With the school year in full swing, it’s time to take action on your commitment to school sustainability with Green Apple Day of Service. This year, we’ve made a commitment to helping your school make the biggest impact possible. Here’s what we’re focused on this year to inspire and support your school’s sustainability work.

All registered projects are nominated for a Green Apple Day of Service Award.

That’s right, any project registered on greenapple.org before March 15, 2019, will be entered in the running for a Green Apple Day of Service Award. Your registered project will be your award submission, so be sure to update your project profile with pictures and details of the event. This year, we’ll be looking for projects that address a critical sustainability issue for the school, engage volunteers and students and address at least one of the three pillars of a green school. Awards are presented on the main stage at the Green Schools Conference, and scholarships are available for recipients!

Show us your work on Twitter, and we’ll share it.

Share your Green Apple Day work on Twitter using #GreenAppleDay, making sure to tag your location and school and share pictures and details of the event, and we’ll retweet your project so it gains attention from our followers. Your project tweet will also be featured on greenapple.org in the project ideas page in our Twitter feed.

Registering your project provides you even more support this year.

We’ve teamed up with Shaw Contract and DonorsChoose.org again to provide mini-grants to projects registered before March 15, while funding lasts. That’s $200 worth of supplies to make your school the greenest it can be. Check out our new fundraising page for detailed steps on accessing the mini-grants.

Get inspired and learn from other projects and project leaders.

When you register your project on greenapple.org, you’ll be invited to join the discussion in the Green Apple Day of Service Facebook Group. The group invites project leaders to join the conversation on project tips and ideas, fundraising and volunteer opportunities and storytelling. We’ve also added more project ideas to get you thinking about what critical sustainability issue you want to address this year. You can find example projects in each project idea to provide even more inspiration for your event. We’ve included some materials available through DonorsChoose.org in each project idea that may be useful for completing the project.

Recognize your impact through Green Apple Day of Service.

On the project map page, we’ve archived all of the past registered projects since 2012. Your project will remain on the page, even after the school year ends—even more reason to update your project page with details and photos! We’re also keeping a tally of the impact that Green Apple Day of Service has made, so you’ll see in real-time how you affect those numbers once you register your project.

Register your project

The 2017–2018 school year’s Green Apple Day of Service was all about meeting schools where they are. By opening up to allow projects all during the academic year and providing mini-grants through DonorsChoose.org, the effort was more accessible to everyone striving for more sustainable and healthy learning environments.

With project leaders uploading pictures, event descriptions and impact reports from their projects, we saw a great response this year. We want to celebrate your great work, and we hope you share the worldwide impact with your school and community to inspire them for the upcoming school year.

Keep any eye out for updates about Green Apple Day of Service 2018–2019, and let us know what you’re doing to make an impact in your school this year!

Learn more about Green Apple Day of Service

With the beginning of the school year approaching, it’s time to set goals and priorities. Among the many goals you’re sure to make is creating a more sustainable and healthy learning environment with a Green Apple project, which can happen on any date that works for your school.

Green Apple Day of Service is about making the biggest impact possible in schools and measuring the change. Creating and leading an effective project can be simple, inexpensive and easily organized. In fact, many of the most impactful projects are student-led, receive funding and materials from the community and involve the whole school.

The following three 2017–2018 Green Apple projects exemplify making a meaningful impact—these few projects alone made a difference for more than 1,500 students. We think they’re the inspiration needed to start this school year greener.

Anti-idling campaign

Cordova Middle School students recognized the link between vehicle exhaust and the significant population of people living with asthma in their area. To address these health issues, the students led an anti-idling campaign around the school to reduce the exposure to vehicle exhaust that is inevitably created from student pickup and drop-off car lanes. The students educated their community on the dangers of vehicle exhaust and benefits of simply turning cars off while waiting.

Using donated personal air monitoring devices, students tracked air emissions around the school to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. The results showed significant decreases in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and the students are continuing their campaign to lower those toxins even further.

If you’re inspired by this project, checkout the Raise Awareness of Outdoor Air Risks project idea for guidance and resources to plan a similar project.

Let’s grow a garden

Thinking about a gardening project for this year’s Green Apple? Take it one step further and incorporate composting and recycling, like Ocean Bay Elementary did last year. With the community's help, the school built raised planter beds for every grade level, while also giving the responsibility of the garden’s care and upkeep to the students.

The project created a use for the organic waste produced by the school. With the new garden, students will see the benefits of separating their waste and composting organic materials. Additionally, with the care of the garden falling directly on the students, outdoor education programs and curriculum become a priority, which has been shown to provide emotional, social and educational benefits to the students.

Find resources and guidance on how to create a school garden or a recycling and compost program at your school.

Tilling the common ground between high school students and green professionals

At Common Ground High School, students met with sustainability professionals to cultivate student inspiration for and understanding of green career paths. Students met with 12 different types of sustainability professionals, for 10 minutes each, to discuss the work and education of that professional. Inspired by their visitors' dedication to making the world a better place, the students left the program encouraged and focused on a sustainable future.

This project was supported by Common Ground’s local green building council. However, if you’re feeling inspired to create your own "speed-greening" project and can’t find local professionals through your USGBC community, then check out Nepris to connect your students with sustainability professionals remotely.

Start thinking of how you’re going to make an impact at your own school this year with Green Apple Day of Service, and keep an eye out for more Green Apple updates.

See more Green Apple project ideas