Solar panels line the roofs, LED light fixtures cover the ceilings, “smart boards” hang from the acoustically sound walls, and low emitting carpet tiles run across the floors. In recent years, green schools around the country have entirely redefined the concepts of innovation and hands-on learning, making a strong case for the ability of these buildings to improve student performance and occupant health.
Resolving typical performance issues such as high energy consumption, poor indoor air quality, or inadequate ventilation have become an industry norm, and green schools now strive for the valedictorian spot by integrating sustainable strategies that go above and beyond. Many of the top innovative strategies seen in K-12 education are inspired by rating systems, such as LEED, WELL, Living Building Challenge, Net Zero Energy Certification, and others. But these innovative schools also explore features such as renewable energy generation, sustainable curriculums, and green facility operations.
Showcasing Innovation
The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council defines a sustainable school by its success in three pillars: the reduction of environmental impacts and costs, the improvement of occupant’s health and performance, and the increase in sustainable literacy. These three pillars can be seen in action on over 2,000 certified LEED schools. The most notable projects have found means to incorporate sustainability in ways that provide continued benefits once school is back in session.
Green Street Academy, for example, has set the bar high by achieving LEED for Schools Platinum certification in 2016. Performing a major renovation on an abandoned Baltimore City high school, Green Street was able to reuse the majority of the structure and focus on the essential updates. Many of the innovative strategies tackle more than one issue at once — from solar panel canopies that generate a percentage of the school’s energy while offsetting the heat island effect of the parking lot, to on-site community fruit orchards and farms that transform the grounds into a ‘living laboratory’ for the students. According to the academy’s website, “These things are accomplished through team-based, sustainability-focused projects, ranging from the simple, like integrating language arts, science and art to write and design an eco-themed storybook, to the complex, like integrating all four subjects and the hoop farm to define and solve the problem of hunger in Baltimore.”
Rendering shows ways of incorporating elements of Green Street Academy’s sustainable building into the school’s academic curriculum. Credit: Hord Coplan Macht
Green Street Academy is a prime example of the possibilities of incorporating environmental concepts and values into a curriculum. Green Street has also already reported impressive academic achievement gains, showing a 37 percent increase in ‘highly effective’ rated math scores as well as 12 percent increase in reading scores for their student body.
Sustainable strides are also being made at the portfolio level by Baltimore City’s 21st Century Schools program. Every new or renovated city public school is required to attain at minimum a LEED Silver certification, and as one completed project follows another, many are exceeding requirements and meeting LEED Gold with no additional costs of higher achievement. Design standards and specifications are one and the same for each school, administered as a streamlined sustainability program.
The portfolio approach of 21st Century Schools allows for these facilities to work together and strive for sustainability as a district-wide priority. In addition to the environmental literacy incorporated within the curriculum, key features of the program include implementation of a strict energy management plan, enforcement of green cleaning and integrated pest management policies, and organization of recycling efforts. Each of these strategies present an opportunity for maintenance and facility personnel, as well as student and teacher, involvement.
The interests of students and the school communities within Baltimore City should not be underestimated. Student groups have spearheaded a majority of these measures by organizing events such as campaigns against plastic foam litter or clean up days in the school gardens, and they are involved in leading tours of the new schools to showcase green features. It is clear that the infusion of sustainability within the curricula has resonated with the students and motivated personal and collective actions.
The WELL Building Standard offers an educational facility pilot program. Originally structured around commercial and institutional projects, this rating system is based on certifying performance in relation to features of the built environment, specifically those impacting human health and wellbeing through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. WELL-certified organizations have seen extensive workplace health improvements and returns, but when considering the long-term benefits, our learning institutions make a perfect fit.
The educational facility pilot focuses on the importance of designing and constructing school environments for maximum health — mentally, environmentally, and socially. There are currently 10 WELL education projects in progress around the world. In addition to modifying the requirements of the basic WELL features, the education facility pilot also outlines new preconditions and optimizations specific to this building and occupant type.
A few features seen across the projects within this pilot are working to improve the standard ‘mystery meat’ menu, providing guidelines for student nourishment and strategic dining design. They require regulation of type of food and drink prepared or provided in the cafeteria in order to support healthy eating habits and encourage mindful choices over convenience. Other features cover physical activity, with simple stipulations such as safe routes to school, sufficient outdoor lighting, and adequate play equipment. Additionally, this pilot focuses on mind and comfort, suggesting optimizations that minimize classroom disruptions and promote student achievement. This includes reduction of footfall noise, improvement of acoustics, and reasonably managing class sizes to teacher capacities.
For those looking to hurdle the highest bar, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) rating system takes one of the most stringent approaches to greening the built environment. Using the metaphor of a flower, LBC is based on the concept that the ideal building should function just as cleanly and efficiently. The certification is centered on seven ‘flower petals’ — place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty.
Out of the 10 schools that have achieved LBC certification, one of the most remarkable projects is the net zero energy certified Music & Science Building at Oregon’s Hood River Middle School. To make this ambitious goal a reality, various innovative energy features were incorporated. Starting with resources from the site alone, Hood River Middle uses wind to provide natural ventilation — the school has incorporated a red light/green light system to gauge outside temperatures as suitable for natural ventilation, engaging students in the building’s energy management with an innovative yet simple tool. Ground source heat pumps are used for warming and cooling, and additional summer cooling is gathered from an adjacent stream. According to LBC, “The district uses the stream’s snow melt runoff for irrigation during the region’s dry summers, which happens to coincide with the need for cooling during the summer months. Thus the irrigation water is simply diverted through a heat-exchanger when there is cooling demand. This cool water can be circulated through the building’s radiant floor slabs to provide cooling without operating the heat pumps.”
Various passive and active systems and renewable energy were also incorporated in the design of the middle school to meet the remaining energy needs. The building envelope is comprised of rigid insulation, concrete, and triple-glazed windows set in wooden frames to provide the highest level of thermal resistance. Optimized daylighting design ensures minimum use of artificial lighting, and the final loads are tag-teamed by a 35-kW photovoltaic array and a 2,000 CFM transpired solar collector which preheats incoming ventilation air in the winter.
A Brighter Future
Aside from providing physically healthier learning environments, green schools have successfully fostered innovative strategies that directly correlate to a heightened eagerness to learn, higher attendance numbers, and test score improvements for their students. Based on the notable education facilities explored in this article, the most important sustainability trends in K-12 schools are motivated by the basics of LEED, WELL, Living Building Challenge, and Net Zero Energy, but taken to a higher level with the infusion of environmental curriculums, incorporation of green operations, and use of renewable energy. Top notch green schools are becoming the standard of the present in order to properly equip the workforce of the future.
See original article by Katie Stanford featured on facilitiesnet.com