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The Be SMART Coalition would love to know about your project and the difference you made. A project report is a tool to help your ideas go even further, through publicity to others who could apply your solution elsewhere or to motivate others who read it on this very web site.

The Project Report should have the following:

• Your name (as you would like it to appear in publicity), the name of the community where your project took place and acknowledgements to those who helped you..
• Answers to the Project Report questions. Write about your project using the questions (listed below) as headings or download them here and write your report using the downloaded file.
• Additional Materials that provide information about your project, such as an action plan, photographs and other records of your work and results.
• A sentence giving Be SMART permission to use your report for the purpose of promoting waste reduction and environmental action and in communication with our members and sponsors. This can be in your e-mail or in writing.

Submit your Project Report to:

The Be SMART Conservation Challenge
c/o Recycling Connections Corp.
600 Moore Road
Plover, WI   54467-3148

Tips

• It is better to state something that seems obvious than to hope the judges know what you mean.
• Use data to make it clear that your work improved upon what was already happening.
• Present some quantitative results (those that are stated best with numbers) and some qualitative results (the kind of information that's best stated in words).
• Communicate your results clearly in unambiguous units - for example, "20-gallon bags" is clearer than "bags".
• If it's hard to explain everything in words, remember that you can use your Additional Materials to communicate more information about your project.
• Include some photographs in your Additional Materials section.
• Proofread your work.
• Ask an uninvolved person to read your project and recommend ways to improve it.

Project Report Questions
Download PDF

Make your Project Report by answering these questions and providing optional additional materials. Please recopy or download the questions and write a paragraph for each. You may write more or less, depending on the kind of project you did but do not omit a question.

• Explain the waste or pollution problem you aimed to solve.
• Explain your idea for a solution.
• Explain how you chose the best solution using the Waste Hierarchy and the things you learned about the problem.
• What researching and networking did you do so your project would benefit from the experiences of others?
• How did your researching and networking help your project?
• What problem solving did you have to do? Explain obstacles and how you overcame them. If your project expanded on an idea that was already in use, describe what you did to adapt it to your setting.
• How did you measure the results of your project?
• Provide data and explanations about waste or pollution reduced or resources conserved, costs and savings and reactions of people who participated or were affected.
• What arrangements did you make for your project to continue?
• What was the most important thing you learned while doing your project and how do you see your role in reducing waste, preventing pollution and conserving resources?