How to volunteer your time for wildlife - Part 1/5: Habitat Cleanups
By Jared Frasier, Executive Director
Jump to the Habitat Cleanup tips
We know, for most of us, it is still the middle of winter. Many of our members are spending a lot of time on the road at various shows and conventions. It can be hard to imagine getting conservation projects on the calendar. All the same, now is the time to plan them with your team, conservation partners, and local wildlife agencies.
As part of earning 2% Certification, members are required to donate 1% of at least one employee’s time to fish and wildlife conservation efforts. Even if you have >100 employees, we still only require 21 hours for your entire company to give to conservation. Why only that much? While most of our business members are able to have each of their employees volunteer that many hours in a year, it can be very challenging during economic/regional turmoil. We would rather see a business work with their team to do at least one thing very well than to have your company scrounging for hours by the end of the year.
How you do this is entirely up to you and your team, as long as it fits into at least one of the four categories we accept as “giving back to conservation”:
Boots on the Ground: These are your wildlife habitat improvements, cleanups, data collection, invasive species management - you know, the sexy conservation stuff.
Wildlife / Outdoor Education: Folks do not care about wildlife, or the natural world in general, unless you give them experiences with the wild. Providing fun outdoor experiences that also educate about wildlife and environmental issues ensures your community cares about the shared resources and wild spaces.
Wildlife Advocacy: Advocacy can be as simple as collaborating with conservation partners on social media campaigns, as mutually beneficial as hosting a fundraiser, and as involved as lobbying alongside them in the political arena. Helping conservation groups advocate for the needs of wildlife and the environment is a great way to utilize your company’s resources, employee skills, and collective passion.
Access: It is simple - if people do not have access to encounter wildlife and wild places, they will struggle to see the benefit of fighting for it. Supporting organizations and partnering with public land/water agencies that maintain healthy access to ecosystems is critical to empowering communities to protect our shared resources. But to be clear, we do not mean “access for all things by all means.” That is not conservation. It is the tragedy of the commons.
With those criteria in mind, we are going to spend the next few weeks sharing the Top 5 ways our members volunteer their time for wildlife conservation.
We will share best practices and special “hacks” to get the most out of each. For your brand, your employees, your community, and ultimately for wildlife.
Each will drop on the first Monday of the week, through early March. This should give you enough time to select what works best for your company and get plans on the calendar for hitting your certification requirement for the year.
Here are the Top 5 ways (unranked) our members give their time to wildlife conservation, and when we are dropping content to help you build your own plans:
1. Habitat Cleanups - Today, 2/5/24
3. Habitat Improvements - 2/19/24
4. Hosting Fundraisers - 2/26/24
5. Lobbying & Advocacy - 3/11/24
To get these posts in your inbox on the day they drop, make sure you are subscribed to the 2% Newsletter. You can find the signup for that in the footer of every page on our site. We never spam you or give your information to 3rd parties.
That’s enough preamble, let’s get to the first way to have your business volunteer time for conservation.
Habitat Cleanups
If you have spent enough time outdoors, you will see more trash than you could produce on your own in a lifetime. It is everywhere. From alpine lakes to the bottom of the ocean, you will find the discarded remnants from our disposable “I want it now, but not for long” society.
Our members have found microplastics in the bellies of trout, high in the mountains, and deep in the wilderness, here in Montana.
Trash is everywhere.
Hosting a trash cleanup is a great way to unify your team and community around your shared wild spaces.
Simple tips to help you get the most out of a cleanup project:
The most successful cleanups are in collaboration with a local conservation cause. Beyond the high likelihood that they have the experience, agency contacts, and several fingers on the pulse of your local habitat areas — they also have members who are not your customers, yet. They are also a cheat code to help you either skip or be more effective with several of the things we are about to list…
Target a popular and heavily abused habitat area. This is not just for marketing purposes. Those spaces often receive more abuse than agencies and conservation groups can keep up with on their own. And targeting those areas also does something we always encourage our members to do: Inspire more people in your community to care for local habitat areas.
Do not bite off more than your team can chew. You might be able to go all day on a cleanup, but that does not mean your whole team can. If you have an army of volunteers lined up through a conservation cause or your own outreach efforts, go gungho. But if it is just your team, make sure that the day is more than a scramble or slog.
Get real numbers for who is coming to the cleanup. Before we can move on to what you should bring, you have to have a decent estimate of who is coming. Even if you are keeping it to just your team and their families, you do not want to run out of materials or food. We have heard from members who thought they over-purchased supplies, only to find out they brought half of what they should have because they did not have clear numbers and they ran out of water for everyone. And we have heard the opposite - caterers hired to feed a hundred people, only for eight employees and no extra volunteers to show up. Get real numbers.
Key supplies: These are non-negotiable items you must have, both for your team and people outside your company:
Waivers. Do not, not ever, forget waivers. Slips, falls, scuffs, bruises and sunburn - they are all extremely common. Spend the 10 minutes it takes to find, edit, and print your waivers. Make sure it includes a line for the use of any photos or videos taken on that day by your team for promotional uses. Even if it is just going on your or in a newsletter, you technically need that in most countries. And do not forget to have folks sign them! Protect your business.
Hack: It is super easy to print off some “butt-coverage” if your business does not have legal representation to write up some for you. Just google; “boilerplate volunteer waiver [name of your state/territory/province]”. It must cover you, your employees, and your business from anything at the cleanup. We also recommend adding a clause for travel to/from the location.
Bodily protection and first aid. Always require hand protection, sun protection, bug protection, scratch protection, and fall protection. We are talkin’ good work gloves for dealing with sharp stuff and rubber gloves for gross stuff. Hats, long-sleeved shirts, and sturdy pants. Sunscreen, sunglasses, and eye protection as needed. The vast majority of injuries on cleanups are from people wearing the wrong footwear. Provide what you can (at least enough for your employees) and require volunteers to bring what you cannot. And never forget first aid kits. A good first aid kit will handle scrapes, cuts, stings, burns, and minor sprains or breaks.
Heavy duty means for removing whatever you are cleaning up. Contractor bags are pretty cheap, but they are wildly more effective than regular trash bags or leaf bags. We have been to cleanups that did not use them, and it always meant more work and more mess. Some cleanups need a flatbed truck or a large dumpster to deal with what you collect in a few hours. And do not forget that whatever you collect, you might have to haul off on your own. If everyone drives small cars to the cleanup, getting the trash out will be a messy challenge.
Hack: Work with the local management agency for that particular body of water or land that you are cleaning up to get that lined up. A lot of times, a dumpster is free when you work through the agency instead of booking one with a trash company.
Sanitation. We recommend, at minimum, disinfectant wipes. If you can have warm soapy water, even better. Do not depend on whatever bathroom facilities might be at the cleanup site to also have sanitation for hands or anything beyond. You are picking up nasty stuff. Give your people the means to clean up afterward and definitely before they go anywhere near shared food.
Food and beverage. Fed volunteers are happy volunteers. Preparing the food and meeting area is a great activity for folks who cannot engage in the whole cleanup. Bring more than you think you need and send the extra home with the volunteers. Feeding people is a privilege and a great way to connect to new customers. Keep it simple and appropriate for your customer base. Try to have everything ready to go immediately after the cleanup is finished. Bring more water than you could ever need. Always bring more than you think you need, in reusable coolers.
And when it comes to alcohol, less is more. No liability waiver covers the extent of what could happen if you give a volunteer or employee alcohol and they try to drive home when they shouldn’t.
Hack: Not everyone wants pizza. Get a variety of premade foods from a local deli. It is often cheaper than pizza, and guess what… they also sell pizza. Call well in advance to line up the order. A week is usually enough. Double-check that it is on the books a day or two before for the time that you need it. Send an employee to pick it up, hot and fresh, while you are starting the cleanup.
BONUS Hack: Nothing says, “We didn’t think this through” like bringing plastic forks and bottled water in styrofoam coolers to a cleanup where everyone just picked up a thousand discarded water bottles, assorted plastic cutlery, and the remnants of a dozen styrofoam coolers. A quick search online will give you great compostable cutlery and cup options for your region of the world.
Bring something to help volunteers remember your business after the event. Something for everyone! Whatever it is is up to you, but we recommend avoiding cheap nick-nacks that are just going to end up as more trash. If you partnered with a conservation group, ask them what their people like. Outdoor gear is great. So are custom t-shirts to commemorate the day.
Hack: Many of our members have found great success with gift cards/certificates for their businesses. That way, there isn’t an upfront cost to carry. Make it an amount that is meaningful for your industry, but also in a range that encourages the volunteers to become customers of yours beyond the value of the certificate.
Rewards for your team. Do not jump over them to court new customers from the volunteers that show up. This is non-negotiable for a successful cleanup project with your team. Reward them for going outside their job description, likely on a weekend or evening. We have seen great success for our members with perks like: gift cards for a night out, certificates for an added day of paid time off (check your local/industry/union regulations about that one), double pay for the cleanup day, and various other “use as you wish” prizes that prioritize employees enjoying themselves away from work. Don’t be the business that throws a pizza party or gives them new work equipment/uniforms as a “perk.”
Good stories and memories are aided by visual proof. A picture is worth a thousand words, and video is worth a hundred thousand. Document, document, document. Go live on various social media during the project. Get candid pictures and video of your team working together on the day. Try not to leave a single team member out - this is internal marketing, and it matters! Hiring a pro for the day might be your best option to ensure you get usable content for in the office and online. That said, don’t go overboard and make your team feel like they are part of a reality show or that you are only doing this cleanup for the marketing/branding value. That balance is for you to strike - it is different for every company culture.
Hack: Tipping off the local newspaper and TV station are good options too, especially if (and this is key) you primarily use the publicity to promote the conservation cause you partnered with and/or to bring awareness to the need to care for the area you cleaned up.
Bonus Hack: If you are worried about coming across as stuck-up or braggadocio by sharing the story on your own channels or local news, use us! Every 2% Certified business is allowed to use our channels (including this blog) to share your stories of how your team is giving back to wildlife. Even if you use your own blog to tell the story, send it our way so we can get more eyes on it for you!
Your timeline:
Starting a month beforehand - Build Buzz: Get everything from our list above lined up with time to spare. Set a clear start time and meeting location in your promotional materials for the cleanup. Communicate it multiple times, in multiple ways, and in multiple places in the weeks leading up to the cleanup. This also goes for companies doing a cleanup with just your staff. Over-communicate about the project’s important details, requirements, expectations, rewards, and how much it will mean for the local community. If you are informing local news coverage, get that lined up a week or two out. Build genuine hype!
Day of - Make it Fun!: Have a great time! Lead by example, build your team up, and enjoy the time with them in the outdoors. This is where the memories are made. We have talked to older folks who happily recall company-ran cleanup projects from over 50 years ago. We have seen employees of our member businesses talk about that year’s cleanup in their holiday cards to friends and family. Give your employees a genuinely fun day doing something great for their community and local ecosystem. And as with everything in your business, being the first one there and the last one out sets a tone that cannot be matched.
After - tell the story and plan: Do not skip this. Repeat: DO NOT SKIP THIS. Telling the story is as much for your team’s well-being and pride as it is for your brand. Empower them to share the story. Have the photos, videos, and story easily sharable for them. Get the story out there as many ways as you can and start planning the next project for your team. Whether it is a few months out or a full year away, tap into the collective passion for your local habitat areas that the day provided and catalyze it for future use. Be cautious about plans to make it “bigger and better”, next time. Focus on your team’s passions, feedback, and nailing it again next time. All too often, we have seen businesses have a very successful first cleanup with their team, only to have the second year go poorly because they out-kicked their coverage on the second go around. Just like in every other facet of your business, consistency is king.
If you are reading all this and are thinking, “that’s a lot”…
Fear not - We have your back!
Every year, we walk new business members through their first habitat cleanup. It is super simple once you get the hang of it. But, if you have never done one, it can feel daunting. We have done everything from initial setup calls with our members’ teams to even being flown in by some members to help put on larger cleanup project weekends. There is no added charge for any of that - we are happy to help!
If you have any questions about setting up your own cleanup project for your business, contact us. We would love to walk through things with you and help you get your project on the books for the year!