1. Cary, NC
Oct March 2017

2. The Project Oct 2015- March 2017 (18 months long)
Environmental Solutions for Communities
grant by Wells Fargo Foundation
1:1 matching required from the Town
7 participating neighborhoods
Total 3,200 households
Volunteer team- adults and youth

3. Project Goals
Provide educational and resource support to the Town residents who want to adopt green actions at home
Provide integrated outreach for existing environmental and conservation related Town programs
3. Engage youth and citizen volunteers

4. Volunteer Teams Backbone of the project
Only residents of a participating
neighborhood allowed to serve on their
respective teams
Led by an adult volunteer
Mix of youth and adult residents
Teams worked with their HOA’s

5. 2-Pronged Strategy
How Green Can I Be? form ( to be filled out by households)
Community Activities (to be organized by the volunteer teams)
Create Healthy Yards
Protect Water
Save Energy
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Travel Smart
Get Involved

6. Rain Garden Installation

7. Rain Garden Installation

8. Durham Scrap Exchange led activity

9. Screened Food Waste Documentary “Just Eat It”

10. Guided Bike Tour

11. Birdhouse Building Workshops

12. Project Accomplishments
37 community activities
7 Kick-off events
2,000 volunteer hours
About 60 residents (adult and youth)
trained as sustainability leaders
Almost 300 Green form submissions (~10%)
Engaged more than 1,100 citizens

13. Project Accomplishments (contd.)
Reached out to 3,200 households
200 tree stakes planted
Strengthened regional partnerships (NC State Extension (multiple departments) and Wake Audubon

14. Neighborhood Recognitions
Platinum level: 1
Gold level: 2
Silver level: 2
Participating level: 2

15. Metrics used to track progress
# of Green form submissions
Community activities organized
# of residents engaged
# of volunteers trained
Gallons of storm water retained

16. Challenges Resident participation Resident engagement in multifamily
housing development
Participation in off site activities
typically challenging
No way to establish correlation
between Green form submission &
actual action taken by residents
Building momentum takes time