Green Apple Day Events

Franklin High School - Mount Baker Pedestrian Bridge 2016

We led about 40 girls through an exercise to recommend what should be done with the existing pedestrian bridge that is part of the Accessible Mount Baker project. Hannah Lake explained that the City of Seattle is planning to make improvements to the Rainier Ave/MLK intersection as part of the Accessible Mount Baker project and has not yet determined what to do with the existing ped bridge. We then asked the girls to consider four options: 1) maintain the bridge as-is, 2) retrofit the bridge, 3) replace the bridge, or 4) tear the bridge down.

The girls were divided into three focus groups – 1) Community, 2) Cost, and 3) Environment (corresponding to the triple-bottom-line topics of a sustainable design approach). Within their individual groups, the girls reviewed the facts of the project associated with their main focus and ranked each option. Each group presented their ranking and their reasoning behind it. The total scores were then tallied up, and we led the girls in a broader discussion of whether they agreed with the highest ranking outcome. Interestingly, based on adding up the rankings, the option to demo the bridge appeared to win. However, the Community group made such strong arguments that in the end, the majority voted to retrofit the bridge (based on the rankings, this was actually the second choice).

This exercise helped the girls to understand that many different factors must be considered on transportation projects. Since most of them use or walk by the bridge daily (the bridge is located across the street from Franklin High School), it made for a very relevant topic. The girls were more engaged in the discussion because they are actual stakeholders in this project.

Energy Vampires

The Seattle ASCE Sustainability Committee’s 3rd Annual Green Apple Day was held in Bellevue at Tyee Middle School on October 23rd, 2014. Ten volunteers led 19 students in the Eco Club through an informal energy audit titled “Energy Vampires.” Students and volunteers had a great time discovering which everyday objects suck up the most energy.

First students were encouraged to find objects around their school that use energy and guess which one was using the most of the precious resource. Then each volunteer led a group of two to three students in testing their hypotheses. The students learned to use wattage meters to test energy consumption and covert the reading into Kilowatt hours per day. One of the volunteers then demonstrated how this energy translates into dollars saved or consumed. The students and volunteers regrouped at the end to discuss their findings. They discovered that even in a LEED certified school there were still plenty of ways to conserve energy around their classrooms. Students and volunteers took part in an interactive discussion on energy saving strategies for their school as well as their homes.

After the event, the Sustainability Committee donated five wattage meters to the Eco Club so the students could continue to test, analyze and improve energy consumption in their school. The students will also be allowed to check out the wattage meters from the Club to explore ways to save energy at home with their families.

Thank you to BergerABAM for their generous donation to make this event possible, including the purchase of wattage meters.

University of Washington Sustainable Site Tour

The ASCE Seattle Section Sustainability Committee Officers wanted to plan a Green Apple Day of Service jointly with the UW’s Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office (ESS). After discussions with Claudia Frere, Director, a tour of UW’s sustainable features was planned jointly with the ASCE UW Chapter and a representative of UW ESS would lead the tour, Jennifer Perkins. This tour was open to both students and professionals, with primary focus to students. The tour first introduced the newly renovated HUB, completed in 2012 and brought up features such as a green roof, automatic water bottle filling stations, and its LEED Gold certification. We were then lead to the solar panels installed on the Mechanical Engineering Building (MEB) and the Power Plant of UW located near MEB. Afterwards, Jennifer lead us to the UW Demonstration Green Roof which has three square plots of green roof to test different kinds of green roof species and what could be used in practice. Our tour then progressed to the UW Farm, where hundreds of students, faculty, and staff have plants growing there and any excess foods are used in the campus’s dining facilities. The next site was Gould Hall’s Biodiversity Green Wall, where two, ten-by-ten feet patches are hung on separate pulley systems on the east side of the building. The pulley system are for maintenance and research purposes so that people can pull the patches towards the balcony and water and collect data on the Green Wall. As the name says, the Biodiversity Green Wall houses more than 500 plants, and 70 percent are native to the Pacific Northwest. The tour concluded to the new UW Molecular Engineering Building. Along with its LEED Gold status, the site includes features such as transphase materials that becomes a more liquid state to release heat, green roofs, automatic blinds adjusting according to sunlight, and many other features. Afterwards, the tour group went to Big Time Brewery to discuss the tour and mingle with fellow green enthusiasts. Overall, a very engaging tour, people asked questions at every tour spot, and the weather did not rain (though close to being so).

Examples for sorting waste

Living Wall

Green Roof

Collecting Seattle’s Rain in Barrels

The Second Annual Green Apple Day of Service was organized by the United States Green Building Council’s Green Schools. Powered by volunteers, these community-based efforts are aimed at transforming schools into healthy, safe and productive learning environments. This event, held on September 27th, 2013 was one of more than 2000 community projects that took place in all 50 states, on every continent and in more than 40 countries.

When you think of Seattle, most people think of coffee, music, the outdoors, and rain, especially rain. Seattle accumulates approximately 34 inches of rain a year, according to the Western Regional Climate Center, and the estimated annual demand for lawns is 18 inches (from the 1985 Washington State Irrigation Guide). If we collected the rain water in barrels, we could offset this demand. That’s exactly what the Seattle’s American Society of Civil Engineers Sustainability Committee (ASCE-SC) and the Renton/Skyway Boys and Girls Club in Washington State did for their Green Apple Day.

This year, the Sustainability Committee taught 21 elementary students about conserving water and how important it is in our lives. Activities for the students included drawing themselves enjoying water and playing a “Hot Water” game, where students had to define words related to water. Of course, there were prizes for the fun and interactive games that were donated by BergerABAM, HDR, and Anchor QEA. The most exciting part of the Day of Service for the kids was painting the rain barrels.

Two 55 gallon rain barrels, previously used as pickle barrels, were sanded and painted prior to Green Apple Day. One barrel was prepped with sky blue paint while a second barrel was painted yellow. The sky blue barrel had two trees drawn on it, which would later be painted in. Instead of leaves on the branches of the tree, there were symbols related to nature and conservation. Stencils were prepared ahead of time that included a recycle symbol, light bulb, flowers, birds, and faucets to help students decorate the barrels. The concept for the second barrel used the four horizontal panels to show a progression starting with rain clouds and a sun in the top panel, rain drops in the second panel and flowers and trees in the bottom two panels. The kids were creative and very eager to paint.

While some of the volunteers were painting and leading water activities with their groups, others were outside altering the down spouts at the Boys and Girls Club to divert water collected on the roof into the rain barrels. The rain barrels will provide for 89% of the water needed, collecting up to 1010 gallons throughout the year.

Thank you BergerABAM and HDR for donating all of the supplies for the rain barrel project.

Green Apple Day 2012 at Renton Skyway Boys & Girls Club

On October 1st, 2012 we led the students at the Renton Skyway Boys & Girls Club through a worm compost bin building event. We made four worm bins with the students, who also learned about the do’s and don’ts of worm bins and how to harvest the castings.

This effort was a part of the Green Apple Day of Service. Volunteers around the world led more than 1,200 communities in taking meaningful steps towards changing their learning environments. Events and school improvement projects took place in all 50 United States, on every continent, and in more than 40 countries.

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