10 Community Conservation Ideas
Build Stronger Communities and Protect the Environment Together
By reaching out to neighbors and organizing community events, we can help protect our environment and each other.
1. Organize a litter clean up party and get them to invite their friends in the neighborhood. It’s a great way to get everyone together, get to know your neighbors and band together for a mutual cause.
2. Plan an organic community fruit and vegetable garden. First, give out a plant that has just started to sprout and follow up the next week so that everyone can plant their growing vegetables together. If possible, make it a raised bed garden so that it’s more accessible and all can participate. Form a garden committee and decide who will take turns weeding, watering, share pesticide free gardening methods.
3. Organize an educational event about recycling. Your city may provide someone to come, speak, hand out literature and even provide recycling bins. Some people want to recycle but don’t know how to go about it.
4. Start a clothing swap and schedule where it will be held and when you will meet. Plenty of people have good clothes that their children have grown out of that they don’t want to throw out.
5. Learn how to build a compost bin and/or rain barrel and teach others how to do the same. It’s great for the environment and your garden. You can get the kids to personalize them by painting and decorating them.
6. If you live in the city, take a trip to the farmers market and/or a farm. When people see where their food really comes from, they learn to appreciate nature and show more of an interest in protecting it.
7. Gather a group of interested crafters together but only use recycled items to create new treasures. Some ideas:
- Candle holders from baby food jars
- Purses out of old jeans
- Mini green houses out of CD cases
- Totes from rice bags
- Jewelry out of buttons and bottle caps
- Rock people
- Pinecone crafts
- Bird feeders from old laundry and milk bottles
8. Organize a walkathon and donate the proceeds to an organization that helps protect the environment. Some suggestions and ideas are the Nature Conservancy, Audubon (bird conservation), David Suzuki Foundation.
9. Have a giant annual community garage sale and invite as many neighbors as possible. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get rid of things you don’t need while providing them to someone who could use them.
10. Create a book swap and meet monthly to exchange books that you’re finished with that others might like to read.
When we all get together we can have fun and learn from each other about ways to conserve while helping to strengthen and enhance the sense of community in our neighborhoods.
