In the spirit of Green Apple Day of Service (GADOS) being right around the corner, we wanted to profile one of our most successful and committed project captains, Lori Braunstein. Read below for her pro-tips and ideas on how to make the best of this year’s Green Apple Day of Service.  

Lori Braunstein is the Director for Green Schools and Community of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. She has been involved with Green Apple Day of Service since last year, and has enlisted more than 100 projects to take place throughout the Delaware Valley.

In her role Lori likes to utilize the Green Apple Day of Service to help initiate and build relationships throughout her community between schools and local businesses.

Lori’s favorite part of participating in Green Apple Day of Service is the diversity of the projects and groups involved. Last year, she was involved in projects ranging from roof-top solar panels and classroom activities, to garden construction and green tours.

She also enjoys that Green Apple Day of Service isn’t just for K-12 and likes to invite the higher-ed community to particpate as well.

Check out Lori's tips on how to make the most of Green Apple Day of Service.

1. Strive to have projects on September 27, but remember that having a project around September is ok too – the extra flexibility can make it easier to coordinate projects with schools.
2. Don’t rely only on traditional outreach tactics like email. Instead use every form of communication available and personally reach-out to organizations and schools to establish partnerships.
3. Use Green Apple Day of Service as a “calling card.” In other words, use GADOS as an opportunity to mark the launching of a school’s year-round commitment to green initiatives.
4. Don’t focus exclusively on hosting big projects, encourage teachers and students to host their own mini projects in their classrooms and schools to maximize the impact of Green Apple Day of Service.

If you’re already hosting a project this year, don’t forget to invite the teachers in your life to join in on the action by making a simple commitment to participate in Day of Service.

Learn more and register your project today

The Green Apple Day of Service was established to help create green schools around the world and improve the places where our students learn.

Now in its third year, the Day of Service, which takes place this year on Saturday, Sept. 27, reaches dozens of countries throughout the world. We are working to increase our global presence even further with a new video project, and we want you to showcase your efforts!

This year, we are asking all of our Green Apple Day of Service volunteers, international and stateside, to create and share a video telling our community what activities you have in store on or around Sept. 27. We want you to show the world that where we learn matters. So join us. Show us! What will you be doing on Green Apple Day of Service this year?

Submit your video  

Don't forget to promote your videos on social media.

This video project is a chance to showcase the many students, teachers, parents and community volunteers from all around the world who are inspired to act through Green Apple Day of Service. Our mission is ambitious, but achievable with the help of passionate individuals like you. We look forward to seeing what you have in store.

Still wondering how you can be a part of this year’s Green Apple Day of Service?

Have your event all planned out for Sept. 27, and looking for more to do?

Here are 99 ideas that anyone can implement at their school or campus. Yes, anyone. 

In this list you’ll see ideas for teachers, parents, volunteers and students at any grade level, from pre-kindergarten through college and beyond. Pick one, pick two, pick two dozen!

Let us know which one is your favorite in the comments, sign up the ones you’ll take on at mygreenapple.org.

Educate

Take it outside

Waste not

Conserve energy

Save water

Indoor improvements

Contests and showcases

Watch, listen and learn

Register your project today

The first day of school pictures have been taken, the back to school jitters have subsided and momentum is building for the third annual Green Apple Day of Service (GADOS).
As we prepare for another successful GADOS season full of meaningful service projects and events, I’d like to highlight some of the great projects from last year that went above and beyond to develop creative ways to engage their communities.
Last year at the Green Apple Day of Service…
...the students at Suffolk University held a campaign to ensure all cigarette butts end up in the proper waste receptacle.
...a school in Georgetown, KY, encouraged students to walk or bike to school for a day.
...the USGBC Student group at Wayne State University painted recycling dumpsters to easily identify them and spark conversations about recycling.
...Pocopson Elementary School held a Green Coffee Chat with the PTO, students and staff to discuss sustainability goals for the year.
...Marcos de Niza High School did a shade audit to analyze the importance of shade and its impact on the head island effect.
...Bluffton Early Childhood Center organized a self-guided tour of their green facility followed by a fruit and vegetable sculpture contest. 
Now that you've been inspired by all of these great ideas, it's easier than ever to get involved in the Green Apple Day of Service.
Register your project today

In college I studied Conservation Ecology, Biology, and Permaculture Design and then relocated to Florida after graduation for work with sea turtles and tortoises. My background allows me to understand how nature works and inspires me to seek out new information and ideas. When I made the daunting career-switch away from the field science world six years ago, my number one motivator was to help high school students—in some of Chicago’s most impoverished areas—develop this curiosity as well.

The first few months working at an alternative high school in North Lawndale, I realized many of my students had never been introduced to ideas like ecology and environmentalism; some weren’t even familiar with the term recycling. In those early days, without knowing much about me or the subject I was teaching, students had a hard time understanding these topics or relating to them in a meaningful way.

The light-bulb moment happened one day when I was on lunch duty. Casually eating while I monitored students, one student asked me what I was holding (it didn’t look anything like her yellow cheese and canned jalapeño covered nachos). "It’s a blueberry," I told her as I offered my Tupperware full of them. She tried a few, and loved them, and nearly every following day I would share a few blueberries with her.

Pretty soon other students started asking me about my lunchtime curiosities and it hit me: Food was my in. It was how I would get them excited and curious about the natural world around them. Together we created the school garden. Bloomed from this experience were kids in North Lawndale who wondered where their food came from, asked questions about how this all happened, and pleaded to take home what they grew in the garden to show their families and friends.

I had hooked them, and they proved to me that curiosity comes in many forms and can be fostered anywhere as long as it is meaningful.

Fast forward six busy years of teaching. The school has changed, the kids have changed, and I no longer teacher science. This school year I pivoted my career again, and I am now the Dean of Students at a new school in Chicago. What hasn’t changed, though, is the ingrained passion I found six years before: to connect kids with the environment, their communities, and their health through food. So, in January 2014, I co-founded Gardeneers, a non-profit that creates and maintains school gardens in Chicago.

Gardeneers works by pairing a school with two school garden professionals. Once a week the Gardeneers are onsite teaching students about nutrition, community, and of course, environmental stewardship—all woven into a curriculum that is STEM-focused and teaches kids how to grow food. Programming starts in March and goes through the end of November, covering all aspects of gardening from the seeds, the plants, the harvest, and everything in between.

Gardeneers also works with school cafeterias to ensure what is grow in the school garden can be eaten during lunch time. We are serving nine schools this fall, with a projected 20 schools for the 2015 growing season. With that many kids, there is a lot of natural curiosity being fostered!

With so much focus on tests and scholastic achievement, it can be hard for teachers and administrations to work in lessons about the world on a grander scale. The Gardeneers model engages the greater community without burdening teachers and administrators with extra programming.

We all share the goal of fostering students who are healthy, mindful, and make good decisions for themselves and the earth. This Green Apple Day of Service, talk to the students in your life about being strong environmental stewards.

The Green Apple Day of Service is just around the corner, and we want to know how you'll be making a difference at the schools in your community. Share your project with us on social media, and you’ll have the chance to win some great prizes!

Facebook Video Contest: Upload a short video (30 seconds or less; details below) to the Center for Green Schools Facebook page by 5 pm ET on Friday, Sept. 15, 2014, for a chance to win free registration for the Green Schools National Conference, taking place in Virginia Beach March 4-7, 2015.  

• Your video should tell us what you'll be doing for this year's Green Apple Day of Service and how that is helping to make your school a better, healthier learning environment.

• Your entry can take on any format you like — from an interview to a walking tour to stop-motion animation.  

• Submissions will be judged on creativity, narrative capacity and motivational impact; how well does your video convey the idea that schools are at the core of our communities and that these spaces should be as healthy and sustainable as possible? Will people feel inspired to volunteer with you after watching?      

• Your Day of Service project must already be registered through mygreenapple.org, and you should include the link to the project description on the Green Apple website in your Facebook post. While you're at it, be sure to use the hashtag #WhereWeLearnMatters, so others can easily search and see what you're up to.      

Twitter #WhereWeLearnMatters Contest: Win some cool Green Apple gear by concisely explaining why where we learn matters. Simply send out a tweet with your crafty explanation, the link to your project description on the Green Apple website in your post, and the hashtag #WhereWeLearnMatters by 5 pm ET Sept. 15, 2014.  

• Your characters will be limited, so don't be afraid to get creative! Feel free to include a photo in your tweet, as long as it is your own. Tweets will be judged on how well (both in terms of accuracy and creativity) they explain the vital role green schools play in quality education the world over.   

• We'll retweet our favorite submissions throughout the contest, and our top 3 tweeters will receive a Green Apple gear bundle, including a water bottle, bag and t-shirt to sport at their Day of Service projects on Sept. 27.   

Be on the lookout: The winners for both contests will be announced on Friday, Sept. 19, through a blog on usgbc.org and via responses to their submissions on Facebook and Twitter. For those of you feeling ambitious don’t worry, you can (and should) enter both contests.   

Other ways to promote your Day of Service Project on social media: Want to take part in the global Green Apple discussion while also building more buzz around your project? Here are some simple ways to help get the word out on social media and see what others are doing in their communities:

• ​Connect with USGBC and the Center for Green Schools on our many social media platforms; find us on Facebook, follow @usgbc and @mygreenschools on twitter, and check out @usgbc on Instagram. 

• Join the conversation using the hashtags #WhereWeLearnMatters, #mygreenapple and #greenschools, and let everyone know how you're making a difference for students in your area.

• Upload photos from your Day of Service project (both before and after!) to Instagram. We want to show off your fantastic work, so be sure to tag @usgbc and use those hashtags; we'll regram our favorites.

We can't wait to see what you'll come up with. Good luck with those videos, and happy tweeting!

The Center for Green Schools is thrilled to introduce six new organizers for Green Apple Day of Service 2014.

The Green Apple Day of Service, which will take place on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, gives parents, teachers, students, companies and local organizations the opportunity to transform all schools into healthy, safe and productive learning environments through local service projects.

We invite you to reach out to the your region's organizer or visit mygreenapple.org to make your Green Apple Day of Service commitment!

Meet the team

Aaron Fiber, Green Apple Support: ([email protected], 202.552.1361)

• Aaron was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He likes to spend his free time golfing, doing any sport that involves a board, or just “chillaxing” with his family. 
• Favorite project idea: “The Colby School District forest clean up while playing… DISC GOLF!!!! It’s a super creative way to have fun while improving the community!”

Brianna Betts, Capacity Organizer: Upper North East (NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME) and Heartland (ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, IL, WI, IN, MI, OH) ([email protected], 202.742.3760)

• An Ohio native, Brianna enjoys exploring art museums and watching Netflix as often as possible. 
• Favorite project idea: “Planting a school garden — growing up on a farm, fresh produce was always great to have!”

Dorien Blythers, Capacity Organizer: West coast (CA, WA, OR, AK, HI); Mid-Atlantic (PA, NJ, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV) ([email protected], 202.552.1355)

• Dorien has been a Washington, DC, resident for seven years. When Dorien isn’t talking to community leaders, teachers, and parents about the Green Apple Day of Service he enjoys horseback riding, karaoke, and playing tennis!
• Favorite project idea: “’Lights Out Day!’ Your school agrees to turn off all overhead lights in classrooms and multipurpose spaces for an entire day! Students get involved by wearing bright colors and learning in natural sunlight while the school saves energy and money on their electric bill! I love this project because any school can do it and it doesn’t take long to plan!”

Emily Olsen-Harbich, Partnership Organizer: Organizational Partners and Friends of Green Apple Day of Service ([email protected], 202.552.1395)

• An avid traveler, Emily enjoys exploring new places, though often gets lost. 
• Favorite project idea: “Many people live only a few miles from their schools. I like the idea of a ‘Bike to School Day’, because it may inspire people to discover how easy biking can actually be.”

Maria Martinez, Capacity Organizer: South Central and Florida/Caribbean (TX, OK, LA, FL, PR) ([email protected], 202.742.3805)

• A Florida native, Maria loves anything water related and taking long bike rides. She is passionate about progressive causes and “geeks out” when reading about environmental policy. 
• Favorite project idea: “All outdoor projects are the best – getting it touch with nature is the best way to engage students in caring about green causes!”

Suzi Warren, Capacity Organizer: Mid-South (KY, TN, NC, SC, GA, AR, MS, AL); West (MT, ID, WY, CO, NM, AZ, NV, UT) ([email protected], 202.742.3762)  

• Suzi is a recent DC transplant from Denver who bakes “a mean chocolate chip cookie,” loves adventures, and is always dreaming up new places to travel! 
• Favorite project idea: “I first got involved with sustainability in High School doing energy audits, so naturally my favorite idea is doing energy and lighting audits to show students how easy it is to reduce energy and see relatively immediate results!”

We are 10 weeks out from the official Green Apple Day of Service, but that didn't stop anyone at Aptitud Community Academy in San Jose, Calif., from getting his or her hands dirty this weekend.
On Sunday, July 20, I spent the day with volunteers from 360 Architecture, the USGBC Northern California Chapter, the San Jose Earthquakes and the Green Sports Alliance (whom you may remember from the first ever Green Apple Day of Service event), working in an incredible school garden and enjoying the California sunshine.
More than 50 volunteers showed up for Green Apple Day at Aptitud. We built planter boxes and beds, weeded, mulched and planted trees. Students created signage and artwork for row after row of kale, pumpkins, watermelon, jalapeños, corn and more already growing at the school. As the sun burned off the morning cloud cover, volunteers dug in to do an incredible amount of work.
A school garden transforms a community
Two years ago, Principal Natasha Wexler and her team wanted to bring a garden to Aptitud Community Academy, but people in the neighborhood thought they were crazy, fearing vandalism and crime. But since working with Veggielution Community Farm to bring a vegetable garden to the school, incidents of vandalism are almost nonexistent on the campus.
The garden is maintained by teachers, students and their families. Wexler chalks the absence of vandalism up to “the connectedness to the school” that the community feels and the support they receive throughout the year on days like this. “It’s going to be what takes our school to the next level,” she said. 
Green Apple Day of Service is built on the creativity and partnerships you see every day in schools like Aptitud, and this week’s event was no exception. Planned in conjunction with the Green Sports Summit, the morning at Aptitud came together thanks to coordination by the Alliance, Veggielution and 360 Architecture, whose generous contribution made the day possible.
Wexler said it was one of the greatest working days she’d seen in the garden, “and we’ve had a lot of them!”
Get started planning your Green Apple Day of Service
Do you want to know what really impressed me about this event?
It was only eight weeks from the time the school committed to the project to the day of completion. Many Green Apple Day of Service events won’t take half that long to come together. That means you’ve got plenty of time to get started on making your own plans for Sept. 27 (and like today’s event, it doesn’t even have to be on that day).
Get started started planning your day of service at mygreenapple.org/dayofservice.
We can’t wait to hear what you will do. 

Today kicks off the eight day Green Apple Bike Tour where 14 USGBC Students, Emerging Professionals and staff will cycle over 200 miles from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, PA to spread awareness about the importance of safe, healthy and sustainable schools. Along the way, we’ll complete three service projects at local schools in D.C., Lancaster and Philadelphia. When we arrive in Philadelphia, we’ll bring our work to Greenbuild, the world’s largest green building conference and expo, where we’ll share our story, connect with our peers and learn from the leaders of the green building industry.

So who are these Green Apple Bike Tour adventurers? Check them out below!

• Melissa Vernon is on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Bike Fed, the statewide cycling advocacy group she runs at a local cycling advocacy group in her town. She has an MBA & M.S. from the University of Michigan focused on sustainable business, and is no Greenbuild newbie. She’s attended the conference for eight consecutive years! Melissa joins us from Interface, a Green Apple partner company.
• Michael Zigmond Miller is a sophomore at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, double majoring in computer science and computer information system. He’s a member of his school’s environmental club, Green Team, a technology group called Tech Floor and his music-focused fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha. Michael loves the outdoors, getting out to bike or hike as much as possible.
• Ellen Hohmann is an interior architect and aspiring furniture designer living in Chicago, IL. She studied sustainability design at Columbia College Chicago and is a LEED Green Associate. Ellen has been an active member of the cycling community since 2001, when she acquired her beloved Jamis, aka "Steely Dan," the same bike she is riding on this tour!
• Victoria Herrero-Garcia is the globe-trotter of the group. Born and raised in Tenerife, Spain, she later lived in Colorado. Victoria is now pursuing a sustainability graduate degree at Philadelphia University.
• Jeff Wayne Minnich was born in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where he grew up fly-fishing, skiing and summiting 14 footers.  He’s now earning a B.S. in environmental engineering from Syracuse University in New York in hopes to one day aid in the protection of the natural playground he loves so much.  Jeff also hopes to obtain a graduate degree in architecture so he can assist in the push towards sustainable building.
• Meg Cronin is a twenty-something eco-phile that was lured to D.C. from Baltimore by a grad school opportunity. She’s taking a year to do something different, spending her days planning adventures and her nights serving whisky to the fine folks of Adams Morgan. She loves to brew beer, windsurf, sail, travel abroad and is always willing to get her hands dirty.
• Tony Montagnaro is a soon-to-be graduate of Temple University's Natural Sciences program with a concentration in biology. 
He’s an avid cycling advocate and tourist, having completed three independently funded tours to various parts of the U.S.
Tony is also involved in farm-to-table relationships for Pizza Brain, the world's first pizza museum, thoroughly connecting local farming community with the goal of bringing fresh and healthy food to the masses.
Lastly, Tony is also the co-founder of an independent Philadelphia-based record label Magic Death Sounds.
• Tom Watson is a USGBC Emerging Professional outside of Chicago. He is currently working as a real estate development project manager for Heartland Housing and is thrilled to be attending the Affordable Housing Summit at Greenbuild.
• Erin McGuinness is an intern architect at Spillman Architects and has attained a LEED AP credential. She is joining us as a local member of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council and is one of our proud Emerging Professionals.
• Be sure to follow the hashtag #bikegreenapple on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for the latest videos, photos and updates! We’ll meet you at Greenbuild!

This is why we do it. This is why we get to work early and this is why we stay late. This is why we work our hearts out nurturing relationships, scrupulously discovering and creating the newest green schools research and wracking our brains about how to be bigger, better and bolder. Because it matters.

While I sit at my desk doing all of the above every day, it’s a rare and momentous occasion when I get to feel with overwhelming power the fruit of our labor and the significance of our work at USGBC. In actuality, I feel this more often than many–when I make that electric connection with someone halfway around the world who is equally passionate about my passions. Someone who shares the sentimentality that I do and the impulse to provide for every child an inspiring and enabling place to learn. Sometimes that comes from a conversation about the social barriers to educating girls in a small rural town in Kenya, sometimes it comes from discovering an ultra high-tech green school in Singapore and sometimes it just comes from someone who wants to help. But for me, inspiration in its truest form comes from days like the Green Apple Day of Service when I am living my work. Days when I am touring an inconceivably eco-outfitted school and speaking about all of this to a crowd of 1,100 high school Hong Kong boys.

This year on Green Apple Day of Service, I visited Sing Yin Secondary School in Hong Kong. The campus is full of wind turbines, temperature monitoring systems and solar panels every which way. A green roof, LED lights, fiber-optic lights in the classrooms, windows that acted as sound barriers to the bustling walls and even a bamboo garden. Automatic motion sensors, temperature controls in every classroom and skylights everywhere. Not to mention a full-fledged aquarium “to de-stress the students.” The green technology seemed endless.

I delivered a speech to the school teachers, students, administrators and the Hong Kong Green Building Council. I told them that they were joining a global movement, an army of students who cared deeply and acted passionately about the same things they did. I told them they were not alone in this, and with their great education comes great responsibility to become global leaders.

When I had finished the speech, I met with some of the students who showed me an exhibit of endangered species that they had procured for the event. The exhibit had been displayed in a convention center in the city for two days with students teaching visitors about the animals in it. As I spoke with the students, I had a moment where I took off my USGBC hat and just connected with them, person to person. They asked about what the classrooms were like in Colombia and what we did for the last Green Apple Day of Service, as I had referenced this in my speech. I loved their honest curiosity. The principal even approached me and commented that he was stunned to hear that there are schools in the states with windowless classrooms.

Having the opportunity to speak with people from across the world from where I spend my days, and realizing what we have in common and what we're all working for was the greatest reminder of how much we have to teach to and how much we have to learn from each other.