Green Team Creation
Create a Green Team (or expanding the membership and mission of an existing Green Team-like entity in order to qualify as a Green Team under NeGS).
This action is mandatory and will earn a municipality 10 points toward certification.
The formation of a “Green Team” is the first step to establishing a community sustainability program. Green Teams leverage the skills, expertise, and life experience of team members to develop policies and plans, implement programs, and assist with educational opportunities that support the creation of a sustainable community. Such entities can go by any name, but the role is the same: lead and coordinate the sustainability activities of the community.
Goal of the Green Team
To bring together a group of community leaders, municipal staff, and community organizations in order to establish a Green Team and to create a Green Team that reflects the characteristics of your community.
Why is the Green Team Important?
The Green Team is the entity that will “lead the charge” to help the municipality achieve NeGS Certification. Creating a Green Team will be a mandatory action for all communities in NeGS.
Taking the time to create a solid Green Team is essential to building a strategy for moving ahead with your community’s sustainability efforts.
Who to Involve:
· The Mayor and City Council should initiate the formation of a Green Team.
· Members of the Green Team should include appointed municipal staff, elected officials, and volunteer members of community boards, city clerk and commissions. Members should also include citizen leaders and representatives from community organizations. These organizations could include schools, school boards, parent- teacher organizations, and students, if applicable, in your community. Other organizations could include local environmental and social action organizations, academic institutions, public health, civic organizations, and faith-based groups.
· Finally, representatives from local businesses and/or the chamber of commerce could be included, in addition to those from historic preservation, culture, or arts based groups.
· A leader and co-leader should be selected.
Formation Suggestions:
The Green Team should reflect the overall demographics of your community, including members with differing income levels, housing types, ethnicities, races, ages, and neighborhoods. There is no perfect recipe for forming a Green Team, but the strongest teams will be those that represent a cross-section of your community.
Green Teams should aim for a membership of between six to nine people. It is recommended that approximately 1/3 of the membership should be municipal staff/elected officials, 1/3 of the membership should be involved citizens, and 1/3 of the membership should be representatives of community organizations/businesses. (Please note that this is only the recommended group make-up. We do not want to deter your community from forming a Green Team just because you cannot exactly meet the specified make-up.)
Some communities may already have a Green Team-like entity in place. It may be possible for an existing entity to serve as the municipality’s Green Team provided that the composition of the Team is expanded or adjusted to reflect the diversity of the municipality and the membership recommendations noted above. It may be necessary for existing entities to expand their membership as well as their mission in order to qualify as a Green Team under the NeGS Program.
Note that your community designated a Primary and Secondary Contact during the registration process. If, after the formation of the Green Team, these contacts change, please communicate the change to NeGS staff. Program staff at NeGS will communicate via email with these contacts and these contacts will be responsible for entering application submissions.
Timeframe
The timeframe to implement this action is one to six months to identify, recruit, and appoint members to serve on the Green Team and to begin meeting on a formal basis.
Project Costs and Resource Needs
The City Council should identify funding available, if any, to support the work of the Green Team. The Green Team does not necessarily need a dedicated budget but municipal staff time hours will be needed to complete this action. The Mayor and City Council should specify the amount of municipal staff time available to support the work of the Green Team and what portion of each staff member’s time should be devoted to Green Team activities. Staff time may also be needed to identify and recruit Green Team members. It should be explicitly stated that municipal staff may need to attend evening meetings on a monthly or bimonthly basis.
If your community wishes to use professional consulting services for a portion of Green Team development and/or the completion of any NeGS actions, these services will need to be earmarked in the municipal budget.
Significant volunteer hours, on the part of citizen leaders and community organizations, will also be needed to complete this action.
What to Do?
Step 1: Create a list of potential Green Team Members
· Seek committed individuals who are interested in making the community more sustainable. Ideal team members have both the influence to move your program, and have the time, skills, and motivation to serve on the team. It is essential that Green Team members are available to attend most meetings.
· Again, strive to pull together a group of people that reflects the overall demographics of the community, including members with differing income levels, housing types, ethnicities, races, ages, and neighborhoods.
· Come up with a system to manage a list of prospective Green Team members – a spreadsheet or online database will work well. Include contact information, organizational or professional affiliations.
Step 2: Officially establish a Green Team in whatever way makes sense for your community.
· Define Green Team purpose, roles, and responsibilities and make sure all participants are on board.
Step 3: Determine the level of municipal staff time, and any available funding for consulting services, that will be available to support the work of the Green Team.
Step 4: Organize and host the Green Team kick-off meeting (Green Team Meeting 1)
Potential agenda items to consider:
-Introduction of Members
-Why become a NeGS community?
· Needs of your community
· Benefits of participation in NeGS
-Introduction of resolution, ordinance, proclamation, or letter that officially launched your community’s participation in NeGS
-Define the roles of the group leader and co-leader, members, and municipal staff.
· One person will be designated as the NeGS Primary Contact and the NeGS program will communicate directly with this contact. This person will be responsible for submitting documents to NeGS staff to earn points/credits.
· Identify a note-taker for the meetings or assign a schedule of note- taking duties
· Identify someone to write an agenda for each meeting and distribute meeting notes after each meeting
-Briefly review resources available to support team work, including resources on NeGS website (Take a tour of the site on a live web link, if possible.)
-Recognize and celebrate existing initiatives and programs that your community is already doing that support sustainability. (It is possible that some of these existing initiatives and programs may be submitted to NeGS for certification points.) Some ideas for accomplishing this include:
· Invite representatives from one or more sustainability organizations in your community to give a brief presentation or panel discussion
· Go around the room and ask Green Team members to talk about related past or current projects in the community.
· Invite municipal staff in your community to give a brief presentation or panel discussion about related past or current projects in the community.
-Determine meeting frequency, location, format, and decision-making process. It is recommended that the Green Team plan to meet twice a month for two hours per meeting.
-Determine how the Green Team will communicate internally.
· How will meeting notes and tasks be shared?
· Consider setting up a Google Docs site or using a page on the city website
-Determine how the Green Team will create and maintain a web presence that serves to promote your NeGS activities to the community at large. Some ideas for accomplishing this include:
· Create a Communications Workgroup or Subcommittee that is responsible for creating and maintaining a web presence
· Consider completing the “Build NeGS Resource Center” action
Next Steps
· Discuss plans to complete a Green Team Action Plan in a future meeting
· Discuss plans to present a summary of NeGS Green Team Training in a future meeting
Note: Some of these agenda items could be pushed to Meeting 2 or beyond.
Step 5: Green Team Meeting 2 and beyond
· Finalize meeting procedures and set the meeting schedule for the first year
· Determine procedure for best communicating Green Team activities to the public and Town Council
· Decide on a vision and goals for your Green Team
· Complete a Green Team Action Plan to focus your efforts.
Submission Requirements
To earn points toward your certificate
1. Please fill out the Green Team Submission below
2. NeGS will reach out to email listed with ask for your agenda, minutes of the kick-off meeting and Green Team Meeting 2, and meeting schedule of first year.
Important: Please exclude any sensitive information with the understanding your submission may be viewable to others as part of your certification process and report.