MobilizeU Resources

Learn how to host a teach-in on the issues of Vote Earth and civic engagement. Appropriate for all ages, this toolkit will walk you through the issue, objectives, calls to action, and speaker ideas!

Check out the toolkit

We are reflecting on how colleges and universities are preparing their students to tackle global crises such as climate change. In every area of academic interest, there are intersections between the environment and your curriculum.

Professors can #MakeClimateaClass by emulating a “teach-in” discussion in a class during the week of April 22. For ideas on how to get started, check out our new Make Climate a Class resource! You will find that every area of academic interest has intersections with the environment. And, when you are ready to #MakeClimateaClass, pledge your commitment by registering your class on the Earth Day map. Students, reach out to all of your professors to encourage them to make climate a class. Feel free to use our template email to speed up the process, and don't forget to log your outreach with us here!

For more digital resources, explore the Environmental Education at Home guide and Earth Challenge, the world's largest citizen science project.

Vote Earth is a global initiative that aims to mobilize millions of people to demonstrate their concern for our planet by rejecting inaction and demanding change at the polls. As voting citizens, we have enormous power to drive change by making our voices heard. Use Vote Earth to encourage your friends and/or family to use their voting power to ensure we address the climate crisis, combat environmental problems and restore, and conserve the natural world.

Using the Vote Earth Voter Registration Website:
Most states allow online voter registration if one has a state issued drivers licence or ID. Other states require paper forms to be filled out and submitted. The Vote Earth web based voter registration portal covers both of those circumstances. The registration process works like this:

1. The potential voter goes to our website and fills out the required information. The site will check to see if they are registered at the desired address.
2. If they are, then that is great! No further steps.
3. If they are not registered, then one of two options will be presented:

a. If the state allows online voter registration, the individual is directed to the appropriate site through our site.
b. If the state the individual resides in does not allow online voting registration, the individual will receive:

i. A pdf with all the information filled out to properly register them to vote, which they can sign and mail OR deliver to the proper state entity.
ii. The individual will have a pre-filled out form mailed to their address, including a postage paid envelope addressed to the proper state entity to process the registration. The individual merely has to sign the form, place it in the provided pre-stamped envelope and drop it in the mail.

This is very easy and takes about 5 minutes at the most if they are allowed to register online.

The Indigenous Leadership Toolkit was made by Samantha Arechiga & Thomas Lopez at International Indigenous Youth Council. It is a resource and a guide for non-Indigenous people to use when organizing with Indigenous people and communities—focusing on the Indigenous communities in the Western hemisphere.

This toolkit is meant to educate users on language awareness and relationship building, while also highlighting the importance of moving beyond representation or acknowledgement and into offering meaningful leadership roles for Indigenous people.

As developers of young minds and bright futures, colleges and universities should step up and commit to fighting climate change. One of the best ways to do this is through dining services.

By taking the 20/20 Foodprints for the Future Pledge, colleges and universities choose to be climate leaders. Participating schools pledge to replace 20% of animal products with delicious plant-based alternatives and reduce campus food waste by 20%. This sends a powerful message to the campus community and can inspire other schools to take action.

Use these email templates for your sustainability office and dining services to introduce yourself and to communicate the importance of this pledge to you. Learn more ways to improve food sustainability on your campus here.

Our food system accounts for more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, making animal agriculture one of the largest contributors to climate change. Food production and consumption are rapidly deteriorating the planet. And what we’re eating is pushing the planet to the breaking point on climate change and deforestation.

Check out the MobilizeU Foodprints for the Future Toolkit to get the facts, understand the food systems your life, and learn what you can do as student!

Use our downloadable posters to promote Earth Day on your campus!

1. Use April 22nd as an “Environmental Education” Day in the form of a teach-in. Use our educational resources to inform community members of their connection to the environment.

2.Encourage professors to dedicate one class session in their April lesson plan to environmental education; sustainability is a relevant topic to any class no matter the subject!

3. Consider utilizing your Earth Day events to educate participants about voter registration and the importance of this civic duty—especially in relation to the planet. Join forces with existing voter registration groups on your campus and discuss why we should all #VoteEarth.

4. Create or enhance your existing campus sustainability plan. Earth Day is the perfect time to announce new or stronger commitments for reductions in waste, water and greenhouse gasses.

5. Take the 20/20 Foodprints for the Future Pledge to replace 20 percent of animal products with delicious plant-based foods and reduce food waste by 20 percent on campus. Learn more about the pledge here.

6. Host a community service event or partner with a local environmental organization to get students involved in making their community a better place. Cleanups, tree plantings, and volunteer citizen science are among the many ways that students can have a direct impact on the world this Earth Day.

7. Invite “non-traditionally green” groups in your community to partner with you for Earth Day events. The environmental movement is an intersectional mobilization that involves people of all backgrounds and a variety of social movements. This is a great way to engage new and larger audiences while also incorporating some unique ideas.

8. Do some digging in your library or news archives for old photos, videos or recordings from some of the original Earth Day celebrations. These materials can be incredible additions to your existing events and promotional materials. Or better yet, plan an engaging exhibition of these archives, perhaps in connection with a student Artists for the Earth art exhibition.

One of the leading causes of the climate crisis is our food system. If you add up everything that goes in to our food system: production, processing, transporting, consumption and waste, it accounts for up to a third of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

By taking the 20/20 Foodprints for the Future Pledge, colleges and universities choose to be climate leaders. Participating schools pledge to replace 20% of animal products with delicious plant-based alternatives and reduce campus food waste by 20%. This sends a powerful message to the campus community and can inspire other schools to take action.

Have you heard about Solve Climate by 2030? On the night of Tuesday April 7, the Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College is coordinating a series of 52, university-hosted webinars, one in every state of the country, focused on ambitious but feasible state and local solutions to help solve climate by 2030. We now need your help to get 100,000 students and community members across the state talking about local climate solutions on April 7.

PLEDGE NOW TO #MakeClimateaClass!

Teachers: I pledge to #MakeClimateaClass by assigning our 47 state webinar as Homework, and talking about it in the next class.

This opportunity is not just for environmental studies classes. The challenges posed by solving climate change necessarily range across history, science, business, culture, economics, psychology, religion, government, media, journalism and the arts. Solve Climate has disciplinary templates for follow-up discussions after the state-level, solutions-focused webinars.

Show the world that we are committed to making climate change a part of our education.