Eco-Friendly Lunch Bag – Check
Reusable Water Bottle – Check
Waste-Free Lunches – Check
Green School – Ch…
Wait, the school needs to be green too? Yikes!
As parents, we have control over what our kids take to school but what happens once they get to school? For the vast majority of students in the United States, their school is anything but green. However, a small percentage of lucky students attend a school that was built using green building techniques. Many of these green schools go on to pursue LEED for Schools certification.
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), a product of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is one of the most popular green building certification systems in the world. The USGBC offers a green building checklist specifically designed to address the unique challenges of building (or renovating) a K-12 school – LEED for Schools.
“By addressing the uniqueness of school spaces and children’s health issues, LEED for Schools provides a unique, comprehensive tool for schools that wish to build green, with measurable results. LEED for Schools is the recognized third-party standard for high-performance schools that are healthy for students, comfortable for teachers, and cost-effective.” Source: USGBC
I’ve been writing about LEED certified buildings, including schools, for a year now and the system is quite complex. Without getting into too much detail, I wanted to explain a bit about the LEED certification system and how it can be beneficial to students and faculty.
When a school is being designed to meet LEED for Schools standards, the architects must make eco-friendly choices in several different categories:
- Sustainable Sites
- Water Efficiency
- Energy and Atmosphere
- Materials and Resources
- Indoor Environmental Quality
- Innovation and Design Process
- Regional Priority Credits
Points are awarded in each of the above categories and a building’s certification level depends on how many points a project receives. In order to achieve the minimum level accreditation, LEED Certified, a project must score a minimum of 40 points. LEED Silver is awarded to projects that score between 50 and 59 points and LEED Gold is reserved for buildings that earn between 60 and 79 points. The ultimate level of LEED certification, LEED Platinum, is reserved for buildings that score between 80 and 110 points.
A few examples of eco-friendly changes that earn points include the use of on-site renewable energy, purchasing green power, using locally sourced construction material, mold prevention, low-VOC products, and the generous use of natural daylight in classrooms and other student-occupied spaces. Gone are the days of schools being built without windows for ‘safety’, designers are encouraged to use windows, skylights, and other natural lighting options.
Malia Obama, First Daughter, attends the LEED Platinum certified Sidwell Friends Middle School. The school was built prior to the use of the LEED for Schools rating system but it did earn Platinum-level certification using the LEED for New Construction checklist. In 2007, all school projects switched over to LEED for Schools because it better addresses the challenges of building a green K-12 space.
A quick search of the USGBC’s database shows that there are only a handful of schools that have received LEED for Schools certification including St. Thomas School in Medina, WA, River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, WI, and the Wedgwood Lighthouse Academy in Grand Rapids, MI.
Although there are only about ten schools that have completed the certification process since its inception in 2007, there are hundreds that have registered with the USGBC. In addition to schools here in the United States, projects in Columbia, Dubai, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and other countries are pursuing LEED certification.
With many of the states in the nation facing extreme budget cuts, education budgets are facing a bleak future. However, I think that it is imperative that lawmakers and the general public understand that building greener schools is paramount to the both the health and educational well being of our children.
This post is for the Green Moms Carnival which will run Monday August 10th at OrganicMania.
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All of the posts about greener school make me kind of sad. My husband is a teacher and while he is collecting recycling for his building now, they have NO money to spend to green it or do anything extra. I really hope that changes while my husband is still teaching so he can help get them to do more but right now there is not chance which makes me sad.