National Green Schools Spotlight: March 2009
Green Schools at the Intersection of President Obama’s “Big Three”:
Energy, Education, and Health
 President Obama has identified three investment priorities for restoring our nation’s economic vitality and putting Americans back to work: energy, education, and healthcare. Green schools are at the very intersection as healthy environments conducive to learning while saving energy and money. From the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to the almost $100 billion to be dedicated to energy, education, and healthcare in the 2010 federal budget, to the school President and Michelle Obama chose to send their daughters, green schools find themselves in the national spotlight more than ever before.
Energy: In addition to the estimated $26 billion budgeted for the Department of Energy in the coming year’s budget, including development of renewable energy technologies, the largest economic recovery package in U.S. history includes a significant investment in green school modernizations. President Obama’s commitment to greening thousands of our schools will not only have the potential to provide students and teachers with healthier facilities, but it will potentially save school districts millions of dollars and dramatically decrease the impact these buildings have on energy consumption and the environment.
Education: With reduced operating costs, green schools can put the money saved directly back into the classroom. Innovative design strategies provide students and teachers with a wealth of hands-on learning opportunities that they can take beyond the classroom and into their homes and communities. Young people are at the forefront of the fight against climate change, and they understand what is at stake if significant efforts are not made to rethink the way America produces and uses energy. President Obama recognizes the need to meet the demands of this new generation of sustainability natives, and to prepare them for the emerging green jobs market.
Health: Green schools are healthy places to learn, work, and play. The effects of poor indoor air quality and limited exposure to natural light can be seen in higher numbers of sick days and lower levels of academic performance. Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, and 60 million of them go to school every day. If more districts and schools make the commitment to greening the construction, operations, and maintenance of their facilities, there could be much-needed relief to the already overburdened and increasingly expensive health care system.
At Work, and At Home: The president’s commitment to green schools goes beyond the Oval Office to a more personal choice: enrolling his daughters Sasha and Malia in Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. The first LEED Platinum school in the United States, Sidwell Friends Middle School, includes such green features as an onsite water reclamation and treatment system, solar panels, and a green roof. These features not only reduce the school’s energy and water consumption; they also allow for environmental awareness to be integrated throughout the curriculum. “The Obama girls attending Sidwell Friends will be the best thing that has ever happened to green schools in this country,” says USGBC Senior Manager for Education Rachel Gutter, who is hopeful that Sasha and Malia will bring the school’s “real-life lessons in sustainability home to their mom and dad.”
* Kats, G. (2006). Greening America’s Schools: Costs and Benefits.
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Project Profile
LEED Certified School Takes Main Street Approach
 By working together with the community, the West Brazos Junior High School project team made smart design choices to build a green school in Brazoria, Texas for 18% less than the average cost of school construction for that region.
When West Brazos Junior High School opened its doors in the fall of 2006, it welcomed its students into the first public K-12 school in Texas to earn LEED certification. “The goal on this project was always to achieve LEED certification, without adding cost,” says Jody Henry, the project manager from SHW Group who worked with school administrators to make plans for a school facility that would meet the community’s needs for functionality and affordability. West Brazos was built as a replacement for West Columbia Junior High, and was built as part of a district plan to combine two existing junior highs, a decision that can prove sensitive for any district.
As the project developed, the school district needed more than just the community’s support of the merging of two schools; they needed their financial confidence as well. “Our goal was to demonstrate that green schools were achievable without spending extra money during the process,” said Martha Buckner, Assistant Superintendent. “The key was smarter choices, not more money.”
One of those smarter choices was the selection of construction materials. Aluminum shading outside the building reduces heat load on the windows, minimizing cooling needs inside, and the shades were “low-cost items that get big gains” financially, according to Henry. The school was built with 17% recycled materials, and more than 55% of all materials, by cost, came from within 500 miles of the school site. This regional focus gave the community a brand-new green school with a similar aesthetic to conventionally designed schools in the area – something the community values.
Certified under the LEED for New Construction Rating System, the project team achieved Innovation & Design credits by implementing educational signage throughout the building. Jody Henry says the signs “show the kids what we had done architecturally” to achieve certification, and school staff worked to integrate the school’s green features into the curriculum. West Brazos’s green achievements went beyond the school’s walls, as the project team was able to reach out to the rest of the community as well. Green housekeeping strategies that were implemented in the building have since been adopted throughout the Columbia Brazoria school district.
Within the first year of operation, the school saw attendance of its 600 seventh and eighth-graders pick up. Additionally, improvements in standardized test scores for reading, math and social studies ranged from 4-7% better in the first year alone. The school’s principal reported a 20% decrease in disciplinary actions within the first year, and where hallways were once dark and overcrowded, students are now thriving, and really taking a liking to their new building. One group of students, without prompting from any teachers, showed their appreciation and respect for the new facility by making a video, highlighting the green features of the building and encouraging them to use the school as a teaching tool.
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Curriculum Connections
Exploring USGBC’s Educator Resource Center
 When it comes to educating for sustainability, teachers are seeking interdisciplinary, active models of student engagement that are easily applied to their classrooms. The approach must be both informational and interactive: learned and experienced. Utilizing the built environment as the context for learning promotes student achievement in math, science, and literacy skills through hands-on explorations. Envision students engaged with a new type of laboratory – their immediate surroundings – exploring concepts and developing new understandings.
If you are an educator looking for inspiration and resources to reorient curriculum in this direction, check out the go-to place for educators at the USGBC Educator Resource Center.
Here you will find:
- Award-winning models of curriculum excellence in the Best Practices in Green Education section of the Resource Center.
- Stories of student success, such as the work of Kentucky middle school students to assess the health and performance of their school building.
- Case studies highlighting programs such as Design+Build+Live Green program in Charlottesville, Va., through which students develop communication skills and career goals as they present to the school board and community about green building principles and projects.
- Updates on the Excellence in Green Building Education Awards Program and professional development opportunities.
In 2009, look for frequent updates to the Educator Resource Center including a searchable curriculum database and opportunities to stay connected with the national network of other educators pursuing similar efforts. USGBC’s Educator Resource Center, at www.usgbc.org/educators, connects you to diverse resources to support your curriculum reorientation efforts.
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From the Desk of:
Jeremy Sigmon, Advocacy Coordinator, U.S. Green Building Council
 Green Economic Resources – USGBC is hard at work to bring you the most relevant information and best resources for understanding and implementing the national economic recovery package, in the greenest ways possible.
Since the development and passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, USGBC has been hard at work to provide its members, chapters, and the rest of the green building movement with the best resources and information available. At $787 billion, the Act includes billions of dollars for projects and initiatives that can start quickly and create much needed jobs. The funding provisions of the Act offer a tremendous opportunity for state and local governments to green their existing buildings – particularly schools – that might otherwise remain inefficient and less-healthy places to live, work and learn.
In order to better understand these opportunities, and how USGBC and LEED can serve as valuable resources in your community, USGBC has developed a summary of key provisions related to green buildings, as well as an extensive bank of resources for further information and support. Scroll through USGBC’s Green Economic Recovery Resources for green building strategies that are key to our economic stabilization. With over $50 billion in a State Stabilization Fund, the Act will provide, among other things, almost $9 billion for use by governors to address public safety and other government services, which may include school modernization, renovation, and repair consistent with LEED or other recognized green building rating systems – and with your help it will.
Green schools are a fundamental stepping stone toward a greener, more-efficient, sustainable and prosperous future. Greening existing schools offers an unmatched opportunity to provide healthy buildings for the next generation – a generation that already understands the significance of environmental stewardship. The funding outlined in the Act provides opportunities to rehabilitate and modernize schools that would otherwise be without means to achieve minimum levels of performance operation. The assembled resources provide quick access to best practices in greening new and existing schools, examples of successful green schools, curriculum resources for bringing sustainability into the classroom, and much more.
Find out how your school or district can become a Companion participant.
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Ask an Advocate:
USGBC-Chicago Chapter’s Adopt a School Program
 USGBC’s commitment to social responsibility is often embodied by the work of its 78 volunteer chapters. This year, the Chicago Chapter will take an important and innovative step towards bringing a green school for every child in Illinois.
During 2009, the U.S. Green Building Council-Chicago Chapter will select three diverse Illinois public schools to participate in its new Adopt a School Program. Through this program, the Chicago Chapter and its partners will engage the three selected schools to participate in the program to achieve certification under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance rating system. Schools will be selected through an application process with selection based on a variety of criteria, including schools with a high number of students and families at or below the poverty line and students from underrepresented groups. This is an important aspect of the project as the chapter is committed to social equity, and the goal of all students attending green schools within a generation.
The long-term goal of the program is to provide three unique case studies on the certification process to better understand the issues facing schools as they pursue LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance certification and to understand the true cost in achieving certification. The project will focus on the unique attributes of each school and will identify the most-impactful and cost-effective means for achieving certification. Results are anticipated to help inform other schools considering pursuing LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance certification. This project is also noteworthy both locally and regionally given that sustainable renovation of existing schools, many of which are historically significant and located in close proximity to city centers or high-density residential areas, is a more sustainable and economically feasible option than constructing new green schools from scratch. This pilot will serve to inform key decision-makers from local and regional schools, governments, and the building and design communities as to the steps necessary for undertaking green school retrofits on a larger scale.
More information and school applications will be available on the USGBC-Chicago Chapter Web site in March. Visit http://www.usgbc-chicago.org or contact Katie Kaluzny at 312-245-8300 ext.3, kkaluzny@usgbc-chicago.org.
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