in the project. To measure your success, you must first know your starting point. Find out what
your school's baseline is for copy paper usage by one of the following methods:
•
Ask the front office if they are able to track paper usage on a weekly, monthly, or semester basis.
•
Ask the front office if they are able to track paper purchasing on a weekly, monthly or semester basis.
•
•
If nothing is in place, consider setting up a tracking system:
o Tally sheet inside the paper storage cabinet – mark every time a ream is removed
o Tally sheet next to every copier – mark every time a ream is added
Helpful conversions:
o One ream of paper = 500 sheets
o One box = 10 reams
Timeframe
(week, month, semester, year)
Copy Paper Baseline
Paper Usage/Purchases
(boxes, reams, etc.)
Part Two – Set a Goal
Set a goal for reduction:
Set a goal for reduction along the following lines (choose one):
• 10%/20%/30% reduction
• “Ideally, our school will use ____________________ sheets of paper every week/month.”
• “Ideally, our school will use ____________________ sheets of paper per student.”
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Double-Sided Copying Campaign
Green Up Our Schools
Part Three – Educate & Raise Awareness
Pick 3 or more of the following activities to educate students & faculty on the importance of conserving paper.
Make sure the entire school is involved.
•
Hold a poster contest for the best double-sided slogan.
o
Example: Davis Elementary held a door poster contest – each class hung a sheet of craft paper on their classroom door
decorated with "Use 2x" slogans. The green team made rounds on the day of the contest & handed out awards.
•
Make classroom presentations on the importance of using both sides of the page.
•
Make PA announcements (announcing the poster contest, the winners, etc.)
•
Post signs above the school risograph & copy machines with a slogan. Examples:
Make copies on both
sides of the page –
it's twice as nice!
Thank You
for using both sides
of the page.
Use the Back, Jack!
The student green team
reminds you to use both
sides of the page.
•
Make a scratch paper box for copying mistakes & other paper that has only been used on one side. Be sure it is clearly labeled.
Place next to all risograph and copy machines.
•
Make similar scratch paper boxes for every classroom, with teacher permission.
•
Speak at a faculty meeting. Example message:
•
Talk to the school secretaries about the weekly bulletins. Can they be printed double-sided? Can they be converted to
electronic format? Do they have any suggestions for how the school can use less paper?
“We've set a goal for reducing the amount of paper our school uses, and we hope you'll help us reach it. If you're already
copying on both sides, keep up the good work. If you know of creative ways to teach paper-less lessons in class, we'd
really like to hear about them & share them with everyone. We hope you've seen the scratch paper boxes next to each
copy machine – please feel free to use them whenever you like, by taking or adding paper. We've learned that saving
paper is important because...
"
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Double-Sided Copying Campaign
Green Up Our Schools
Part Four – Track Your Progress
How successful were you?
After the campaign has been running for a while, use the same method for tracking paper usage/purchases as before (suggestion: let
a few months go by before tracking the change). Record your final results here, and make sure to send them back to Green Up Our
Schools:
Timeframe
(week, month,
semester, year)
Copy Paper Final Results
BASELINE
Paper Usage/Purchases
(boxes, reams, etc.)
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FINAL
Paper Usage/Purchases
(boxes, reams, etc.)