Programs Overview
Our mission at Education2Success.org (Ed2S.org) is to do good for the world and promote small changes that are easily implemented on a large scale resulting in significant, impactful, positive, and lasting environmental changes. By providing free access to continuing education and quality cost efficient alternatives from harmful single-use products, we aim to become a leading resource for green energy and planet friendly change.
Our Innovate-A-Thon® Program
Our Innovate-A-thon® program provides scholarship opportunities to high school and college level students who work and collaborate to develop solutions to real world issues. Thanks to private and corporate donors and sponsors, Innovate-A-Thon® has so far provided 74 scholarships at 17 Colleges and Universities. Our goal for these students is to learn problem solving techniques such as Identify-Ideate-Improve-Implement, SCAMPER, and SWOTT, as well as learn to work in teams and present in public, which will encourage them to be our next generation of entrepreneurs to contribute to future positive changes in our world. We provide a unique approach for our corporate sponsors who are offered the opportunity to submit the problem statement to a relevant issue in their industry for the students to work on. The sponsor is then able to review and take part in the judging of the student team's solutions during their final presentations. We have found this provides an invaluable opportunity for students to network, explore future career paths, and possibly receive an internship or job offer from the sponsor. Our students have commented that this interaction with the sponsors has been by far their best networking opportunity and far better than any form of career fair.
74
Scholarships
Awarded
17
Colleges & Universities
Problem Solving
Entrepreneur Skills
Our Innovate-A-Thon® Program
3-Week Innovation Sprint
Students work with industry members to solve real problems.
IAT Discussions
Thought provoking conversations on innovation and sustainability
Online Mini Courses
Learn innovation frameworks and entrepreneurship skills.
Real-World Impact
Students develop solutions for environmental and social challenges
Program Highlights
A program that helps students turn ideas into real-world sustainability solutions.
How It Works
Our Impact
74
Scholarships
17
Colleges
100+
Student Innovators
Identify
Ideate
Improve
Implement
Rechargeable Alliance
Coming Soon!
Our Mission:
To turn rechargeable battery use into a normal, accepted and rewarding part of everyday culture through fun and engaging advertising with the message that adopting the use of rechargeable batteries will save the planet from the environmental damage from disposable batteries as well as save money.
WhereAZ.com
Currently Available and Growing!
A sketch and mapping system for descriptions of local attractions, flora and fauna. In Tucson, Arizona!
Lectures available from our Executive Director Jim Jindrick @ jim@ed2s.org
Tom Mix Memorial
Inn at Castle Rock
Festival of Books
Yellow Warbler
Neotropic Cormorant
Patagonia Museum
Reusable Shopping Bags
Our PSA: When you leave your car to go shopping, bring your reusable bags with you into the store, every store, not just the grocery store. Hardware stores, pharmacies, and clothing shops generate plastic bag waste too.
Every year, an average American household can bring home hundreds of single-use plastic bags, most of which are used for a few minutes and then thrown away. There is no magical place called away. Plastic bags don't biodegrade; they break down into microplastics that end up in soil, waterways, and eventually our food supply. Many municipalities also spend significant money each year just to remove plastic bags caught in recycling equipment and storm drains.
The fix is simple, and it doesn't require any new products or a big lifestyle change: keep a set of reusable bags somewhere you'll actually see them, like your car or your front door, so they're with you before you walk into any store, not just the grocery store.
How to make it stick:
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Keep 3–4 reusable bags in your trunk or by your front door at all times.
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Make it a habit to think of your trunk when you park and grab your bags if you are at a store.
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Stash one folded compact bag in your purse, backpack, or glovebox for unplanned stops.
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A few options exist if you forget your bags. Some stores will give you a cardboard box that they keep near checkout from the many product boxes they receive - their waste now becomes a container for you and you become responsible to dispose of the cardboard box. Many stores sell sturdy shopping bags at checkout; Buy a new bag and add it to your bag collection or give it to a friend. Another option is to put the items back in the shopping cart after being scanned and then loading the items into your bags when you get back to your car trunk.
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Wash cloth bags occasionally — they last for years with basic care.
Big Impact
Hundreds of single-use bags kept out of the waste stream by one household each year.
Less plastic in our soil, waterways, and food supply
Stores save money on plastic bag purchases and disposal.
Small Swaps. Lasting Change.
This is one of the simplest swaps in our 30 Sustainable Swaps Guide, which walks through 30 small changes like this one, each with a clear money or waste impact.
If small, practical sustainability habits like this matter to you, supporting Education2Success helps us keep building free resources like this one and expand our student Innovate-A-Thon programs.
Washable Wipes
Our PSA: Put a box of rags next to your paper towels, especially in the kitchen. Put a second, smaller box of rags next to your tissues. Use the rags instead of the paper products, then toss them in your laundry hamper when you're done. Save money. Save trees.
Paper towels and Kleenex tissues are a convenience most households don't think twice about, but the impact adds up fast. Producing paper products consumes significant amounts of water, energy, and wood pulp, and a typical household goes through dozens of rolls a year, all of which end up in the trash after a single use.
Washable rags are a low-effort, high-impact replacement. A rag does the same job as a paper towel, but instead of being thrown away, it goes into the laundry hamper and gets used again, for years.
How to make it stick:
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Start with one box of rags in the kitchen and everywhere you normally have paper towels out. A cardboard box works or it can be dressed up with something like a wicker basket.
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Old t-shirts, towels, and burp cloths cut into squares work as well as anything you'd buy, but a single purchase of soft cotton handkerchiefs or shop cloths can last for many years.
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Put the used towels in your laundry hamper. Rinse and wring the towels if needed before putting them in the laundry hamper.
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Put a second box next you your Kleenex tissue locations. These can be smaller than the kitchen towels.
Make low-waste living easier.
This swap is featured in our 14-Day Low-Waste Kitchen Kit, a free downloadable guide with more habit-building tools like this one. Programs like this are funded entirely through donations and grants, if this kind of practical sustainability education is something you want to see more of, consider donating to Ed2S.
Reusable To-Go Box
Our PSA: Bring your own reusable to-go box into restaurants instead of waiting for a server to bring you a disposable one.
Restaurant to-go containers are one of the most common sources of single-use plastic waste in the food industry. They're used for the length of a car ride home and then thrown away, and they cost restaurants money on every single order, a cost that ultimately gets passed on to customers. They also cost the server time to go fetch a to-go box. Plus during the time you are waiting to get the to-go box, you've got a bad chance to blow your diet by continuing to pick at your food. Many to-go boxes are simple clam shell style that don't seal well and can leak. Picture some red pasta sause of her white dress.
Bringing your own reusable to-go container solves this from both directions: you get a sturdier, better-sealing container that won't leak in your bag, and the restaurant saves on packaging costs and server time.
Why it's worth doing:
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Less waiting — no need to flag down a server for a box; you already have one.
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Better seal, less mess — most reusable containers seal far better than thin plastic clamshells, so you're not cleaning up spilled sauce from your car seat.
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Easier portion control — packing your own box can make it simpler to see what you're taking home versus what you ate.
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Lower cost for restaurants — fewer disposable containers purchased means lower overhead, which keeps menu prices in check. Less server time means servers can handle more tables potentially allowing for less servers for the same numbers of tables/customers if this was adopted by a significant percentage of the population.
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Less plastic in landfills — cheap to-go containers are rarely recyclable due to food contamination, so skipping them outright is the biggest win.
Make Low-Waste Living Easier.
Keep a few stackable containers and lids in your car for spontaneous restaurant trips, just like you would reusable shopping bags. Or keep a bag with the to-go boxes and other items that you brinfg with you. To see more swaps like this one, check out our free Sustainable Swaps Guide. If you'd like to help us keep producing practical guides like this, your donation supports Ed2S's programs directly.
Foaming Soap Dispenser
Our PSA: Put a foaming soap dispenser at each sink, and refill it with bulk liquid soap diluted at a 6:1 ratio (six parts water to one part soap). The reduction in soap used, while still getting a thorough, sudsy clean, is surprising.
Sharing bar soap can be unsanitary. But most people use far more liquid soap per hand-wash than necessary, simply because of how standard pump dispensers are designed. Foaming soap dispensers solve this by mixing air into the soap as it's pumped, which means a single pump delivers the same coverage using a fraction of the liquid soap.
How to set it up:
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Buy a basic foaming soap dispenser for each of your sinks. These are sold at most department, grocery and hardware stores. They come filled with soap and only cost a dollar or so more that a regular dispenser.
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Get a quart (1 liter) bottle for the cabinet under each sink. Reusing a drink bottle is an excellent choice for this.
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Buy liquid hand soap in bulk. These are sold in the 56 oz size at most department and drug stores. Buying liquid hand soap in bulk is usually much cheaper per ounce.
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Mix roughly 1 part soap to 6 parts water and pour into the bottle for under the sink. Adjust the ratio slightly if it feels too thin or too thick.
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Refill the foaming soap dispenser with the bottle under the sink and refill the bottle under the sink as needed, one bulk bottle of soap can last for months once diluted this way.
Why it matters:
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Less soap used per wash means less packaging waste over time, since bulk refills go further.
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Diluted soap reduces the amount of surfactant chemicals entering wastewater treatment systems.
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It's noticeably cheaper per wash than buying pre-made foaming soap refills.
Make Low-Waste Living Easier.
This is exactly the kind of small, repeatable swap we highlight across our free guides, including the 30 Sustainable Swaps Guide. If practical, low-cost sustainability tips like this are valuable to you, support Ed2S with a donation to help us keep developing them.
Toilet Top Sink
Our PSA: Buy and install a toilet-top sink. Save water.
Every time a toilet flushes, it pulls 1.1 to 1.6 gallons of water from the tank for the flush. The tank is then refilled with fresh, clean tap water - water that's perfectly fine to drink or wash hands. Toilet-tank sinks can be purchased that replace the tank cover for roughly $100. These are relativelly new in the US so it's anticipated there will be more models, options and pricing in the future. They can be installed easily by any Do-It-Yourselfer. The fresh water, instead of going directly into the tank, comes out a spigot above the toilet-tank sink. Water in the toilet-tank sink flows throught the sink into the tank below.
After the user flushes the toilet, the water that would have gone directly into the tank now comes out the spigot allowing the user 30-40 seconds to wash and rinse their hands. The water from the spigot and any soapy water from your hands then flows through the sink and refills the tank below, ready for the next flush. Your hands have been washed and you avoided turning on your regular sink faucet. The water avoided from hand washing with each toilet use has the potential to add up quickly if this is widely adopted.
How it works, in plain terms:
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Buy and install a toilet-top sink.
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While the toilet is being flushed, water comes out the spigot above the toilet tank. You wash your hands in this water instead of using your regular sink faucet.
Why it matters:
This setup saves water by using fresh tap water for hand washing that would have otherwise gone to into the toilet.
Make Low-Waste Living Easier.
This concept reflects the kind of resourceful, low-cost thinking we encourage through our Innovate-A-Thon program, where students design real solutions to everyday waste problems. If you'd like to help fund student innovation like this, consider donating to Ed2S.
How To Recycle In My Area
Our PSA: Go to our website. Enter your zipcode and learn the rules and how to recycle in your area.
Recycling rules vary enormously from city to city and even neighborhood to neighborhood, what's accepted for curbside recycling pickup in one town can vary drastically in another. Where is the best place to drop off hazardous waste like paint? Or batteries? That inconsistency is one of the biggest reasons recycling rates stay lower than they should be: people aren't sure what's accepted, so they either put non-recyclable items in the bin (wishcycling), which can become problematic during processing, or give up and throw recyclables in the trash.
Many people simply don't know what to the recycling triangle numbers mean or any idea how to properly recycle?
For this future project, we will collect and maintain a database of recycling rules and advertise our website to encourage recycling. We'll try to make it as comprehensive and easy to use as possible. The user would input their zip code. The chart of materials with the local rules of how and best to handle each type of material propagates with the local information. There will also be a section explaining recycling in general. This is a good application for AI as it's excellent at scrubbing information from many sources. This would be a one stop location for all needed local and general recycling information
Common items people get wrong:
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Plastic bags and film — usually NOT accepted curbside, even though the plastic itself is recyclable (drop off at store collection bins instead).
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Greasy or food-soiled cardboard/paper — usually not recyclable, but can go into green gardening waste.
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Glass — accepted in some areas, excluded in others; always check locally.
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Electronics and batteries — almost never go in curbside bins; require separate drop-off.
Make Low-Waste Living Easier.
We'll be expanding this page over time with direct links to resources by state and region. In the meantime, the steps above will get you most of the way to recycling correctly in your area. If reducing waste and improving recycling habits is a cause you care about, your support helps Ed2S keep building resources like this one.