Students meeting with faculty and community experts to develop project proposals.

About the Greenlight Award™

Bedford 2020 is looking for students who want to make a difference in their community by changing behavior to benefit the environment.  There are many ways to tackle environmental problems and we need many solutions to drive change. We hope students and faculty from all subject areas will get involved.

Who should participate?

Those who should participate are high school students who want to make a positive impact on their community and gain experience in leadership, teamwork, public speaking, problem-solving, and creative thinking. These are key skills to learn, apply, and add to a college application. We prefer students in grades 9-11 participate.

Students designed anti-idling signs and ran awareness and incentive campaign at Horace Greeley High School.

What does it involve?

Students choose any behavior people aren’t already doing– composting, taking the bus, turning off lights, choosing electric vehicles– and then do or invent something to get people to adopt these habits. Students may develop any project to create awareness, inspire, or otherwise cause change and demonstrate how this project changes behavior at the Solutions Expo in April.

Areas you can focus on:

• Policy/Government – drive change with a new rule
• Marketing/Film/Art/Photography – inspire change with a message
• Science/Tech/Entrepreneurship – help people change with an invention/solution
• Writing/Tech – instruct and make it easier to change with resources or events
• Marketing – promote change or promote a product that causes change
• Activism – drive change through grassroots organizing

Bedford 2020 encourages teamwork and multi-disciplinary approaches to tackle problems in our community. We offer resources on our website, at workshops, and through funding, community expert mentors, and public relations outreach. To see more resources for students, please visit the Greenlight Toolkit.

Promote the Greenlight Award™ to your students!

Please announce this opportunity to your classes. If you know of students who would be interested in or would benefit from this program, encourage them to check out the website and sign up online to participate.

• Click here for a flyer to share with students.
• Click here for the 2018-2019 Kickoff Presentation (4.5 minutes) to show to your classes. (if Vimeo is blocked by your school firewall, try this version).
• Click here for the faculty packet. This contains a flyer, 1/2 page handout, sample proposal form, and info about being a faculty advisor.

If you have been asked to be a faculty advisor, click here for more information.

Please contact us with any questions.

Back to Greenlight Homepage

All student teams are encouraged to find a faculty advisor at their school. The faculty advisor offers feedback and helps with communication between students and Bedford 2020. We welcome advisors to remind students about resources and deadlines, attend the events, and help students get attention from stakeholders and the school community.

We greatly appreciate the support of the faculty advisors for our inspiring Greenlight Award™ leaders. Thank you!

Dear Faculty Advisors…

Above is a letter for all Faculty Advisors to read and print, describing the ways in which advisors are expected to support students throughout the contest, as well as the many ways Bedford 2020 provides support.

For information about promoting the contest to students, go to our General Faculty Resources page.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Finalists and Faculty Mentors at the 2017 Final Event

Resources for Greenlight Competitors can be found in our Toolkit

In addition to the many opportunities for feedback and help, the Greenlight Toolkit has forms, inspiration and resources for participants. Deadlines for this years contest are found under the Summary of the Competition in the Toolkit.

Project Summaries

Finalists

*Conscious Cafeteria Team: Lori Saxena, Caroline Lerner, Caroline Gershmanm, Alexandra Fitzgerald, Reilly Carter, Anna Hallac School: Horace Greeley High School Advisor: MaryRose Joseph This team will address the problem that livestock agriculture produces around a half of all man-made emissions by encouraging consciously raised and locally sourced food through an awareness campaign and by building a hydroponic gardening system to grow lettuce for their school cafeteria.
*H20MG Team: Amy Zapata School: Yonkers Middle High School Advisor: Jacob Schofield, YPIE This team will raise awareness about lead levels in the water in the Yonkers Middle High School and finding a solution to provide safe, clean drinking water without resorting to plastic water bottles. By meeting with administrators, using social media, and contacting the media, this team will push for solutions such as the installation of new water fountains that filter lead with water bottle refilling features. When the machine is installed, the team will not only bring awareness to the lead problem, but will also have created a plastic-free solution for people refill water bottles.
*Change the World One Meal At a Time Team: Peter Nicholas and RCDS Environmental Club School: Rye Country Day School Advisor: Kerry Linderoth To address the problem of factory farming and the pollution and waste of resources it produces, this team will work to raise awareness through social media, a poster campaign and a school-wide “eat vegan” competition to get participants to decrease the amount of meat they eat.	photo by Sherry Wolf
*Reusable Water Bottle Campaign and Education Team: Ella Weinstein, Naomi Listokin, Ryan Marder, and Andrew Leibowitz School: The Harvey School Advisor: Alexandra Matthews This environmental club aims to decrease the amount of plastic waste on campus by increasing awarenss about plastic bottles with a “Harvey Green Education Program,” holding a contest, giving presentations, selling reusable water bottles. They have already started the process with their school administration for approval to purchase and to have the school install a water bottle refilling machine to change the plastic bottle culutre and increase reusable water bottle use in their school.
*Straw Free Team: Marjory Lopez, Alva Crisostomo, Mireyli Morales, Karen Carchipulla, Melany Hernandez, Melany Giron, Josh Ortiz, Rudy Perez, Daniel Rojas School: Fox Lane High School Advisor: Anita Rivera It’s estimated that 500 million straws are used in the United States every day and this plastic pollution endangeres our wildlife and human beings as well. This team will address the number of plastic straws that are used at Fox Lane High School and reduce that number of straws used and disposed of with signs, tabling and social media, shocking statistics, a pledge, and incentives.
*Worm Warriors Team: Sophia Trejo, Nataly Naranjo, Lesli Rodriguez, Daisy Quijada, Eric Sagastume, Heber Perez, Renzo Romero, Amy Guerra, Ariana-Jade Ford, Vanessa Lopez School: Fox Lane High School Advisor: Anita Rivera This team will encourage the community at Mount Kisco Elementary School to become more aware of the importance of composting and will also produce compost for the school garden. This team creates worm composting bins and delivers them to classrooms at MKES. They talk about composting with the classes and teach the teachers and the students how to care for the worms who make compost. They have created a “how to” sheet in English and Spanish for the teachers and students and want to continue this initiative to teach families about vermicomposting. Their project will decrease food waste at MKES and turn it into a useful product that can help grow food.
*Zero Waste Lunch Team: Anna McDonald School: Mamaroneck High School Advisor: Katy Andersen, Chatsworth Elementary Principal This team will address the problem of food waste and packaging waste by encouraging Chatsworth Elementary students to pack environmetnally friendly lunches and reduce leftover food waste. The team has already established a relationship with the elementary school and permission to work with students. The team will create a video, do classroom presentations and work with student leaders and the PTA to promote the initaitive and will ultimately see less waste from school lunch.	photo by Sherry Wolf

Additional Round One Proposals

Cleaning Up Yonkers Team: Citlalli Rojas, Evelyn Rios, Marla Wilson, Gabrielle Feliciano School: Yonkers Public Schools Advisor: Jake Schofield This project addresses the growing environmental problem of plastic bags. This team will implement an education campaign in schools and throughout the communtiy to gain support for legislation to put a fee or ban on plastic bags in the City of Yonkers. They plan to continue to get signatures on a petition they initiatied this summer, create a website as a resource, and paint a wall mural.
Digital Food Bank Team: Chris Picerni Mark Stevens Rashad Panton School: John Jay High School Advisor: Steven Zoeller This team will create an app to assist people in donating and receiving food from area food banks.
JUSTWATER. Team: Linda Zhang, Maggie Li School: Horace Greeley High School Advisor: Joseph Montuori This team plans to reduce student purchases of plastic water bottles by encouraging an eco-friendly alternative – Just Water cartons of water – to reduce plastic pollution and carbon emissions. They plan to do this through an education and outreach campaign and by offering incentives.
Nature Guardians Team: Rishabh Vuthamaraju, Evan Kistner, Michael Kistner, JonathanFrantz School: John Jay High School Advisor: Steven Zoeller This team plans to make a gaming app that will teach people about the effects of their actions on the environment and suggest behavior changes for a greener planet.
Ossining Beach Project Team: Andrea Doble, Brendan Gotay, Brandon Jones School: Ossining High School Advisor: Arthur Carlucci This team wants to gain public support for opening of Ossining Beach for swimming in the Hudson River. They plan to bring awareness to this initiative through signs, presentations, a swim pledge, and addressing issues of concern such as littering.
Paul Runs Team: Bryce BT, Bryce W, Michael M, Lucas G, & Shane D. School: John Jay High School Advisor: Steven Zoeller This team proposes to create an app to inspire people to go outside and enjoy nature and become more aware of carbon emissions.
Reducing Emissions Through Carpooling Team: Zach Eichenberg School: Horace Greeley High School Advisor: MaryRose Joseph This team will work to reduce carbon emissions due to transportation to and from Greeley. By surveying the student body they will develop incentives and strategies to encourage walking and carpooling where possible. They anticipate using an app called GoKid to help coordinate carpooling among students.
Smart Batteries Team: Mark, Oscar, Lucas, John, Tejas and Max School: John Jay High School Advisor: Zoeller This team proposes to encourage people to adopt renewable energy, like solar panels, in their homes.
Soil Savers Team: Tom Ye, Keegan Li School: Horace Greeley High School Advisor: MaryRose Joseph This team wants to address unhealthy lawn ecosystems in Chappaqua. They propose to increase the use of eco-friendly lawn care, including mulching and composting by installing and maintaining landscape compost bins for the community to add to or take from, promoting the free mulch already available to residents, and conducting soil tests to prove mulching is good for landscapes.
Solar Powered Battery Charger Team: Jackson Andrew, Chris Walsh School: John Jay High School Advisor: Steven Zoeller This team plans to invent a product that recharges batteries using solar power and to ultimately give a presentation about their invention to promote this kind of renewable energy for both the environment and the economy.
Solar Cell Station Team: Sydney Aronson, Sarah Antunes, Jordan Sandell School: John Jay High School Advisor: Steven Zoeller This team proposes to create solar charging stations for cell phones to install in the cafeteria at JJHS. This will demonstrate renewable energy right in the school while saving fossil fuel energy.
Straight Outta Compost Team: Eleanor Lynch, Riley Card, Mia Scott, Gregory Caesar, Luca Sonne School: Horace Greeley High School Advisor: MaryRose Joseph Using print posters and outreach and holding and event called Greeley Composting Week, this team will sell compost kits and inspire New Castle and Greeley students to start composting to decrease food waste and promote green habits like gardening.

The Bedford 2020 Greenlight Award Round One Expo was an inspiring event on Saturday! With 19 teams from 8 high schools showcasing their green behavior-change ideas, the teams demonstrated just the kind of innovation, passion, and leadership that we need in our world for a sustainable future!

Bedford 2020 will fund the 7 highest-scoring projects and help connect them with expert support as they carry out their plans.

The finalists will present their results on April 8^th at the final event in the Hayloft at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills. The best-executed projects will win the Greenlight Award and cash prizes.

Thank you to the students, faculty, judges, volunteers, Bedford Central School District and Curtis Instruments for your participation and support!  Thank you to our photographer, Sherry  Wolf for most of the photos that follow.

Congratulations 2018-2019 Finalists

Conscious Cafeteria, Horace Greeley High School

H20MG, Yonkers Middle High School

Change the World one Meal at a Time, Rye Country Day School

Reusable Water Bottle Campaign and Education, The Harvey School

Straw Free, Fox Lane High School

Worm Warriors, Fox Lane High School

Zero Waste Lunch, Mamaroneck High School

Click here to read summaries of all the projects
and to see photos from Round One.

Kathryn Perry, Sara Goddard, Kevin Brenner

THANK YOU!

Thank you students for your hard work and participation.

Thank you Judges!

• Kevin Brenner, President of Healthy Home Energy and Consulting
• Sara Goddard, Rye City Council Member and Founder of Friends of Rye Sustainability
• Anne Jaffe-Holmes, Director of Programs at Federated Conservationists of Westchester County
• Laura Kaplan, President of Rustics Garden Club
  

  Vinoj Siva, Veronique Pittman, and Anne Jaffe-Holmes

• Peter McCartt, Westchester County Director of Energy Conservation and Sustainability
• Chris Perry, Rippowam Cisqua teacher and 9th grade Dean
• Kathryn Perry, Rippowam Cisqua teacher
• Veronique Pittman, Green Schools Alliance and Bedford 2020 Advisory Board
• Vinoj Siva, Manufacturing Engineer at Curtis Instruments

Click here to see the scoring criteria the judges used to score the projects at Round One.

Thank you to BCSD for hosting the Round One Event.

Thank you to our sponsor Curtis Instruments!

Chris Perry, Laura Kaplan, Midge Iorio, and Peter McCartt

Mark your calendar for the Final event on April 8th at Stone Barns!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

High school students representing eight Westchester schools will be competing on Saturday, December 15th, in the fourth annual Round One of the Greenlight Award.

The Greenlight Award is a contest that challenges high school students to lead a project to get people to change their behavior in a way that benefits the environment. Students pitch to a local environmental group, Bedford 2020, which selects the best ideas to fund and support. The most impactful team wins a cash prize at a final event in April.

During Round One, students come up with a behavior-change solution to an environmental problem in their community. In the past green ideas have included: an education campaign to discourage car idling, an incentive program for recycling, and a system to facilitate rainwater harvesting.

Round One contestants meet with community stakeholders, professionals and sustainability experts to assess the feasibility of their idea; write a proposal that includes a budget and project timeline; and teams pitch their idea and field questions from judges who are community leaders.

“The Greenlight Award program engages student participants in ways that encourage them to be innovators, project managers, and community leaders,” says Stuart Marwell, CEO of Curtis Instruments, corporate sponsor of this year’s Greenlight Award program. “We are looking forward to hearing their ideas and supporting these future environmental leaders.”

Up to seven teams advance to the Finals after Round One, and each team receives up to $1,000 in seed funding to carry out their project. The finalists continue to gain real world experience as they a lead a community-based initiative, problem-solve and measure their impact.

“Increasingly in the business and nonprofit world, ‘metrics’ are required to prove success, “according to Olivia Farr, chair of the Greenlight Award Steering Committee, “At the final event in April, students will show data to prove they changed at least 20 people’s behavior at least 20 times as they compete for the Greenlight Award and a $500 prize.”

On Saturday, nineteen teams will showcase their proposals at the Round One Expo at Fox Lane Middle School in Bedford from 9:00am until 11:00am. The event is free and open to the public to come visit the displays and ask the contestants questions about their big green ideas from 9am to 11am. Finalists and their funding grants will be announced the week of December 17.

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Bedford 2020 is a non-profit organization leading a grassroots effort in the Town of Bedford, NY to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 and to create a sustainable community that conserves natural resources. The Greenlight Award is a project of Bedford 2020 that engages students countywide in environmental innovation and leadership. More information is available at www.Bedford2020.org.

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October 27th: Sign up to participate

• Complete the Intent to Participate form. 
• Receive information and updates by joining a group chat.
• Click here for “how to get started.”

November 1: Attend Incubator Workshop at Harvey

• Participants meet with community experts, refine the direction of their project and learn about available resources and Round 1 requirements.

December 1: Project Proposal Form Due

• This will be reviewed in advance by the Round 1 judges.

December 7: Power Point Presentation Due

• Presentations must be submitted in advance via Dropbox for Round 1.

December 9: Round 1 at John Jay High School

• Present before panel of judges. Students have 3 minutes to present and judges have 3 minutes to ask questions.

After Round 1

• Finalists are selected to receive project seed-funding up to $1,000 and will have access to community experts to develop and pilot their ideas.

January 11: Incubator Workshop for Finalists at Rippowam Cisqua Upper School

• Participants meet with community experts again to “hatch” their projects, receive training on data collection, and learn more about Finals requirements. Students receive one point on final presentation for attending this workshop.
• Participants sign a Seed Funding Agreement and obtain info about how to get pre-approval for expenses and seed funding. Click here for purchase order.

March 7: Mid-Way Report Due online

• Finalists submit report on the status of their project. Click here. Students earn one point on final score for timely submission of this mid-way report before midnight on March 7, 2018.

Finalists, click here for Finals Overview, Tips and Timeline

April 26: Final Presentation Practice and upload by April 29

• Final Report and Power Point Presentations. Students will earn one point towards their final score for on-time submission of the final report and presentation before midnight on April 29, 2018. Link to submit audio or visual materials for final presentation here.
• Students will earn one point for practicing their presentation with a faculty member (and having the faculty member email us that they did this prior to submission of Final presentation. Aim to do this by April 26 so you have time to make suggested changes before the Power Point is due by midnight on April 29.

May 1st: Final Round at 6:30pm at the Bedford Playhouse

• Completed projects are presented at a community-wide Shark Tank event and Greenlight Award winner is selected. Click here for SCORE-IT score sheet.
• Student presentations should be no longer than 5 minutes.
• Student arrive by 6:15PM. You will be giving a presentation on stage before an audience.
• Everyone who attends will be entered into our raffle to win prizes from area stores and restaurants.  Please invite friends and family!
• The winning team receives $500 cash prize! Runner up $250 prize.
• Students and faculty mentors are asked to come up on stage at the end of the event for photos and a short reception with the judges. All participants are presented with a certificate or recognition from Westchester County.
• All finalists are celebrated and press release with project results and photos sent to media.

Return to the Toolkit

2016-2017 Greenlight Award Competition – Solid Waste Ideas! from Bedford 2020 on Vimeo.

Whether they went home with a trophy or not, all eight finalist teams in the Bedford 2020 Greenlight Award competition at Fox Lane High School on Friday, May 20, took on a challenge to combat greenhouse gas emissions or protect natural resources. All worked diligently to implement their projects and to improve our community this year. All deserve a round of applause!

According to Olivia Farr, Co-founder of Bedford 2020, “Each project was entirely unique and every one made a difference, and for that all of the teams deserve recognition and thanks for their great work.”

These student projects have made an impression in our community and will continue to have a positive impact on the environment as they live on, Bedford 2020 hopes that the contest has had an impact on the students as well. Finals judge Jeff Tannenbaum thinks it will; as he said, “There is no better way for kids to learn than through experiential learning – especially on long term projects. The Greenlight Finals were very inspiring and I am sure this program will benefit the contestants in terms of confidence, entrepreneurship, and tenacity far into the future.”

Not only will these student projects live on beyond the Greenlight Award contest of 2015-2016, Bedford 2020 looks forward to partnering with other area schools to bring this opportunity to more students and evolve the Greenlight Award into an inter-school competition in the coming year. For more information visit www.bedford2020.org/greenlight

See below for photos and descriptions of the winning projects as well as the other finalist projects in the Greenlight Award competition.

High School Greenlight Award Winners Make the Case for Energy Efficiency

Seniors Jesse Hoogland, Maya Koneval and Sajay Srivastava won the High School Greenlight Award and the $500 prize for their project on Efficient Lighting at Fox Lane High School. By evaulating lighting inefficiencies around the school and performing a cost benefit analysis to estimate monetary waste, the team concluded that the school could purchase LED bulbs for the entire building “for $38,700, and in one year the school would save $116,000 in energy costs.” They also evaluated places where sensors and timers could cut down on light use and save both energy and money for the school. The team’s faculty advisor, Fred Neumann, also received a $500 grant. Perhaps returning students will take up the reins of this great project and push for adoption of these cost-effective recommendations at Fox Lane and other BCSD schools.

Middle School Winner Installs Solar “Sun Stop” at FLMS

Asa Friedrich, an eighth grader, won the Middle School Greenlight Award and the $500 cash prize for his design, building, and installation of what he calls The Sun Stop: a shelter where students can wait for the bus under cover from the elements and charge their electronic devices at its solar-powered charging station. Asa would like to build more and larger Sun Stops, and hook them up to provide solar energy into the grid. This prototype serves as a demonstrative, educational tool for students to see and use solar power and read about how it works right in front of the Middle School while they wait for the bus. Asa worked with his faculty advisor, Christopher Grove, to build and install The Sun Stop.

High School Finalists:

Pound Ridge Elementary School Composting Program Implemented by High School Senior

Full implementation of a composting program at Pound Ridge Elementary School is the successful impact of Jessica Smith’s Greenlight Award project. A senior at Fox Lane High school, Jessica worked with the PRES administration and teachers, visited classrooms and taught the students about the importance of composting, sent home information to encourage composting at home, and integrated the program into the classrooms, cafeteria, and with the school garden program. Where no program existed before, there is now a successful composting program and a model for other schools in the district.

High School Sophomores Work Towards Enabling Local Food For All

Making local, healthy, fresh food available to all in our community is what high school sophomores, Michelle Paolicelli and Kathryn Tortorella set out to do with their Greenlight Award Project. In New York State paper “food stamps” have been replaced by an electronic system where the state deposits funds for low-income families to buy food on an Electric Benefits Transfer (EBT) card that works like a debit card. However bringing an EBT machine to a local farmers’ market is a process fraught with time-consuming meetings, paperwork and government hoops to jump through. Our community should be proud that Michelle and Kathryn have had the meetings, gathered the data, filled out the paperwork, and jumped through many of the hoops necessary to get approval by the state for an EBT machine (for free) at the Bedford Hills Farmers’ Market. Local organization and farm market coordinator, Bedford Hills Live, will continue to monitor the process with the state until the machine is installed and will work to publicize its installation to the community who will use it.

Recycling Labeling Throughout the School District by High School Ninth Grader

Long term conditioning to impact behavior change is the intent of ninth grader George Quinn’s waste disposal bin labeling project. By undertaking to label every recycling and waste bin in the Bedford Central School District with uniform labels provided (free) by Recycle Across America, George anticipates that students will begin a school-long journey that will positively impact participation in school recycling because of a recognizable, systematic waste disposal system. While it is difficult to measure results of this project in the first couple of months, we are confident that this program will influence students, faculty and staff over time and increase recycling participation rates at all our schools. George has recently joined the Garden Club in their waste reduction efforts and it will be exciting to watch them build off of the great work George started with this project.

Middle School Finalists:

Aquaponics: Seventh Graders Build a Closed-Loop System to Educate Middle School About Sustainability

“Educating the community” is what these three seventh grade finalists set out to do and they learned even more in the process of designing and building an aquaponics growing system in their science classroom with the help of their teacher Carl Koehler. The closed-loop system is now set up as an example of sustainable growing and many students will see it and learn from it. The boys explained to the judges how the system works: the fish feces fertilizes the plants through the roots that hang down in the water and the roots filter the water to keep the tank clean for the fish.

The Forest of Possibilities: Sixth Grader Coordinates Giant Volunteer Effort for Land Conservation and Tree Planting

“400 new trees” and “over 70 volunteers” are the numbers reported by the Fox Lane Middle School sixth grade finalist, who worked with Jeff Main at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation to engage student and parent volunteers on several occasions to remove invasive species, clear a path, and plant 400 baby trees in the area that was once known as the Cathedral of the Pines but was decimated in Superstorm Sandy. All the volunteers learned a great deal about land conservation and will one day see a beautiful forest grow up and be restored where vine-choked stumps used to be. Eugenia wants to continue working in land conservation with volunteers at either at Ward Pound Ridge or in other parks in our area.

Fox Lane Ride Share: Middle Schooler Takes on Creating Carpooling Website for FLMS

“Approximately 500 hours” is how much time the finalist sixth grader at Fox Lane Middle School, told the judges he estimates he spent on designing and working with programmers in India to launch a Fox Lane Ride Share website to encourage and coordinate carpools among Fox Lane Middle School families. The website has not yet been tested in the community, but there is no doubt that his time will not be wasted as he has pledged to continue to roll out the idea and engage parents in participating next year. With all of the cars going to many of the same practices and school events, encouraging carpooling should save on car emissions as well as increase safety due to less cars on school property.