Hello San Antonio! The Center for Green Schools team arrived this week in the great state of Texas for USGBC’s annual mid-year meeting, chatting with our most engaged stakeholders about Green Apple and the Day of Service. It’s been inspiring to hear how engaged so many of our leaders are planning to be on Sept. 29, and what they’ve already done to promote this day.

We’ve been spending our days with the chapter green schools committees and those interested in how they can further become involved in our mission to create healthy, high-performing schools for all within this generation. But through talking further about the Day of Service, one thing we’re finding is that people still have a lot of questions. How do I register? How can I get more volunteers? How do I promote my event on and after Sept. 29? Where can I find funds for my project? And the list goes on.

Well, for those of you reading this post and find yourself asking similar questions, you’re in luck! We’ve answered some of the inquiries we’ve been getting a lot of below. If we didn’t answer your questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] and our team will be sure to get you an answer ASAP.

How do I find projects in my area?

Our Green Apple website supports search functionality for registered projects within a 100 mile radius of a zipcode, or by country. We’re seeing 8-10 new registrations a day, so check often!

Does my event have to be on Sept. 29?

We’re using Sept. 29 as our main date for service projects, but we don’t want to discourage others from getting involved if Saturday does not work for them. The majority of events will happen in the month of September, so if you’re not doing a project on Sept. 29, just be sure to keep us informed of what date it will be on.

How do I promote and broadcast the work I’m doing leading up to Sept. 29?

We encourage you to check out our promo kit on our tools page, which takes you step by step through different ways you can talk about the great work you’ve been doing. We also encourage you to share your updates and progress via social media – it’s a great and easy way to spread the word and get more people on board. Follow us on twitter, @mygreenschools, and share your plans with #greenapple. Finally, the Center welcomes any photos or blog posts you may have about the work that you’re doing - we’d love to feature them on our site!

What do I do after my project?

Tell us the details! How it went, how many people showed up, what you accomplished, any media coverage that came from it – and don’t forget photos! We’ll be working hard in the months after September to share all of your stories, and encourage more participation for next year’s Day of Service.

Where can I find funding?

Our hope is that Green Apple Day of Service does not have to be a significant financial undertaking, demonstrating that school improvement projects can happen with little cost, and with in-kind contributions of services and resources from within one’s own community. Check out the idea cards we have posted on the site. We've suggested a number of low- or no-cost school improvement projects like classroom and schoolyard cleanups. For other projects like school gardens for which supplies will be required, we recommend you seek in-kind contributions of services and resources from within your own community. Local businesses, NGOs and PTAs make great partners for Green Apple Day of Service.

Where can I find additional volunteers?

Partner, partner, partner! Forming a partnership with a group in your community is a very easy way to expand your volunteer base exponentially. Places like churches, Rotary clubs, companies based in your area with a large number of employees or local non-profits are great places to start.

My project is small – should I still register it?

Yes! Even if you don’t plan on needing additional volunteers or capacity, we’d still like to get your project on the map.

If I will be doing something in multiple locations, should I register one event, or each one?

We’re thrilled you have more than one project in the works, and we want to know about every single one. The map on mygreenapple.org is more than a way for you to register projects; it’s way for everyone to see just how far and wide Green Apple Day of Service is being taken! By registering each Day of Service event individually, you’ll be able to meet potential volunteers where they live and work, providing nearby opportunities to connect and support. If you have lots and lots of projects to get registered, contact Emily Davis, [email protected], to help you navigate the registration tool.

I’m from another country – do you have materials in different languages?

We do! We have our one-pager in Spanish, and are working on also translating it into Arabic, Swahili and French. If there is a resource you would like translated, please contact Carly Cowan, [email protected]. If you’ve already taken the initiative to translate our resources yourself, please let us know and we can help to format them.

I’m not able to do a service project – is there anything else I can do?

While we’re sad to hear you aren’t able to join us on Sept. 29, there are plenty of other ways you can get involved. One of the easiest and most visual ways you can help is to take a picture of a green apple for our We Learn Here campaign. Identify a place you feel you learn the most, and snap of a picture of you with a green apple there. The upload it on our website, or share it via social media.

This week, I’ve had the pleasure of spending my time in San Antonio, Texas with some of the most engaged members of our USGBC family for our annual mid-year meeting. These folks are the heartbeat of the green building community – the lifeblood of our movement. And the mid-year meeting serves as a way to celebrate their many victories and vision into the future.

I told this audience at my opening remarks on Tuesday night that we have some very important work to do in the coming months. The stakes have never been so high, the opportunities never been so tremendous.

On Sept. 29, the Center for Green Schools at USGBC will host the first annual Green Apple Day of Service. On that Saturday, tens of thousands of volunteers across the world will descend upon several thousand schools across the globe to plant teaching gardens, build rainwater harvesting structures, clean up classrooms and conduct energy and indoor air quality audits. Together we are going to convince the public that where our children learn really matters.

About a year ago we conducted a series of focus groups. And what we found was that the typical parent, when asked what constitutes a quality education, will talk about the who and the what of education – the importance of great teachers and engaging curriculum – but unprompted, not a single parent will mention the where. Now it may shock you to hear that not a single parent we spoke to mentioned volatile organic compounds or thermal comfort; that there was nary a mention of CO2 levels or mold spores.

But that is because the people USGBC works with on a regular basis – architects, engineers, designers and other various and sundry green building professionals – know better than anyone that the where matters. Now we just have to convince the rest of the universe.

We see Green Apple Day of Service as the beginnings of an enormous undertaking to create mainstream awareness for the importance of the work that we do every day. But we’ve got a big leap to make. It’s not that the general public doesn’t agree. It’s that this stuff isn’t even on their radar.

For the first few years that I worked at USGBC, every day when I left my house, my partner would say “play nice with the environmentalists.” I mostly just thought that was funny until I started to think about the fact that it was a kind of prediction of what I believe is one of the greatest threats that USGBC faces. I used to think the enemy was the status quo, but now I realize that what really jeopardizes the future of our movement is how comfortable we have gotten talking to each other. I don’t want to see us go down the path of so many other environmental non-profits. We have got to stop talking to each other and start talking to everyone else. We have got to step outside of our comfort zone and focus every ounce of our attention on recruiting ten thousand, actually more like ten million, more people to transform our schools, our homes and our communities.

We can’t afford to lose another teacher to an unhealthy and poor-performing school. We can’t afford to disengage another parent. We can’t afford to turn off another student.

And at the heart of it, that’s what Green Apple is all about – it isn’t just a day and it isn’t just a logo. It’s a movement. And it won’t happen without you – each and every one of you.

The Center for Green Schools had barely begun to take our plans for Green Apple Day of Service on Sept. 29 beyond water cooler conversations, when two powerhouses came forward asking how they could help: Interface Global and Harvard University.

When two sustainability leaders want to know how they can be a part of your next big idea, you start to think you might be onto something.

With 75 LEED Certified buildings, you might call Harvard an early – and aggressive – adopter. So it shouldn’t have surprised us when a tweet came over the wires in early March.

@Harvard_GBS: Signed up to host @USGBC #GreenAppleDayOfService event on 09/29. Sign up online http://j.mp/w1jQLP @mygreenschools

A tweet was all it took to get our attention, and Harvard became one of the first institutions outside of USGBC to commit to participate in our Day of Service. We can’t wait to see what kind of projects the experienced team at the Harvard’s Green Building Services comes up with in and around Cambridge, and how they inspire other higher learning communities to follow suit.

Another longtime leader of the pack came from a very different direction within a few weeks. Interface Global announced at last month’s Milan Design Week that they will encourage its employees, customers and suppliers to volunteer with school projects in the communities where it operates around the world, underscoring the carpet tile manufacturer’s design and sustainability leadership. As one of the first international corporations to join the efforts, and with an employee base who volunteered more than 10,000 hours in 2011, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a committed and respected partner.

These two are just the beginning, and it will take all of us to make Green Apple Day of Service a success. Visit mygreenapple.org to get project ideas, pick up tools and tips for recruiting volunteers and getting your project off the ground, and register your event with the Center. We’re up and running, and we need you to maximize your efforts to make a difference.

Last week, I was able to visit one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to make an exciting announcement, recognizing the Green School in Bali as the Center for Green School’s “2012 Greenest School on Earth.” The school has some incredible features, such as structures made from environmentally friendly bamboo, solar energy and vortex hydro technology projects to remove the school entirely off the grid, bio-intensive farming around campus to raise organic food and so much more. The Green School is a reflection of the values of the Balinese people, an inextricable tie to nature, a true appreciation of the earth’s beauty and a fertile environment for most anything (and in this case children) to grow.

One of the things that most impressed us about the Green School was its commitment to giving back to the local Balinese community – the school offers an Indonesian Scholarship Program, which provides almost 100 percent financial support for local children to attend. The school is the way that famous jeweler John Hardy elected to give back to a country that had made his business so successful. The school is in and of itself an act of service.

This, and so many other actions by parents, teachers and students around the world have become inspiration for us. We wanted to find a way to bring together the people who care about our schools and making them healthier, more sustainable learning environments. So we are calling on volunteers to come together for one day to participate in the first ever Green Apple Day of Service.

On Sept. 29, 2012, we anticipate more than 2,500 service projects led by more than 20,000 volunteers, will take place around the world to further advance the Center’s mission of green schools for everyone within this generation. This event will bring together individuals and communities to make changes in their schools and surrounding areas, and there are plenty of ways for you to get involved with this effort leading up to and on Sept. 29.

Perhaps you and your kids want to clean up your school grounds. Or maybe you work for a large company where the employees want to commit to help an elementary school plant a garden or initiate a recycling program. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to check out our event website, www.mygreenapple.org to search for events near you, register your own activity, invite your friends and family to participate and sign up to receive more information as we move closer to the date. And don’t forget to share your idea with us through social media using the hashtag #greenapple and by visiting the Center for Green Schools Facebook page and adding the event to your calendar.

The Green Apple Day of Service is driven by individuals like you – the more people who sign up for a service project, the more we can do to help our schools and communities in one day. So brainstorm a service idea, grab some volunteers and join is in starting what is sure to be a national movement. We can’t wait to have you on board.

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