APPROACH
The Center for Green Schools at USGBC commits to launch Green Apple into the mainstream convincing parents, teachers, students, and communities that where our students learn matters. Green Apple will raise public awareness around the importance of educating our students in healthy, safe and efficient places that enhance learning. This will be implemented through: large scale events and grassroots activities where individual champions can engage, as with Green Apple Day of Service; media outreach; corporate partnerships, NGO partnerships, celebrity ambassadors, and social media.
Over the next year, our strategy is to enact our CGI commitment through specialized partnerships with leading companies like HMH and UTC to develop and deploy resources like toolkits, trainings, and case studies to help schools implement positive change. HMH, a global education leader that delivers interactive, result-driven education solutions to 60 million students in 120 countries, will draw on its sales force to connect schools with resources (including benchmarking and needs assessment tools, teacher training resources, and ongoing support) to facilitate their transformation into safer, healthier, and better places to learn. In addition, HMH will work with the Center to lead the alignment of sustainability education with the Common Core, and commit to reduce paper use through digital textbook sampling. As the Founding Sponsor of the Center, UTC will further promote sustainable schools by engaging its employee base for Green Apple Day of Service and encouraging broader adoption of Green Apple initiatives.
This commitment reflects year one of Green Apple, in which partnerships, such as described with HMH and UTC, will significantly reduce the time required to build awareness of the cause. As Green Apple moves full steam ahead into its first year, the only way to scale the Green Apple brand to reach mainstream audiences will be through our strategic partnerships.
ACTION PLAN
September 15: New version of www.MyGreenApple.org and Green Apple app go live
September 23-25: Launch of Green Apple Cause Marketing Initiative at CGI
September 29: First annual Green Apple Day of Service: 2,500 volunteer-driven school improvement projects take place across the world
November 13-16: Greenbuild: Widespread industry visibility of Green Apple, VIP event
December: Release first edition of State of Our Schools report
Spring 2013: LA green carpet event to introduce celebrity ambassadors
Spring 2013: Launch revamped Green Classroom Professional teacher training and certification tool
May 2013: Annual Green Apple Partner Strategy Meeting
Summer 2013: Center/HMH Convening: Sustainability Education & the Common Core
Summer 2013: Organize for Second Annual Green Apple Day of Service
September 2013: Launch school benchmarking and needs assessment tool & USGBC free membership campaign
September 2013: Second annual Green Apple Day of Service
Ongoing efforts, partnerships, action items:
In fall 2012, HMH launches 'Stop the Presses' digital sampling campaign through salesforce.
In fall 2012 and spring 2013, HMH launches a pilot needs assessment tool to identify areas for improvement in school environments.
UTC, Founding Sponsor of the Center, engages their extensive employee base to participate in school projects on Green Apple Day of Service.
Green Apple corporate partner, Interface, honors founder Ray Anderson's vision for Tomorrow's Child through innovative marketing to school decision makers.
Green Apple corporate partner, Excel Dryer, demonstrates their commitment to the cause by creating a special edition Green Apple branded hand dryer to be installed in school bathrooms and other buildings across the world.
Green Apple corporate partner, Solar City, directs a portion of proceeds from residential solar installations toward Green Apple efforts to transform the world's schools.
Twenty-five percent of Americans go to school each day, including students, teachers and administrators. Educational facilities represent the largest construction sector in the United States, according to the Congressional Resource Service. When you look at schools today, you see outdated buildings in need of repairs, burdened with unsafe toxins, dwindling budgets, and outdated resources - in place of opportunity and progress. American students miss more than 10 million school days because of asthma symptoms worsened by poor indoor air quality, according to the American Lung Association. This reality is hardly contained to the US. Scale these startling statistics globally and realize 700 million children across the globe are affected by the school buildings they enter each day. Yet when asked what makes for a quality education, the typical parent emphasizes the 'who' (teachers) and the 'what' (curriculum), but rarely the 'where.'
The Center for Green Schools at USGBC (the Center) was established to drive the transformation of schools into sustainable and healthy places to learn, work and play. The Center believes everyone should have the ability to learn in a space with healthy air to breathe, where energy and resources are conserved, and where students are inspired to dream of a brighter future. By promoting the design and construction of healthy, safe, and efficient schools and by greening operations and maintenance practices, there can be a tremendous impact on occupant health, school operational costs, the environment, and educational outcomes.
Green Apple is an initiative that the Center, along with education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and other partners are launching to convince our communities, through a global cause marketing platform, that where we learn matters. With the support of diverse and committed corporations and NGOs, Green Apple will create a lasting impact on our world's schools.
