Green Leaders
Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy
The seeds they planted years ago in support of environmentally friendly education facilities are beginning to blossom.
“We wanted a system in place so that we could sustain the sustainability,” says Franzen. “We didn't want the district to backslide.”
According to the 59-page document describing the SMS, one of its goals is to help the Poudre district “extend its demonstrated leadership in the green building and energy conservation arenas to leadership in the operational sustainability arena.”
The SMS spells out the district's long-term goals in resource conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable education and transportation. In addition, it lists numerous short-term goals in almost every area of district operations — maintenance, business and finance, communications, curriculum, food services, information technology, security and staff development.
Beyond the bottom line
For school administrators responsible for educating students with often-scarce budget resources, cost savings and gains in student performance usually are the most compelling arguments. Montgomery County's Caldwell says that when she makes presentations about green schools to other administrators, “some are only interested in the numbers. I've gotten pretty good about showing the numbers.”
But at some point, Caldwell believes, the education community should be ready to adopt green principles even if the efforts don't benefit the bottom line.
“I think we need to move away from thinking these things will pay for themselves,” says Caldwell. “Some never will. You can't translate environmental damage into numbers. You're not seeing the real price. We should be doing it because it's the right thing to do.”
Kennedy, staff writer, can be reached at mkennedy@asumag.com.
LEED and CHPS
So you want to build a green school, but you don't know which recipe to follow. You could LEED the way to a green facility through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system, or you could place all your chips on the CHPS criteria put together by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.
CHPS criteria were developed specifically for school projects and initially focused on California schools. The USGBC's LEED system had a national scope, but at first chose not to develop a specific school category. But now that CHPS has expanded its presence to become more of a national program, and the USGBC has created a specific LEED for Schools system, the differences may be more difficult to discern.
“Although both rating systems have similar intents, the CHPS criteria and LEED are structurally, philosophically and programmatically different,” CHPS says in a paper that discusses green building options for schools.
For instance, LEED for Schools awards a possible 79 points and has four levels of certification — certified (29-36 points), silver (37-43), gold (44-57) and platinum (58-79). CHPS awards a possible 85 points. It takes 32 points for a new school to meet CHPS criteria, and the rating system does not have more specific levels of achievement.
The CHPS paper states that it was developed “with the knowledge and support of the USGBC.” At the time, the USGBC had no plans to create a rating system specifically for schools. CHPS did not want to use the LEED for New Construction system because it “did not address many issues critical to high-performance schools, such as acoustics, daylighting, electric lighting, low-emitting materials, joint use of facilities, etc.”
The LEED for Schools rating system, which the USGBC began using in 2007, now covers most of those issues.
Rachel Gutter, school sector manager for the U.S. Green Building Council, says LEED's platinum, gold and silver rankings appeal to educators and administrators who are comfortable with taking tests and receiving grades for their efforts.
LEED certification “is a badge of honor for them,” says Gutter. “It is a verification. Schools need to prove they've done these things. It shows teachers and parents exactly what they're getting.”
Several states have used CHPS guidelines to develop design and construction standards for schools.
In Washington state, the Sustainable Schools Protocol is a certification system similar to LEED, but it is based on CHPS criteria. Patricia Jatsczak, high-performance building program manager for the Washington state Office of Public Superintendent of Instruction, says that although her state relied more on CHPS because it is more easily adapted to account for regional differences, both systems are valuable.
“It's the same goal — building greener schools,” she says.
Greening L.A. campuses
If you're wondering about the Los Angeles Community College District's (LACCD) commitment to green construction, the answer is evident in the name of the website for its construction program: laccdbuildsgreen.org.
When the district completes the projects included in its $2.2 billion bond program, more than 40 new buildings on its nine campuses will have achieved LEED certification.
Several projects began construction in 2007, including the $46 million Center for the Sciences — a two-story, 100,000-square-foot building at Pierce College in Woodland Hills; and a $38 million, 85,000-square-foot Science and Technology Center at Los Angeles City College.
Another element of the system's green building effort is an ambitious plan to install photovoltaic panels at each of its nine campuses. The goal of the “9 Megawatt Solar Energy Plan” is for each campus to produce at least 1 megawatt of electricity through solar power, which would be enough to meet all daytime electricity needs.
The LACCD is one of 11 partners chosen by the Clinton Climate Initiative to launch a pilot program aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In November 2007, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded the community college district the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. It recognizes organizations that have demonstrated leadership in conserving resources, protecting and enhancing the environment, and building public-private partnerships.
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