The following are additional details about the 2008 program. Please check back as details may change prior to the 2009 program launch!

Student, Teacher or Administrator-initiated projects: Students of all ages and grades can participate. Older students can take the initiative to conceive and design their own GreenSTART projects to “green” their environment and need only find a teacher or adult to be their sponsor to help when needed. With younger students, teachers are welcome to initiate a project idea to work on with a few motivated students or with the whole class, whether as part of a class lesson, simply to pursue an interest, or for fun. All adults, including parents or school administrators are welcome and encouraged to propose project ideas to teachers or students that they would like to see pursued at the school.

All “Greening” projects will qualify: So long as the project is designed to improve environmental performance locally in some discernable way, the project will qualify for registration. Virtually all green projects will be accepted, including small challenges like changing the paper towels used by students in the bathrooms to 100% post-consumer material or starting a school compost, and large challenges such as moving the school to “zero” waste or reducing the school’s use of plastic, disposable products. Complex projects to bring solar power to a school building (that may need a lot of adult assistance and funding), as well as town projects, such as improving bike lanes, could all qualify.

The EPC reviews all projects upon receipt of the form: Once the EPC receives a Project Registration Form, the form will be reviewed to ensure that the project meets the program's requirements. Once this is determined, the project will be listed on the web site as a qualifying project for the school named on the form. Students should check the web site to make sure their project has been listed, so their school gets the credit for that project. If the project does not qualify for any reason (including if information is missing), the EPC will contact the project sponsor to review any issues.

No Limit to Number of Entries per School: To qualify, each project requires a minimum of two (preferably three or more) students and one adult sponsor but otherwise there is no limit to the number of projects that a school can enter into the competition. Furthermore, students wishing to pursue a project can seek sponsorship from a teacher, an administrator, other school staff member or even a parent, so long as that person is willing to provide the guidance needed for the project. How much guidance is needed will be greatly dependent upon the age of the students, their capabilities and the complexity of the project. (Remember, project are not necessarily being implemented in this phase.)

Projects Aim to Improve the Schools’ Environmental Performance and/or the Local Environment: Each student project needs to be aimed at directly improving some aspect of our local environmental performance, whether in and around the school, or within the local community, that could result in a net reduction of carbon emissions. Although all projects must meet this criteria, the actual measurable amount of carbon reduction does not need to be calculated. Many groups are working on developing better metrics for estimating total carbon emissions from various activities but these are still not widely available. The EPC will evaluate each project based upon its best judgement that the project, if executed as described, would result in discernable environmental improvements in our neighborhoods, including reductions in carbon dioxiode or other greenhouse gas emissions, such that there is a beneficial impact in Atherton’s sustainability performance, as measured by Sustainable San Mateo County and Silicon Valley Joint Venture.

GreenSTART Helps Residents Increase their Energy Efficiency and Reduce their Carbon Footprint: While the students are busy developing their projects, local homeowners and residents will be encouraged to participate in GreenSTART by following recommendations to increase their home energy efficiency. They can voluntarily pursue as many of the recommendations as they wish or other efficiency measures. Then they will fill out their their GreenSTART participant form, which will enable them to calculate their Carbon Footprint and from this information, they will get a recommended GreenSTART Fund donation amount that they can contribute (tax-deductibly) to neutralize their family environmental footprint. Funds collected will go directly to support student prizes and provide project funding. Residents (including all members of the family) will be able to vote for the projects they like at the GreenSTART fair, so they have a say in which projects win prizes and become eligible for funding.

GreenSTART Fair to be a Showcase of All School Environmental Projects: Each group of registered students will need to present their projects at the GreenSTART Fair planned for May 4th in Holbrook-Palmer Park in Atherton to qualify for prizes. This half-day fair (1:00 to 5:00 pm) will feature the students presenting their projects and participating residents reviewing the project and voting on their favorite ones. Students will also be able to peruse the project presentations and vote for their favorite projects. Every registered resident and student will have a Vote Card waiting for them on the day of the fair. All unregistered attendees will have an opportunity to register at the fair and receive a Vote Card, so long as supplies last but they are greatly encouraged to pre-register, so that we are sure to have sufficient Vote Cards available.

GreenSTART Will Provide Exciting Cash Prizes to Winning Projects & Schools: With the amounts raised by GreenSTART Fund (through resident donations and through corporate sponsors), GreenSTART will award exciting cash prizes to students and schools for their projects and participation. The exact prize amounts will be determined after the fair but healthy-sized prize amounts will help to stimulate student enthusiasm and participation.

Keeping it Local: Residents are encouraged and aided to reduce their carbon footprint. Parents and children can both contribute to this process by participating in GreenSTART in their own ways. With their family footprint offsets, the residents help fund the success of local student projects aimed at greening schools and reducing the carbon footprints in local neighborhoods. Both groups—residents along with their student-children—can encourage each other in their efforts, as well as see the efforts and projects of others participating through the informative and dynamic web site. Students can see what projects are being done. Each school can see how many projects the other schools are registering. Residents can see how many students are participating versus residents, so there is competition as well as community built around the coordinated and collaborative efforts to keep our beautiful town green!