Green Up Our Schools

Below is a list of common reasons why schools were or were not accepted to the Green Up Our Schools program, along with suggestions for applying next year. We’d love to receive applications from everyone again, and hope that this will serve as a guide for the future. Feel free to contact us with any questions, as we are happy to provide individualized feedback.

·	We’re looking for highly organized schools. If we consistently received a timely response to all emails and phone calls, or if it was clear that the team members had previously coordinated with one another, those schools were more likely to be accepted. Organization is an important feature for us.

·	Suggestion For Next Year: Hold a planning meeting with your team before submitting the application.

·	We liked to see schools that researched the Green Up Our Schools program. If it was clear that an applicant had thoroughly researched our Program, that school was more likely to be accepted. We welcome questions from applicants as part of this research process.

·	Suggestion For Next Year: Read about the program before submitting an application. Call or email us if you have any questions.

We want to work with schools who have taken their green efforts past the “idea” phase. We’ve come to learn that the ability to write a beautiful grant full of ambitious plans and the ability to successfully put these plans into action are two separate things. Applicants who already started greening efforts at their school on their own were more likely to be accepted.

·	Suggestion For Next Year: Implement a waste reduction project or two on your own.

When all else was equal, we gave preference to schools that had already formed environmentally-focused student groups. Due to the large number of applicants, we used various characteristics to narrow the pool. One factor considered was whether the school had an active “green” group. Running the student group is one of the largest time commitments associated with the Program. Applicants who have experienced this extra work and have proved their commitment to it were more likely to be accepted.

·	Suggestion For Next Year: Form a group of environmentally-minded students and meet with them on a regular basis (once a week, once a month), or use an existing group (Student Council, Gifted & Talented) to focus on green issues. Run activities and projects related to waste reduction & recycling.

Unfortunately, we are not able to accept every qualified school that applied to the Program. We had to turn away several excellent applicants who would have been accepted had there been more spots available. Those that were accepted had a feature that pushed them slightly ahead of the rest – perhaps their team of teachers and/or parents had already been working together for a significant amount of time on green issues, perhaps one of their past projects stood out in our minds, etc.

·	Suggestion For Next Year: Apply again!

We recognize that our decisions were made on a small amount of information in a limited amount of time. If you applied this year and were not accepted, we hope you will continue your greening efforts and apply again next year.

Visit our contact page to submit any questions you may have.