The Carlmont Green Team is participating in the San Francisco-based Project Green Challenge, a global program that invites students to live a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle.
The Project Green Challenge (PGC), runs through the month of October and consists of a different eco-themed challenge each day, with themes ranging from water usage to climate justice. The goal is for students to respond to each challenge with an impactful action, which gives them a chance of winning the challenge by landing them on the PGC leaderboard.
“Project Green Challenge started with our executive director Judy Shills,” said Will Funk, a Project Green Challenge representative. “She had this idea that in the Bay Area, there were so many eco-friendly, environmentally friendly companies that were making these great products. Judy really wanted to foster an eco-conscious mindset in student lives.”
The Carlmont Green Team is one of the project’s 5,000 global participants. PGC has already recognized the Green Team for their work so far, which has consisted of awareness-raising social media infographics and environmental pledges.
“We’ve won twice so far,” said Natalie Su, Carlmont senior and Green Team Club co-president. “It’s pretty nice to know that we were already able to be recognized twice out of only four different challenges.
The challenges range between three levels of difficulty: green, greener, and greenest. The Green Team has organized events, created zero-waste artwork, and made educational infographics for the challenge this month, all posted on their PGC Instagram account.
“Green team’s infographics have made me more aware of our environment,” said Maddy Kim, a Carlmont sophomore. “They also make me more aware of current events revolving around climate change.”
Participating in harder challenges and landing in the top 10 leaderboard earns each team points. At the end of October, the PGC will consider each team’s actions and will tally up all the points to select 14 winning teams. PGC will then fly these 14 teams to an all-expenses-paid climate conference, where each team will present a Climate Action Project to the PGC board.
After each Climate Action Project is completed to fruition, one lucky team is selected to win the $5,000 grand prize.
“The grand prize winner this past year was a senior at Belmont University in Tennessee,” Funk said. “Her team lobbied for the med school to incorporate environmental justice into their first-year curriculum. It was successfully implemented and every first-year medical student is now required to learn about environmental justice.”
Skincare brand Acure, one of PGC’s longtime sponsors, donates the $5,000 grand prize. Patagonia, Boxed Water, and Klean Kanteen are a few of the other well-known brands PGC partners with to bring student participants prizes that relate to their vision.
The Carlmont Green Team is planning on continuing challenge participation with the hopes of being selected for the San Francisco climate conference, which takes place Nov. 16-19.
“We’re already encouraging our green team members to participate in the PGC challenge,” Su said. “We would use the prize money to invest in things that would help others to participate.”
