The Power of Pilot Projects

Build momentum through small, visible wins

Pilot projects are powerful because they reduce risk, provide proof of concept, and help build momentum. A well-chosen pilot can demonstrate what’s possible—and create excitement for what’s next.

“What you need is a little pilot project. I cannot oversell this idea of pilot projects!" - (L. Cutler, Princeton Day School)

“We started with one garden bed… and before we knew it, we had teachers asking how to connect it to the curriculum.” (S. Flint, San Domenico School)

Before there was an official Sustainability Coordinator at Montclair Kimberley Academy (NJ), Ben Rich began identifying easy wins. “While I was coaching and teaching, I just started making proposals,” —swapping trash cans for triple bins, switching to occupancy-sensing lights, and replacing Styrofoam with reusable or compostable alternatives. These small changes had big impact. “Especially the lights, which have a quick ROI.” By starting with low-cost, high-return actions, Ben built credibility and momentum, and eventually, the school created a formal role for him to lead sustainability as his co-curricular responsibility instead of coaching. (Read more here.)

💡 Tip: Begin with projects that are highly visible, low-cost, and offer measurable benefits—like energy savings or waste reduction. These wins open doors for deeper, longer-term change.

Ideas for Sustainability Pilot Projects

• Composting: A small-scale composting pilot with one classroom or grade level.

• Waste Audit: Run a single-day audit of cafeteria or classroom waste with students, and display the findings.

• Sustainability Science Fair: Host a mini fair where students present ideas or solutions to sustainability challenges.

• Walk or Bike to School Day: Start with one school-wide event and use student surveys to measure impact.

• Pollinator Garden Bed: Install one garden bed with native pollinator plants and monitor for bee and butterfly activity.

• Meatless Mondays: Work with food services to pilot a plant-forward meal day.

And importantly:

• Empower students! When students feel ownership, engagement deepens and the project becomes part of the school culture. Involve students as leaders, designers, educators, and storytellers in your pilot project. Let them lead announcements, design posters, and help to plan, implement and celebrate projects.

• Make a noise! The more visible the project, the more momentum it gains. Use assemblies, announcements, posters, newsletters, ‘flash mobs’, and school social media to celebrate activities and successes.

START Metric #40: Grounds Management

🐞 Integrated Pest Management: A Smarter Way to Manage School Grounds

IPM is a smart, sensible, and sustainable approach to managing pests:

• Healthier - by reducing children’s exposure to both pests and pesticides.

• Sensible - Practical strategies to reduce the sources of food, water and shelter pests need to infest school buildings and grounds.

• Sustainable - emphasizing prevention rather than control, making it more cost-effective for long-term pest mitigation.

🐞 Why does this matter? 

Children are especially vulnerable to pesticide exposure— their developing bodies and behaviors (like hand-to-mouth activity) make them more susceptible to pesticide-related health impacts, which have been linked to asthma, cancer, and neurodevelopmental issues. (Source: US EPA)

Just getting started with IPM?

🗣️ Start the conversation

• Engage Key Stakeholders: staff who influence school operations (e.g. custodial staff, the facilities manager, school nurse, principal, and members of the green team or wellness committee).

• Share why IPM matters:

  • It protects student health and reduces asthma risk (Top resource: Pesticides and You)

  • It can cut costs (Resource: Business case for IPM)

  • It creates a cleaner learning environment.

• Present it as a collaborative opportunity, not an added burden.

📜 Develop an official IPM policy statement

• A commitment from school leadership to provide a safe, clean and healthy environment for students and staff by implementing reduced-risk methods.

⚡ Identify Immediate Strategies

• Identify immediate strategies to prevent pests, rather than control them, such as sanitation, sealing entry points, moisture control, waste management, storage practices and staff/ student training.

Congratulations to these schools for launching their Whole School Sustainability journeys through START! See a map of our START schools here.

• The Potomac School, Virginia

• Wellington College International Tianjin, China

• Wellington College Hangzhou, China

📝 START x STEM  

START can be a fantastic tool for engaging students in STEM with real-world connections and hands-on learning. In a term- or semester-long projects, students become Sustainability Superheroes, learning to become problem-solvers and innovators for their school and their community. Find inspiration and activity ideas that engage Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs) in START’s Operation: Regeneration.

APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Sc3 2025:
Student Conservation Community & Congress

In partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center, the Green Schools Alliance is proud to host Sc3, the Student Climate & Conservation Congress, once again in July 2025.

• Who: Rising 9th-12th grade students  *US and Internationally

• When: June 29-July 5, 2025

• Where: National Conservation Training Center, West Virginia

Sc3 is a week-long youth leadership training program for rising 9th to 12th grade students. From engaging workshops to kayaking down the Potomac, learning from inspiring guest speakers, sharing tales around the campfire, and tackling group projects on real-world environmental challenges, the students who attended SC3 now have a new chapter to add to their personal stories as young environmental leaders. Hear NCTC talk about Sc3 here and here.

“Sc3 was truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Absolutely life changing!!” Arielle, 2024 Sc3 Fellow

Green Schools Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created by schools, for schools, with a mission is to connect and empower schools worldwide to lead the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient future.

Ways to get involved:

1. Get your school to sign the Sustainability Leadership Commitment to join schools and districts who have already
   answered the call to action.

2. Join the Community for resources, best practices & a peer-to-peer network of school sustainability champions.

3. Use START: Sustainability Tracking, Analytics & Roadmap Tool to benchmark, plan, track and collaborate for Whole School Sustainability.