Our mission
With more than 700 million students worldwide and one-eighth of the world's population entering a K-12 school building each day, there's no questioning the enormity and urgency of the task before us.
How we educate and take care of our schools sends a tangible signal of a community's willingness to provide a strong education to all its students. Many of our schools simply send the wrong message: stuffy, poorly lit, overcrowded and sometimes toxic environments unfit for learning.
Poor air quality leads to more colds, flus and asthma attacks. Deficient ventilation makes it difficult to focus and stay alert; inadequate lighting can cause headaches and disrupt sleep cycles; and bad acoustics render kids unable to hear lessons.
When we educate a child, we choose the future we hope he or she creates. We choose a sustainable future, and so we must educate students to prepare them to create it — in a place that inspires them.
Our kids deserve better. Where they learn matters.
Green Apple gives schools, individuals, companies and organizations the opportunity to transform all our schools into greener, healthier places to learn.
Interested in participating in the 2019-2020 school year?
FAQs
If you’re looking for an in-depth, data driven approach to your Green Apple Day of Service project, the Center for Green Schools’ Building Learners Program engages every member of the school community in measuring, educating, improving, and celebrating a school’s sustainability.
Green Apple Day of Service is unique for three reasons: its scale, its goals, and the resources it offers to schools.
The Day of Service involves tens of thousands of volunteers each year in dozens of countries around the world. You and your school can be part of something that has big impact beyond your campus.
The goals of the day are unique: bringing sustainability action and a focus on K-12 education together in one day. The Day of Service celebrates action around the globe to both impact the environment at a school campus and teach students important lessons about sustainability. A regular school service day can be a Green Apple Day of Service if it is addressing these goals.
Finally, the Day of Service is special because it gives schools direct support for their days of action. If you register your project through greenapple.org, you can receive planning support, funding and volunteers that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you.
About the Center for Green Schools
The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the organization behind Green Apple Day of Service, was founded to ensure green schools for every child in this generation. At the Center, we believe that all students deserve the opportunity to attend schools that sustain the world they live in, enhance their health and well-being and prepare them for 21st century careers.