The Greenest Day(s) of the Year

Earth Day is just around the corner, and while USGBC believes that every day is Earth Day, we can’t resist packing our schedules with a long list of events to celebrate an opportunity to promote healthy, sustainable buildings. Here are a few of the events we have lined up over the next two weeks. We hope to see you out there.

• Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools, will be joining Stephen Ritz from the Green Bronx Machine and celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis on NBC’s Today Show to participate in a number of Earth Day activities, including building six green living walls on Rockefeller Center! Tune in Monday at 8 am ET to the Today Show. Or better yet, join us at Rockefeller Center to help us celebrate, and receive a free Green Apple t-shirt.
• The Center’s Director of Higher Education, Jaime Van Mourik, will speak at the plaque ceremony of the newly LEED-certified Student Services Building at Annandale Campus of Northern Virginia Community College, where the Green Festival will be kicking off on April 20.
• USGBC staff will be presenting panels such as “LEED v4 for Neighborhood Development” at the Upper Northeast Regional Leadership Conference on April 19.
• SVP of Marketing and Strategy Judith Webb will present a keynote address for the Gear Up Southeast Regional Committee Leadership Summit on April 19.
• USGBC’s Director of LEED Technical Development Corey Enck and the USGBC Connecticut Chapter will present at the AIA Connecticut Committee on the Environment on April 19.
• The USGBC Illinois Chapter will be speaking at the plaque ceremony for the Holocaust Museum and Education Center, recently LEED Gold certified on April 19.
• USGBC advocacy staff fly out to the West Coast for the USGBC California PolicyPalooza and Green California Summit to visit the Capitol and talk LEEDv4, healthy building codes, California's energy economy, and much more on April 18-19.
• VP of Research Chris Pyke delivered a keynote address for Design Columbus 2013 Education Day and Tradeshow on April 15.
• Numerous USGBC staff attended and exhibited at the American Planning Association National Conference April 13-17.
• USGBC and other World Green Building Council members are teaming up to promote the amazing international work we are doing, such as promoting this educational video from Peru GBC.

What can you do to celebrate Earth Day with us? We've got a few ideas to get you started:

• Apply to one of our amazing internships or jobs.
• Follow @USGBC on twitter for tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, get the latest on green building news, and much more.
• Register for a LEED Green Associate or LEED AP exam to join our team of over 11,671 professionals. Then hit the books!
• Have a sustainable idea that’s worth spreading? Consider applying to USGBC Platinum member Verizon’s Powerful Answer Awards. You could win part of $10 million in cash prizes!
• Check out and follow our Take Action, Upcycled, or Green-minded Pinterest boards. Then, create your own board.
• Register for a Green Apple Day of Service event or create your own — it’s not too early to start planning for September 28.
• Make a Vine video or take an Instagram shot of a small act of sustainability in your life — be it using recycled wrapping paper or creating a sustainable meal with friends. Tag #Allhands in your posts to help support the work of the Nature Conservancy.

Have more ideas? We want to hear from you. Give us a shout @USGBC on Twitter or Facebook. There’s no act too small to make a difference. We hope you’ll join us in continuing Earth Day’s fundamental mission, “to celebrate Earth’s life and beauty and to alert earthlings to the need for preserving and renewing the threatened ecological balances upon which all life on Earth depends.” – John McConnell, Founder of Earth Day, 1969.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!