PGC helps students worldwide cultivate unique voices for change. While we understand that you have many commitments, PGC only accepts original work produced by the official participant or team members. Technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), may be used as a tool to support your process, but it may not replace your own thinking, creativity, voice or work.
Project Green Challenge has a zero tolerance policy for work that has been plagiarized or is otherwise not original. This includes submissions that excerpt heavily from other sources but fail to include proper citations, as well as AI-generated content submitted as though it were entirely the participant’s own work. Participants who plagiarize or submit work that does not authentically represent their own ideas and effort may be disqualified from PGC without warning. Turning Green reserves the right to determine whether a submission is dishonest and may disqualify any participant at any point as a result.
AI tools may be used to support brainstorming, research, organization, editing, spelling and grammar or to help participants better understand a topic. They should not be used to complete a challenge on your behalf. Participants may not simply enter a PGC prompt into an AI tool and submit the resulting writing, reflection, analysis, image, design or other content as their own. Your submission should reflect your own ideas, experiences, learning, actions and voice. If you use information or ideas from outside sources — whether you find them yourself or through AI — you are responsible for verifying their accuracy and properly citing those sources.
You are ultimately responsible for everything you submit to PGC. If you feel uninspired, unsure or tired, simply take a break. PGC is designed to reward outstanding work, not solely the highest points. Submitting thoughtful, original work is always in your favor.
When wondering whether something qualifies as “original,” ask yourself: Would you submit this in a class? Could you explain and stand behind everything you submitted? Does it reflect your own thinking and voice? Schools have strict and explicit academic honesty policies. Chances are, if your work fits within your school’s policy, it is acceptable for PGC.
Here is an excerpt from Harvard College’s academic integrity policy, about which you can read more here (note the clear attribution, link and quotation marks):
“It is expected that all homework assignments, projects, lab reports, papers, theses, and examinations and any other work submitted for academic credit will be the student’s own. Students should always take great care to distinguish their own ideas and knowledge from information derived from sources. The term ‘sources’ includes not only primary and secondary material published in print or online, but also information and opinions gained directly from other people. Quotations must be placed properly within quotation marks and must be cited fully. In addition, all paraphrased material must be acknowledged completely. Whenever ideas or facts are derived from a student’s reading and research or from a student’s own writings, the sources must be indicated.”
The same principle applies to AI: use it to support your learning and process, never to replace them. The work you submit to PGC must be yours.
