When we released the Center for Green Schools’ 2013 State of Our Schools Report, we had one objective in mind: to rally the community around the call to Congress to commission a comprehensive survey by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the condition of the nation’s school facilities – a study that hasn’t been done in a whopping 18 years.
In this second installment of the Green Apple Day of Service Spotlight, members of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC team took some time out of their busy schedules to tell me a bit about the different projects they have teamed up to coordinate.
With the second annual Green Apple Day of Service fast approaching, it’s a great time to find out what kinds of projects volunteers are undertaking as part of the global effort to make all schools a healthy, sustainable, and a comfortable environment for the students and staff that walk through school doors on a daily basis.
Green Apple is made possible by our generous and supportive partners like Interface. Not only does Interface give resources to Green Apple to ensure that we can run our initiative to show the world that where we learn matters, but they live that philosophy by doing good works on the ground in their communities as well.
Below is a dispatch from their recently completed Green Apple Day of Service event in Brazil:
Sometimes you come across a song or an artist that completely transforms your thinking. Mr. Eco is one of these musicians. I first heard about Mr. Eco after watching “Save so Hard,” a video he created to support Campus Conservation Nationals, an energy reduction competition on his former campus of California Polytechnic State University. I was hooked. I’ve been fortunate enough to follow his career from a student writing spoof lyrics to a fully fledged environmental rap superhero releasing his first original album.
The Center for Green Schools at USGBC is pleased to announce a new campaign to bring more K-12 schools and districts into the USGBC member community by offering a free first year of membership. We are committed to guaranteeing that schools and districts have a specific and valued place in our member body—a body that holds serious gravity in the work we do here at USGBC.
For our first year as an official group at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California, our USGBC Students group have decided to kick off the semester with a Green Apple Day of Service project. We’ve decided to host a project that is close to home and utilizes some of our campus’ unique features. With these intentions in mind, the USGBC Students in partnership with the LMU Office of Sustainability, will host a Garden Learning Day for the children of the LMU Children’s Center on campus.
For the third summer in a row, a small group of powerful people gathered in the USGBC offices this past June to talk green schools strategy. These individuals directly affect the health and education of over 4.3 million students, and their decisions sway local markets and influence the management of millions of square footage of public property. Who are they? They are school district sustainability managers, and they represent the front line of green schools work across the country.
At USGBC, we know that state legislators are some of the most influential decision makers in the movement for healthy, high-performing schools. Each year, state lawmakers surpass expectations and prove themselves to be leaders capable of driving real change.
The USGBC Students program is now accepting applications from vibrant, passionate students to become a part of the Green Apple Bike Tour this November! We are looking for 15 members of USGBC Students groups of diverse academic backgrounds and skill to make up our team of cyclists.