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Eco-Friendly Schools Offer Fresh Lessons in Construction

[Source: http://www.usatoday.com | October 20, 2008]

On the outside, Great Seneca Creek Elementary School looks much like any other. But inside, it is unmistakably green.
This was the first public school in Maryland to receive certification as "eco-friendly" — a concept catching on in schools around the nation. Eco-friendly schools offer ways to save energy, improve air quality and educate students about the environment.

Great Seneca fifth-grader Eddie Graves explains it best. "It doesn't use as much water," he says, citing the waterless urinals and motion-activated faucets. He's standing in the library, where a slanted ceiling helps light bounce off the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"In most classrooms, teachers don't need the lights," says another fifth-grader, Catie Cornell. She says the cabinetry is made from wheatboard, which is recycled wheat grass, and the bathroom partitions are made of recycled bottles.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a private group, has certified or is considering certification for more than 1,000 schools around the country, most within the past few years, says the council's Taryn Holowka. Other schools, such as Little Bennett Elementary in Clarksburg, Md., have been built green but did not seek certification.

This year, Florida, Maryland and Anchorage approved policies requiring that new schools be green.

Six other states — Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and Washington — also require new schools to meet green-building standards. More than a dozen cities — including New York, New Orleans and Washington —do the same. Other states — including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California — offer financial incentives.

"Momentum is really starting to pick up," says Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association. He says green schools give kids a living laboratory to learn about the environment.

Concepts aren't new

As energy costs rise, the greening of America's schools is part of a larger trend toward more energy-efficient construction, from homes to shopping malls, city halls and office buildings.

The building principles are not new. For years, they've been called "sustainable," "high-performance" or "energy-efficient." Now, the popular term is "green," and dozens of green-building programs have sprung up in the past decade. The Green Building Initiative, for example, began in 2005 to award "Green Globes" to buildings that meet its criteria.

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Two organizations are the most active in certifying schools as eco-friendly, a process that typically costs a few thousand dollars to pay for inspections. They are the Collaborative for High Performance Schools and the U.S. Green Building Council, which launched a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for schools last year.

Each program varies, but they have common criteria that emphasize recyclable materials, large windows, water conservation, efficient heating and cooling systems, and natural light.

Another hallmark of green building is well-insulated exterior walls, windows and doors. That tight envelope raises concerns about whether such construction is necessarily healthier, because it can limit air circulation, says Rebecca Morley of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a non-profit group.

Her organization studied some of the nation's largest green-building programs, including the council's, and said in a report last month that each has features meant to improve air quality.

"Sometimes the up-front costs can seem prohibitive," but they are offset in the long term by improved health and lower energy bills, says C.H. "Sunny" Savoie, president-elect of the National School Boards Association.

Those savings explain why "we haven't seen much opposition," the council's Taryn Holowka says.

Kids pick up life skills

Summerfield Elementary School in Neptune, N.J., which received the second-highest LEED certification in 2006, uses 40% less water and 30% less energy than the school it replaced, says David Mooij, superintendent.

He says it even cost less to build: $181 per square foot, which is less than other new schools in the state.

"It started as an energy-efficient project but turned into a curriculum project," he says. Teachers use it in their lesson plans. Students take care of the plants in the water retention area and check the rainwater gauge.

Mooij says the school has better attendance and fewer visits to the school nurse.

"Because of the natural light, there's a positive feeling," says Deborah Waters, principal at Kersey Creek Elementary School in Mechanicsville, Va., which received a LEED rating in August 2007.

"The children have really bought into it," she says. They recycle newspapers, plastic bottles, cans, cellphones and printer cartridges.

At Great Seneca Creek, 120 signs teach kids about the school's green features, including its geothermal heating and cooling, and remind them to "turn off the lights."

The kindergarten bathroom has a dual-flush toilet that tells kids to hit one button "if it's brown" and another that uses less water "if it's yellow." The waterless urinals in the boys' bathrooms have created a slight problem at home for some parents.

"I can't get them to flush," Principal Greg Edmundson says of his two sons who attend the school.

Still, Edmundson says, the students are learning vital life skills. "I'm confident the kids who go here are more environmentally friendly than those who don't."

[Original Release: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-10-19-green-schools_N.htm]