World Ocean Project World Ocean Project

Reaching our Full Potential

As referenced in this blog post, The Ocean Project recently launched “Making Conservation Happen,” a new webinar series aimed at helping aquariums and zoos engage strategically, safely, and effectively…

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Youth for the Ocean Launches!

This month we officially launch the Youth for the Ocean initiative to collaboratively accelerate youth engagement and develop youth leaders for a healthy ocean. We’re excited to partner with you! Our youth initiative will…

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The Ocean Project launches new initiative to promote science-based federal fisheries policy and healthy, sustainable marine ecosystems

Healthy and productive marine ecosystems are critical to sustaining food, jobs, and recreation for millions of people, as well as producing other intrinsic quality of life benefits. To have…

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ISG+ Final Report: Philadelphia Zoo visitors say an overwhelming yes to “Saving Energy to Save Wildlife!”

  After almost a year of testing and active recruitment for our study, we’ve been learning a lot about how to engage visitors on the issue of Saving Energy to Save Wildlife! We have been humbled by our visitor's trust in us and wowed by their willingness to pledge to reduce their household energy use. Last year, with the generous grant from The Ocean Project, we set out to test whether onsite messaging can affect offsite behavioral change. Using NNOCCI (National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation) framing methods, we constructed a short activity that invites our visitor to learn about ocean acidification. The message and activity were constructed to engage intergenerational audiences – the children and their adult chaperones. As one interpreter engages with the child through play and pledging, the other interpreter speaks to the adult about ocean acidification and participating in our study to measure their household energy usage. If they are PECO customers, they sign a consent form allowing us to track their energy usage for a year. While circumstances outside of our control (e.g. finessing legal details, losing our contact person) have stretched out the project for longer than the original 12-months – and we are still waiting on final numbers – we are going to share some thoughts and onsite results if you should consider doing the same project at your institution. 1.    High interest in opportunity to act As indicated in our last blog, our pledging (to reduce household energy consumption) rate was high, especially after we adapted our approach to foreground the “ask” and add a second staffer so one could engage the younger audience while the other recruited the adults (parents/guardians).  While visitors are easily distracted by the charismatic animals that are all around us, those who remained were very likely to have someone in their group pledge their commitment to taking conservation action at home.  Approximately 3 of every 4 groups who engaged with our staff were willing to pledge! Moreover, we found that visitors reacted very positively, and were pleased at the opportunity to participate. and few of them balked at the ask, which brings us to the next point… Our advice to other zoos and aquariums: If you’re worried about asking your visitors to take conservation action, don’t. As The Ocean Project and so many other studies have consistently provided clear evidence for, visitors DO NOT consider it a chore that you are asking them to take conservation action. 2.    Zoo visitors are willing to back up their pledge In addition to pledging to take action, 54.3% of those who were asked to participate in the tracking study responded positively. This was a very pleasant surprise for us as we were not sure how willing zoo visitors would be to let us track their household energy usage. More than half of our visitors were willing to let us study the trend in their energy consumption. While there were some visitors who did ask our researchers for clarification, most of our visitors were ready and willing to participate. Figure 1: More than half of our intergenerational groups (consisting of at least one adult and a child) were willing to participate in the study Our advice to other zoos and aquariums: What has become clear for us as a result of this study (which is consistent with feedback we are receiving from other sources) is that our visitors want to do more. Oblige them. We were terrified that asking people for permission to track their household energy use would be too audacious, but the overall response has been positive. Trust that your visitors are ready to do even more than you suspect. 3.    Biggest barrier to non-participation: different service providers Of the visitors who were interested in participating for the study, almost half (44.8%) were not eligible because they were not PECO customers. We collected a list of 17 service providers, but 4 primary providers – PSE&G, PPL, DelMarVa, and Atlantic City Electric – serviced almost three-quarters (74.4%) of our other interested (but not eligible) participants. We have always known that our visitors are diverse and come from the tri-state area, but now we know that they are also diverse in their electricity companies! This does suggest that a study such as this would work really well for an organization that has fewer providers in their market area. Figure 2: Almost as many people were interested in participating but were not eligible (not PECO consumers) Our advice to other zoos and aquariums: How many energy providers are there in your region? In the Philadelphia area, there were many providers by choice and by zipcode. To have a higher overall recruitment rate, you might want to consider setting up partnerships with the biggest providers in your region. If we had increased our partnership from 1 to 4, we could have doubled our number of participants. The greatest barrier to participation is not visitor interest but our lack of ability to support their interest. 4.    Intensive project   Throughout the six months, we engaged more than 1500 visitor groups to KidZooU’s coral reef tank. Of the 1327 groups with at least one adult that we spoke to, we had the opportunity to ask 641 (48.3%) of them if they were interested in participating project. Of those 641 groups, 348 (54.3%) said they were interested, and 293 (45.7%) were not interested. Our advice to other zoos and aquariums: This situation could be improved by addressing the number of providers you partner with, but there is no denying that this (at least in its current form) is a highly intensive project. But take the lessons that we have learnt and build on it instead of starting from scratch – such a preponderance of evidence already exists that our visitors want to take conservation action, we don’t need prove that repeatedly. If you should take on such a project, make sure to provide adequate support for your staff – it is a highly repetitive and tiring process for them. Have them out for short (1-2 hours) shifts; intersperse their sessions with other projects to provide variety; provide them with tasks that have more immediate positive feedback to keep their energy up. Conclusion Despite the intensive and tiring process, we are extremely glad we took on this project. We are glad that The Ocean Project’s Innovative Solutions Grants+ provided us with the opportunity to clearly demonstrate that our visitors are ready for bigger asks. Much bigger. As a result of this study, the Philadelphia Zoo is now examining the opportunities to expand this to other parts of our institution, focusing on scaling and learning how to deepen the impact. This framework and approach will be incorporated into our institutional operations. And now that we know our visitors are ready and willing to do what it takes to make a significant difference for wildlife, we are excited to embark on the next stage of the journey. Our take home message? Ask early and ask BIG. Don’t be shy.

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The Houston Zoo Explores Whether Artistic Displays Inspire Conservation Action!

This guest post is by Martha Parker, Conservation Impact Manager at The Houston Zoo. The Houston Zoo is committed to saving wildlife through partnerships and the support of global and local conservation projects, while connecting the Houston community to wildlife at the Zoo and inspiring them to action. To help fulfill our goal of saving wildlife, the Houston Zoo has been addressing the issue of plastic pollution.  We went plastic bag free in July 2015, a decision that helped reinforce our commitment to reducing plastic pollution, a major threat for marine wildlife like sea turtles, which we work diligently to protect. The Houston Zoo receives wild sea turtles who require medical care and rehabilitation support from our partners at NOAA. Some of these turtles arrive at the Houston Zoo because they have ingested plastics or are entangled in marine debris. This makes the connection between the wildlife we work to protect and the threat of marine debris quite clear for us. The Approach To further our protection efforts of local sea turtles and help connect our community to the threat of marine debris and how they could take action, we welcomed Washed Ashore to the Zoo in January of 2016. Displayed at the Zoo’s Brown Education Center, Washed Ashore was the perfect visual representation of a global issue that hits home for Houstonians living so close to the Gulf of Mexico: plastic pollution. This awe-inspiring exhibit brings to life an overwhelming problem and puts it right in front of your eyes, connecting visitors with the animals affected by trash in our oceans. The Houston Zoo not only wanted to provide a fun experience for their guests, but also wanted to inspire action to save animals in the wild with a very specific ask of going single-use plastic bag free when shopping. After some brainstorming for a fun, interactive guest experience that incorporated data collection, Zoo staff decided the best way to get guests to take a pledge to use reusable bags was to have them add their fingerprint to another artistic display, an underwater-themed mural, designed and painted by famous Houston street artist, Gonzo247. Before participating, however, guests took a short survey and committed to going plastic bag free for three months. Between January and April 2016, colorful sea turtles, sharks, rays, shore birds, and fish were filled in as 1,482 guests took the pledge and showed their commitment by adding their thumbprint to the mural wall, in the animal they were helping to protect by going plastic bag free. This challenge is important to the Zoo’s mission of saving animals in the wild and inspiring behavior change by empowering Houstonians to make a difference. But how do we know if it worked? The Results With our evaluation methods, we aimed to answer the question; do visitors to the Washed Ashore exhibit at the Houston Zoo become inspired to use reusable bags more frequently than those zoo visitors who did not? We asked visitors from both a control group and an intervention group to take the challenge to go plastic bag free for 3 months to save wildlife like sea turtles. The control group was asked this question at the sea lion exhibit before Washed Ashore opened. The intervention group included those zoo visitors who visited the Washed Ashore exhibit. Three months from the time the visitor signed up to go plastic bag free, the Houston Zoo followed up with them by email to see how they did with the challenge. In total, we had 68 participants in our control group, with only 6% responding to the 3-month follow up. Our intervention group included 1,482 participants, and we had a notably better 16% response rate, with 230 of those responded to the 3-month follow up. While the better response rate was a good indication of a positive impact from the exhibit, we did not have enough participants in our control group to answer our original research question. We did gather valuable data that we can use to influence future exhibits and messaging. For example, we confirmed that in keeping with research by The Ocean Project and others, our guests are indeed motivated to make changes in their behaviors to protect animals, and their visit to the Zoo was an important aspect of taking action. Specific to using reusable bags, we know that our messaging should include ways to remember your bags, including tips on keeping them in your car. Finally, it was a great learning experience for the Zoo to evaluate (on a small scale), the impact of our work to save wildlife by empowering our community to take action.   What enabled us to be successful in our effort to connect guests to the issue of marine debris and move them to action was the collaboration across numerous departments of the Zoo, and the strong tie between the exhibit and our efforts to save ocean animals like sea turtles, locally. This project has certainly influenced the way we think and plan for future exhibits and experiences. Our advice to others…... Start planning early. Get all relevant departments/people involved so that you choose the correct exhibit for your audience. Develop an institutional goal. No matter the exhibit content, you should have an institutional goal for that exhibit determined so that planning and evaluations can take that goal into consideration. Revisit the exhibit/process at regular intervals. Avoid implementing a project and then when finished, evaluating how it went. Bring all stakeholders together frequently to see how the project is going and make changes as you go. Align messaging/content with what is relevant for your institution, your audience, and the work you do. Communicate with other organizations who have experience with the content/exhibit-find out what worked for them, what didn’t. Track your success-even seeing what didn’t work is critical information to move forward in the future Additional Data Responses from both groups in 3-month follow-up included some positive indications that we were helping to increase bag use: 43.35% of respondents used their bags “almost every time they shopped” during the 3-month challenge, compared to 16.31% of respondents used their bags “every time they shopped” during the 3-month challenge, and only 2.58% of respondents “never” used their bags when they shopped during the 3-month challenge More than 60% of survey respondents put their likelihood of continuing to use reusable bags at “extremely likely” 198 respondents have encouraged family/friends to go plastic bag free as a result of their participation in the challenge, reaching an additional ~1,379 people. It was important for the Zoo to understand the motivations behind why our guests were successful in the reusable bag challenge. We found that motivations for continuing to use reusable bags during 3-month challenge included the following: Visiting the Zoo increased knowledge of how plastic bags are a problem for wildlife was cited by more than 52% of survey respondents.      “That exhibit at the zoo really did change things for me. Not just about plastic bags. I have tried to buy less plastic in general - kids dishes and bowls (switched to bamboo), kids toys (wood, fabric, handmade), and I've tried to avoid buying food that comes with a lot of extra packaging. I loved that exhibit because it shocked me to see all of the toys and bottles and things that don't just disappear, thank you for teaching me that I'm contributing even if I think I'm not!”        “I have used reusable bags for many years. Mostly at the grocery store. The positive thing in my life about the challenge was not taking bags at other stores such as clothing or craft stores. Taking the challenge actually made me take my reusable bag to the next level, which is to use them everywhere including on trips.” In order to make the Zoo’s messaging more effective in the future, we also asked respondents about barriers, which included remembering their bags.  80% of respondents remembered their reusable bags by keeping them in their car. In the future, we can utilize this information to remove barriers for guests when we ask them to switch to reusable bags. (E.g. “If I forgot my bags at home, I would ask for paper, which got reused. If I forgot my bags in the car, I would just ask them not to bag my groceries and then would cart them out and put them in the bags once I got to the car. It really helped me remember to take them out of the car when I had to do this!”) Additional feedback from Houston Zoo participants: ~Great program to encourage less plastic bag use, thank you! ~I have been using only recyclable bags, mostly fabric, for more than 5 years. I was happy to see the bag challenge at the zoo! I hope you have had an excellent response from others. ~I tell the store clerks about our pledge with the zoo and encourage family to think about using reusable bags. ~The bag challenge did not work for me. I chose to reduce my use of disposable plastic bottles instead. I now have a metal water bottle and have encouraged my children to use reusable water bottles also. ~Great program. The education by the zoo raises our awareness to the damage of plastic bags. Continued education and awareness remind us and help us change our ways permanently. Thank you for all of your hard work! ~This was not easy at first! A few times I forgot my bags in the car and had to take a full cart of groceries out to the car and load them in my reusable bags in the parking lot. Ha! But it was worth it, to know that I helped. Thank you for the challenge! ~This survey is a test reminder to get back on track with using reusable bags! ~Going shopping with reusable bags is fun and fashionable. I use them where ever I shop or visit! The zoo bags are the best. I have 3 of them so far. Please design more! ~I now also recycle all my paper and plastics. Thanks to my Houston zoo visit. Was very impressed with your plastic artwork. ~I have shared this incentive through Facebook by posting photos of the zoo's exhibit and the impact on not only sea turtles, but other sea creatures as well. When I use plastic bags, I always bring them back for recycling, and never throw them in the trash. The exhibit at Houston Zoo changed my behavior absolutely, I had no idea the impact of such a simple, daily use item on wildlife. Thank you! ~It was a great experience and if it had not been for that visit at the Zoo with my grandson, I would still be using plastic bags. Now I find that it is actually so much more efficient to use my own reusable bags, because more items fit into the bag, or maybe the store packers put more into one bag. Therefore, it is also more convenient to carry it into the house. Helping to save the environment is great. Keep up with such programs. Thanks. ~I often forgot my reusable bag but I would still carry out the items rather than asking for a plastic bag. When questioned or given that unsure look by my cashier, I often responded with "I'm plastic bag free, save a sea turtle".  At least twice I was asked what I meant and was able to have a short but great conversation about the subject.

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ISG+ Final Report: Seattle Youth CAN works to combat climate change

This guest post by Eli Weiss of Woodland Park Zoo is the third in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project, exploring how teens in the Seattle area can empower each other and their peers for action on climate change. What we have to celebrate As we wrap up our first year with reflection and planning sessions for both youth and staff stakeholders I feel grateful for all that everyone has contributed to making the pilot year for Seattle Youth CAN such a success in 2015. I am also excited we willl have even more to look forward to in 2016, thanks to a second year of funding from the Innovative Solutions Grants + Program! With the partnership and support from youth programs staff and teens from Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center and Seattle Aquarium it has been quite a year! We have also appreciated the support from a range of community collaborators including local non-profits, agencies and universities who have contributed to our first year. As planned, it was full year of programming with monthly opportunities for Seattle area teens to increase their climate literacy, take action and become leaders in this exciting new initiative. By the numbers, in 2015 we had: A committee of 11 teen leaders planned and launched a transportation focused climate action challenge that engaged 50+ teens during August and saved over 12,000 pounds of CO2 12 climate literacy and action events hosted at the three institutions which provided unique opportunities for more than 150 teen participants! 85 teens attended Seattle Youth Climate Action Summit held at Woodland Park Zoo 20+ local climate leaders contributed as guest speakers, presenters and project advisors 3 teen representatives  traveled to the WILD Center in upstate New York to present and participate at the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit Over the past few months we are especially proud of… The Transportation Challenge The first teen led action campaign was a pilot designed by a cross institution leadership committee. The challenge focused on encouraging other teens to reduce their CO2 emissions by choosing to use public transit, carpool, bike or walk. During the month of August, there were 52 active participants who logged their commutes on an online platform hosted by King County Metro. In a post survey we found that just under half of these participants reported an increase in their use of the recommended transportation options as a result of the challenge. After the challenge, King County Metro staff discussed the agencies sustainability efforts with the teens and also led a workshop in which they brainstormed possible social media messages to make a stronger connection between public transit and reducing CO2 as well as encouraging more teens to ride the bus. There are already plans to revise and continue this messaging campaign as part of our efforts in 2016. The first annual Seattle Youth Climate Action Summit On October 10th, 2015 the Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Youth CAN hosted the first annual Youth Climate Action Summit attended by 100+ teen and community participants from the Seattle area. The event was organized by a committee of 14 teen leaders from the three institutions along with the support of staff from Woodland Park Zoo. The summit included presentations and activities led by teen leaders, a climate careers panel, group action projects and plenary workshop sessions led by local climate leaders and scientists focused on climate science, innovation and ways to take action. This was the first Seattle Youth CAN event in which teens from outside of the founding three partner youth programs were invited to participate. The Summit was the culminating event of year one for Seattle Youth CAN and the also a shift toward a more inclusive model that we plan to expand next year, a model that will provide the opportunity for all interested youth in the Seattle area to get involved and take action! Our amazing Youth Climate Ambassadors Our youth ambassadors had many adventures and successes this year, including: • Three Seattle Youth CAN leaders traveled to the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit in upstate New York to share their experiences and learn from peers.   • Niko, a teen volunteer spoke alongside county executives and climate policy leaders at the signing of the Strategic King County (WA) Climate Action Plan.     • This past month NOAA’s climate.gov site featured our project as one of their case studies of national youth climate initiatives and our video was featured at the US Center during COP21 in Paris. What we have learned in 2015 1. Developing an authentic youth network takes time. A clear plan and willing partners is always a good start, but we found that for teens to start identifying with Seattle Youth CAN took ongoing communication and repeat participation in events. Teens live such busy lives and we don’t want Seattle Youth CAN to be just one more thing for them to do, rather a place that youth can get involved, meet new people, and take on authentic leadership in something that is of interest to them. We had great success with youth organized events and campaigns and are looking to increase the youth ownership of the project in 2016. 2. When communicating with teens in-person meetings still matter. We have found that some teens prefer Facebook while others will only respond to email, and with so many options for connecting these days, there is no one way to get in touch. Our Facebook group has been a great way to share updates, photos, events and ideas, and although it was used by youth leaders, the majority of the posts were made by staff. We now have a twitter handle https://twitter.com/seattleyouthcan which is followed by some supporters, but has not been a clear way to engage teens. We actually found that by far the most successful strategy for building community and creating connections has been in person events and meetings – that was where most of the magic happened. 3. Institutional support helps. Bringing together three of the most prominent informal science institutions in the city has allowed for us to leverage the expertise, resources and connections of our founding partner organizations. All three institutions have shown past commitment to climate change education and this partnership has allowed us to come together on an area of shared relevance. In addition, the community looks to zoos, aquariums and science museums for answers and through this project we have been able to help teens find their voice as climate change leaders and change makers and this action resonates with the millions of visitors that attend our institutions each year. Where we are headed I think that we are on to something with Seattle Youth CAN and are excited to develop new strategies that will allow broader participation and reach. We plan to do this through creating an opportunity for new partner programs to join the network and by opening up monthly events to teens that are not already affiliated with our partner programs, as well as by revising and expanding our teen led action campaigns. We also plan to strengthen and package our unique model so that we can share it with other regional and national groups that are looking to support youth in climate leadership initiatives. It is exciting to see the growing interest in our local initiative and I hope that through our efforts we can help the national youth climate action movement grow. --Guest post by Eli Weiss of Woodland Park Zoo

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ISG+ Update: Will Philadelphia Zoo guests save energy to save “Nemo”?

This guest post by Wei Ying Wong of Philadelphia Zoo is the second in a 3-part series on Philadelphia Zoo’s Innovative Solutions Grants+ project. They’re exploring a new way of evaluating long-term conservation behavior change, specifically home energy use, in visitors to the zoo’s KidZooU exhibit.   Hi!  Welcome to our coral reef exhibit. Are there animals you recognize in here? Can you find Nemo? Clownfish like Nemo and many other species of fish depend on a very special type of habitat called coral reefs.     In recent months, visitors to Philadelphia Zoo’s KidZooU (KZU) have been greeted with an opportunity take action to “Save Energy to Save Nemo” when they approach our coral reef exhibit. As discussed in our previous blog, we are capitalizing on a prime opportunity to communicate about ocean acidification at our coral reef tank. While our ultimate goal remains one of testing how well we use onsite conservation messaging to affect offsite behavioral change, we’ve found that getting those permissions and systems in place is a challenge.  So to date we’ve focused on fine-tuning our messaging while asking visitors to pledge to reduce their home energy consumption.  Early in the new year, our hope is to go one step further with our local visitors, asking not only for a pledge, but for permission to track their home energy usage! Asking for a pledge Our intended audience has been mixed age groups based on the research finding that children can be key influencers on household decision-making, and, fortunately, mixed age precisely describes most of the visitor groups to KZU.   When visitor groups approach the coral reef tank, a zoo interpreter engages them in a conversation about the reef and other organisms in exhibit using strategic framing techniques that help visitors understand climate change and ocean acidification by overcoming traditional barriers and cuing people to think productively about solutions (see National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpreters for more details). On concluding the interpretation, we ask visitors to take a pledge to reduce their household energy consumption (“Save Energy to Save Nemo”), with children “signing” the pledge on behalf of their families by inking their fingerprint on a clownfish cut-out. Initial Findings To date, we have monitored our engagements with more than 600 people (in a total of 198 groups, with group sizes that varied from 1 to 12 people). Here are our preliminary findings: KZU visitors are open to a conservation message, provided there is no language barrier Almost three-quarters (73%) of the total number of groups stayed for at least a portion of the narrative. If they stayed through the first section, they were highly likely to stay on for the entirety of the message.  While all visitors appeared to be generally happy when our interpreters approached them, we were not able to engage with about 5% of our visitors on account of the language barrier. Moving forward, we would like to include interpretation in other languages, especially as The Ocean Project’s market research indicates that households where English is a second language are likely to be very interested. KZU visitors are willing to take action on this issue Among the groups that stayed engaged with our interpreter till the final ask (“Pledge to Save Energy to Save Nemo”), 92% of the groups had someone take pledge to make a difference for the animals and their habitat. Overall, that represents almost half (42%) of the total number of people engaged. Engaging the child is critical to engaging the group Graph 1: Showing the percentage of people who left the interpretative station for the respective reasons As noted above, we noticed that if a group stayed through the full message, they had a high likelihood of pledging to take action (twice as likely as if they left early) With that in mind, we looked at why some groups were leaving early and found, as can be seen in the graph, that the biggest factor was whether the child stayed engaged. In most cases, especially when the child was young, adults allowed the child to determine their course. So when they child was no longer interested, the group left. Leaving the ask to the end might not be the best way to go While we continue to look for ways to keep the attention of the children, we’re also going to try moving the ask to the beginning. By doing so, we anticipate a significant increase in the number of groups who will make the pledge. Graph 2: Showing the percentage of people who leave the interpretive stations at various points of the narrative   Inking a fingerprint works well for children, but not for adults The act of pledging by inking a fingerprint on a clownfish cut-out is, of course, an activity targeted at children.  And as such, it has worked well.  We even saw many of the adults who stayed through the interpretation bringing their children back to ‘fingerprint’ a pledge. But the number of adults willing to do so was quite low.  Plus, of course, moving ahead we are likely to need more formal permission that a fingerprint would provide! Referencing Nemo was not helpful We had hypothesized that the hyper-personalized linkage between action and an identifiable animal character would increase the likelihood of engagement. We were wrong. Instead, the inclusion of “Nemo” created confusion as some of the younger children have not watched the movie, or the visitors’ attention is less interested in the clownfish than other things in the exhibit. So moving ahead, we have our interpreters paying attention to the organism that is capturing the attention of the visitors and then using that as a springboard into the script. Meeting the visitors where they are at is promising to be a much more successful approach. Next Steps We are now in the stages of finalizing the logistical and legal details for tracking the efficacy of our onsite messaging in changing offsite behavior. While that aspect of the project has taken a longer time than expected, the conversations it has generated both internally and with an ever-expanding number of partners is exciting.   Moreover, we have learned all of the above lessons about how best to shape our messaging.

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Zoos and aquariums: Highlighting your mission is good for business

More evidence from our friends at IMPACTS that doing well by your mission helps you do well at the gate. As those who know me may have heard me say one too many times already, but here it is once more: visitors expect, trust and appreciate when aquariums, zoos, museums and other visitor serving organizations are active in advancing their missions. For environmental issues, we've found this is especially true when organizations provide their visitors with specific ways to be part of the solutions to the problems facing our planet. Let visitors know how they can join with you to help protect specific animals and particular places, and ideally give them something to do then and there. Here’s Colleen’s video overview of their findings. For more on how to do so, and the lessons we’ve learned with our partners, check out our other blog posts such as the lessons learned from the first year of our Innovative Solutions Grants Plus Program or our initial round of the Better Bag Challenge. Why not take those lessons and give the Better Bag Challenge a go next Word Oceans Day? Now you can do so with even more confidence that visitors will thank you for it!

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10 ways your zoo or aquarium can reduce plastic use

There is growing public awareness about the troubling accumulation of plastics in the environment, particularly in the oceans. Luckily, we are in a unique position to turn the tides on plastic use and disposal. Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited institutions are trusted conservation organizations with millions of visitors annually. We can lead by example through the way we operate our businesses, and as The Ocean Project has reported, our institutional actions can help inspire our visitors, staff, and volunteers to make greener choices too. Reducing disposable plastics is critical for the health of our ecosystems and ourselves. And we know that our institutions want to take action, but where to begin? The AZA Green Scientific Advisory Group (GSAG) is here to help, supporting AZA institutions to make greener business operation choices and offering information on latest sustainability research and trends. The AZA Green Guide was created to help AZA institutions create their sustainability roadmaps, while allowing enough flexibility for individual institutions to identify their operational priorities.  And in that spirit, here is a top ten list created by the GSAG, steps to help your operations be less reliant on disposable plastic products. Conduct a purchasing inventory, AND implement 'greener' purchasing practices (e.g. screen products for recyclability, promote bulk purchasing with minimal packaging, and avoid disposable items as much as possible). Purchase for the Planet. With durable plastic items, consider a switch from purchasing new plastic products to products made from recycled plastic. This action helps create a competitive market for products made from recycled materials. Old is New Again. Conduct a waste/recycling audit, AND implement a waste reduction and recycling improvement plan. Be Lean and Green! In food sales, reduce or eliminate single-use plastic bags, beverage bottles, straws, utensils, plates Don’t know where to start? Consider implementing a policy of providing these items only upon request, or stock your break rooms with reusable dishes, mugs and silverware. Bag It! Water station at Detroit Zoo Consider compostable service-ware, and you can largely replace plastic items with paper, cardboard, and bio-based items which can break down in a commercial scale composting facility or in a biodigester. Close the loop by composting the material to keep it out of the landfill. A Toast to Compost! If disposable plastics can’t be avoided, make sure they are recyclable plastics with plenty of bins throughout the campus to make recycling easy. Plastics Numbers 1 and 2 are the easiest to recycle. Styrofoam is very difficult to recycle, so eliminating that material is best. It’s a Numbers Game. In operations, avoid soaps, cleaners and other products with microbeads! Some cosmetics and cleaning products contain tiny pieces of plastic, which are also known as microbeads. These bits of plastic are too small to be captured by water treatment plants and they end up in our waterways where they can be ingested by animals and they accumulate in the oceans. Banish the Bead. Throughout the campus, install water fountains and bottle filling stations- this can help visitors make the better choice to utilize reusable bottles instead of buying bottled water. Provide Free Refills! Gift Shop Ops - Look at the items stocked in your shops and identify ways that plastic gift items can be swapped out with alternative options. Last but not least, work with your education and marketing teams to implement a program or competition to encourage your visitors, as well as staff and volunteers, to follow your lead. The lessons from the Better Bag Challenge offer some good insights here! Be a Muse for Reuse! -- Guest post from Wanda Evans at Saint Louis Zoo and Jennifer Hale at Denver Zoo Banner image credit to Saint Louis Zoo

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ISG+ Update: Teens at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden get their hands dirty

This guest post, by Director of Education Elizabeth Clemens and Coordinator of ZooTeens and Scout Programs Syndi Castelluccio, from Riverbanks Zoo and Garden is the second in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project, which investigates how engaging with teens and receiving incentives can impact zoo guest behavior. The Adventure Continues As reported in our initial blog post, the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden’s ZooTeen volunteers are on an exciting journey. They’re busy taking direct action and engaging our visitors in efforts to keep trash out of our ocean through an innovative initiative they’re calling Teen S.O.S. (Stewards of our Seas). You may have been wondering how far they have come in their efforts and, if so, here’s your answer! Getting Their Hands Dirty! Before giving them all the facts and figures about marine debris, we decided to have our ZooTeens roll up their sleeves and dig into the issue, litter-ally. They marked local storm drains, picked up trash along our very own river banks, and, after some sorting and scrubbing, even used some of it to create the “trash to treasure” artwork as part of the “inspiration stations” they’ve been developing. This “learning by doing” experience had a real impact on the ZooTeens. For starters, they were struck by the amount of plastic that they found during the waterway cleanups, and that, in turn, increased their interest in promoting reusable shopping bags as a solution step. In addition, several of our teens that have been with the program for 2-4 years commented that the zoo seems so much more productive now. “When I look at what we used to do in our monthly meeting and what we do now, it’s amazing how much we as teenagers can accomplish in our mass numbers” - Alyssa “The time goes so quickly, if we met more often we could get so much more done.” - Dillon This last comment was seconded by our Teen Volunteer of the Year, Samantha, who dedicated more than 300 hours this past year to the teen program and helping to spread our conservation messaging to our guests. We have seen a tremendous difference in the teens attitudes and dedication to the program since we changed our approach to getting them involved. They are more active, more engaged, and more confident – they are making a difference. Experiments in Outreach Staff is now working with the ZooTeens to test how effective they are in their efforts to encourage visitors to take action. To do this we decided to compare and contrast the experience of two groups, rather than three as we had initially proposed in our first blog post. 1. A “Control Group” that received the bag off site with no explanation other than, “please take the bag, use it and complete a follow-up survey” 2. An “Experimental Group” of zoo guests who while on site engaged with the ZooTeens and learned about the problem of marine debris before receiving the bag and agreeing to use it and take the follow up survey We had initially proposed comparing the above with a third group, guests who visited the zoo but did not engage with the ZooTeens, but decided not to include this group because it would have complicated the experiment, and we wanted to focus in on the influence of interactions with the teens at “Inspiration Stations.” With the “Experimental Group,” the ZooTeens also were interested in trying a couple of different ways to connect with our guests. While we wanted to encourage the ZooTeens’ creativity, we also made sure that the defining characteristics of our Experimental Group remained constant - all members of this group visited the zoo, interacted with a ZooTeen, were told about the problem with plastics, and then received a reusable bag. Inspiration Stations – As noted above, the ZooTeens set up an activity station or touch cart with biofacts in our Aquarium Reptile Complex, either by our sea turtle exhibit or at the exit away from any animal exhibit. The activities included: “It’s Not Easy Being a Green” – this activity allows a guest to do an endoscopy on a “stuffed” green sea turtle to determine what had made the turtle sick “Jelly Fishin’”– this fishing activity allowed guest to see how sea turtles could confuse plastic for food “All the Way to the Ocean” – demonstrated how debris from land makes it into our waterway “Washed Away” – shared the problems with microbeads in our common household products that we use daily The teens shared with us that they found it challenging to draw in guests to talk; however, when they had an activity, the guests flocked to the area. As one our teens, Abby, put it, “Having so many guests come to our activity allowed us to share the big issue at hand.” Information Booth – We also tried a stand-alone station near our guest relations center with our eye catching “bag monster ball” made of 500 bags tied together. We did give out a few of our reusable bags at this location, but it without the active engagement on the issues of plastics pollution, it didn’t seem to have the draw of the activities mentioned above. To date we have distributed 1500 reusable bags from a total of 2000, with 600 going to our “Control Group” and 900 going to our “Experimental Group,” and have begun requesting and collecting survey responses. Want our results? Stay tuned! -- Guest post by Elizabeth Clemens and Syndi Castelluccio    

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