Ecochallenge Toolkit

Ecochallenge Toolkit by Ecochallenge.org. A field of light violet wildflowers overlooking a body of water and mountains.

In this toolkit

👫🌏 About

A parent with a backpack, holding their child's hand. They are both standing in front of colorful trees and foliage, a sun and clouds.

During an Ecochallenge, we take action for a better shared future. Fun actions encourage new habits. Small steps lead to big change. Together, we build a sustainable world and healthy planet.

This toolkit is for everyone new to Ecochallenge, and Team Captains looking to grow, engage, and nourish their team. We've compiled our tips + best practices for you, plus an array of graphics for the current Ecochallenge.

For more inspiration and updates, follow us on social media. Tag us @ecochallengeorg and we may feature your story!

Looking for more? Please email support@ecochallenge.org and let us know how else we can help!

🍊 How It Works

A person holding books, paints, and an apple. Their arms are spread out, balancing these objects. Icons for a mic, video, a lightbulb, and geometric shapes float around them.

🌏 Our Purpose

If you're new here, Ecochallenges are all about committing to sustainable actions — and consistently checking in to keep yourself and your team accountable. (For news about current or upcoming Ecochallenges, check our website and sign up for updates.)

It's also about measuring our impact, and seeing just how phenomenal it can be when we all take action, together.

⚡️ Your Intentions

Start with your intentions — and how much time and energy you have.

What's something new you'd like to try? Would you like to create a new habit? What's doable for your schedule?

We understand you have other priorities and commitments, so pick what's sustainable for you!

An apple, banana,hand weight, and glass of water

🌱 Choose Actions

Actions are offered in three different challenge levels, determined by time, cost, knowledge, and skills:

  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced

Ecochallenges offer actions in two different frequencies:

  • Daily actions require you to commit to something every day (or as many days as you can). These are great for long-term habits.
  • One-time actions are completed once. If you have less time, or want to try something out, choose a one-time action.

Use the "Action Filters" feature in each category to filter by challenge level, frequency, and more.

Ecochallenges often have action limits.

Why is there a limit? We've added a limit to set you up for success: having fewer to-dos make it more likely that you'll stick with those new habits!

🐝 Explore Categories

We curate actions for you across action categories.

Can't find the exact action you'd like to do? You can create a custom action in any category.

Please note that impacts can't currently be recorded for custom actions.

☀️ Phase 1: Recruit

A person sitting at a desk at home, smiling at their open laptop screen.

💪🏽 It's time to build your team!

WHEN: 2-6 weeks before Ecochallenge begins

COMMITMENT: 2-3 hours/week

🎯 Goals

  • Invite your peers, family, friends to join your Ecochallenge team.
  • Find people who share your interest in creating and strengthening sustainability habits.
  • Build your team with the shared goals of encouragement, learning, and creating positive, collective impact.

📌 Tactics

  • Use your unique Referral link from the Dashboard to invite people.

    To grab your referral link, click Invite Teammates in your Dashboard sidebar, under your team name. You can also save a QR code here.

  • Go to your Ecochallenge's Resources page to download graphics to share!
  • Create a custom action compatible with your team's sustainability goals, and share this action as a reason for folks to join you.
  • Follow us and reshare our posts on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

📣 Phase 2: Prepare

A person typing on a laptop, sitting on a stack of giant books with a lightbulb behind their head.

🙌🏽 Get ready!

WHEN: 1-2 weeks before Ecochallenge begins

COMMITMENT: 2-3 hours/week

🎯 Goals

  • Prepare yourself and your team for a successful Ecochallenge.
  • Have at least 1–3 actions selected and prepare yourself to complete those actions by reading the resource links. Team Captains: Encourage every team member to prepare.
  • Team Captains: Establish a rhythm for how frequently you'll be communicating with teammates throughout the event.

📌 Tactics

  • Go to your Ecochallenge's Resources page to download graphics to share!
  • Team Captains: Hold a kick-off call with your team and walk through how to check off completed actions, explore collective impact, post to the Feed, and more.
  • Team Captains: Assign custom action(s) to team members.
  • Team Captains: Announce prize incentives you've planned for throughout the event. (Prizes can be small! A gift card, homemade cookies, bragging rights — get creative!)

🖼 Downloads

Use this copy (or write your own!):

TEAM KICKOFF: "Join us as we go over how to use the Ecochallenge Dashboard, select and complete your actions, talk with fellow Ecochallengers on the Feed, explore real-time collective impact, and more."
COUNTDOWN: "We're [x] days away. Have you selected your Ecochallenge actions yet? Choose your actions and prepare to succeed!"
WE START [DATE]: "The Ecochallenge begins [soon/tomorrow], and we're so excited to build better sustainability habits! Let's build a better shared future, together."

💥 Phase 3: Activate

A cat peeking around a computer monitor next to a lamp and a cup of writing utensils. A beam of light holds a red heart, a speech bubble, and a thumbs up.

👏🏽 Engage with your team!

WHEN: During the Ecochallenge

COMMITMENT: 2-3 hours/week

🎯 Goals

  • Team Captains: Keep your team's morale up!
  • Encourage your team members to consistently check off completed actions and explore real-time collective impact.
  • Give shoutouts. Spotlight successes and celebrate incremental achievements!

📌 Tactics

  • Share inspirational tips, reply to and high-five posts, and highlight Reflections on the Participant Feed.
  • Message your team members using the platform or other channels. Team Captains: Announce upcoming contests with prizes or new competitions with other teams.
  • Go to your Ecochallenge's Resources page to download graphics to share! Post graphics across your channels of communication.

🖼 Downloads

1
To share collective impacts in real-time, go to the Impacts page and take a screenshot of the impact you'd like to share.
2
Use this copy (or write your own!):

WEEKLY TIP: "This week's tip is all about leaving room for failure. During this Ecochallenge, it helps to leave room for failure as we work to take action daily or regularly.

Forgot your action yesterday? It's okay – try again today! Better to take action imperfectly than to not take action at all. Keep going!"
COLLECTIVE IMPACT: "Just to show you how our efforts are adding up, take a look at our collective impact in just [x] days:"
WORDS FROM ECOCHALLENGERS: "Congraluations to [name] for their efforts on reducing their food waste. We are in this together and are so excited for all the collective impact we're creating as a team. Thank you and keep going!"

🥳 Phase 4: Celebrate

Two people in separate browser windows, both wearing party hats. One person holds up a gift to the other person, who is holding a star wand.

🎉 Celebrate your team's efforts!

WHEN: After the Ecochallenge closes

COMMITMENT: 1-2 hours/week

🎯 Goals

  • Celebrate your team's efforts and successes from throughout the Ecochallenge.
  • Team Captains: Showcase your team's total actions taken and total collective impacts.
  • Strategize next steps in your sustainability journey.

📌 Tactics

  • Team Captains: Purchase a Premium Package which includes a customized Ecochallenge summary for your team, including impact statistics, reflections & posts to the Feed, and participant data insights.
  • Share your collective impact stats with your network as a catalyst for future sustainability goals.
  • Follow Ecochallenge.org on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to see and reshare real-time social media posts celebrating this Ecochallenge.

🌸 Resources

Questions, resource requests, or have any tips and wins to share? Email us! support@ecochallenge.org

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Illustrations by DrawKit + Oblik Studio

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