Upgrading existing schools to be healthier places to learn

Many school districts are finding the resources to renovate their existing schools and build new ones while improving environmental conditions at the same time. Green design practices not only minimize operating costs, but they can protect the health of students and teachers. Green schools engage students in a learning environment where air is healthy, conditions are conducive to learning, and children can thrive.

Getting to Green: The Pathway to the Future

Although the pathway to green for many schools and districts may be an arduous one, it is well worth the journey. Securing financing, engaging community and district support, and construction scheduling all may be obstacles in renovating schools to be green. But understanding the challenges and benefits to pursuing green design may be the first step to a more sustainable future.

One of the first and most challenging obstacles is cost. According to a study, Greening America's Schools Costs and Benefits published in 2006, first costs for green schools are slightly higher (approximately $3 per square foot) than conventional schools but "provide financial benefits that are 20 times as large." The study showed that the savings are about $70 per square foot in lower water and energy costs, lower health costs, and increased teacher retention. Green schools, on average, use 33% less energy and 32% less water than their conventional counterparts. In addition, non-quantifiable benefits contribute to an overall "increase in school quality and competiveness." After the study was released, several green schools reported being built without any cost premium over the regional average. More information on the study findings can be found by following the link in the Resources section.

Utilizing classrooms as a teaching tool, students can learn the benefits of sustainable practices like energy conservation and waste management, as well as green building concepts such as daylighting, material selection, and providing good indoor air quality. It is also possible that with increased student environmental awareness, positive habits will penetrate the community and collectively have a broader affect on the environment.

Savings By Design

Savings By Design offers design assistance and incentives to both design teams and building owners to promote high performance buildings. Incentives are given according to a sliding scale based on predicted energy savings beyond Title 24 Standards. A few examples of recent Savings By Design successes: The San Francisco Friends School adaptively reused a historic building, a 1906 Levi Strauss factory, to house classrooms, meeting rooms, faculty offices, a cafeteria, library, and other common spaces.

Four thermal towers at the corners of the building are designed to draw air up from the four quadrants of the building to provide ventilation and night cooling, reducing energy use and improving indoor air quality. The building's sustainable features yielded a 17.3% improvement over the Title 24 baseline. Redwood Day School in Oakland included a radiant floor heating system and a roof sloped upwards to the north to allow in ample daylight. The excellent daylighting was complemented with automatic daylight controls to reduce lighting use. The school's prefabricated steel structure minimized waste during construction. read more >

Green School Design Elements

Efficient Lighting
Since lighting is a considerable portion of a classroom's energy load, using more efficient fixtures can save significant energy. For existing schools, there are many replacement options but retrofitting old fixtures is also feasible. A retrofit usually involves relamping and reballasting existing T12 fixtures to use T8 high efficiency lamps. Replacement fixtures include recessed or surface mounted high efficiency fixtures with T5 or T8 lamps, low glare high efficiency fluorescent fixtures, or pendant mounted indirect fluorescent fixtures.

Green Pre-Fabricated Classrooms

Existing schools often add additional classroom space in the form of portable or relocatable classrooms, as an easy turnkey solution for extra space. Portable buildings are usually chosen because they are a low capital investment; involve a short design process and easy installation, and offer the flexibility to move them to other locations in response to changes in student enrollment. However, most temporary portable classrooms become permanent and house students for years in the future. Often these classrooms aren't built to the same standards as permanent buildings and have been found to contain poorly functioning HVAC units, loud ventilation systems which compromise classroom acoustics, and high levels of off-gassing materials. Several companies have designed green portable classrooms, integrating basic sustainability principles into the design, construction and installation of these buildings. CHPS has a certification program for relocatable classrooms that can provide guidance on finding an appropriate product. Taking the idea a step further are prefabricated sustainable school buildings. Such buildings are less expensive than conventional construction, adaptable, and quickly assembled, while providing a more suitable permanent

classroom environment than relocatable classrooms. They not only reduce energy consumption in their operations, but because they are factory built and optimized they create less waste during construction. Prefabricated classrooms offer LEED Certified or CHPS Certified ratings as a way to validate their energy efficient and high-performance designs. Green pre-fabricated classrooms incorporate numerous sustainable design features including high performance glazing, operable clerestory windows to promote cross ventilation and natural light, daylight and occupant sensors to conserve energy, and radiant floor heating systems to optimize space conditioning. For new and growing schools, sustainably engineered pre-fabricated classrooms can be an easy solution for creating healthier places for students to learn. Figure 2 - Pre-Fabricated Classroom (click to enlarge) Project Frog, FROG Zero Debut, Boston, Massachusetts

Another consideration is lighting power density (LPD) - or the watts per square foot - in space type areas. Reducing the LPD to be more appropriate can save energy by providing the light levels needed for performing the activities typical to the space. In addition, adding daylight sensors can reduce energy by dimming lights when daylight is available. Occupancy sensors can provide additional energy savings.

Displacement Ventilation is a high efficiency air distribution system that delivers cool air near the floor at a temperature (62°-66°) that is slightly lower than the ambient air temperature. The cool air initially drops as it leaves the "diffuser" and spreads across the room. At the same time, warm air in the room rises and leaves the room at the ceiling return register. Wherever there is a heat source in the room, it creates a thermal plume, drawing cold air from the floor up into the heated space. With the primary air flow patterns being "up and out" (rather than a conventional general mixing), germs and other contaminants are less likely to spread between occupants.

Diffusers distribute air at a slower rate than conventional registers, which allows this system to maintain lower noise levels. Diffusers can be recessed into the wall, surface mounted, mounted in the corner of the classroom, or under casework. The systems are more efficient because they do not need to cool the supply air as much and because there is less shortcircuiting of cooled air to the return register. The higher supply temperatures also permit a much wider use of economizers, which can be a significant source of energy savings. Displacement ventilation is most easily used in temperate climates because there is less need to dehumidify outside air.

Plug Loads

Although these types of energy loads are sometimes hard to manage, the use of some plug loads are controllable. For instance, consider making changes to the vending machines. Schools can upgrade to ENERGY STAR rated vending machines, delamp existing machines to save unnecessary energy expended, or install energy saving sensors which power down machines during periods of non-use like holidays or weekends. Other ways to reduce plug loads involve educating students, teachers, administrators and parents to be aware of their own energy use. Simple behavioral changes like switching computers, printers, copiers and other classroom equipment to "power-save" or "off" modes when not in use can save significant amounts of energy.

"Dashboard" energy monitoring systems that share energy usage information with students, teachers, and staff can provide valuable information to the building occupants on how they can reduce energy use in the school and how well they are implementing conservation strategies.

It's all in the Materials

The simple act of selecting low-VOC products when building or retrofitting schools can have a large impact on indoor air quality. VOCs are volatile organic compounds that vaporize or off-gas into the environment and can be harmful and toxic, especially if someone is exposed for long periods of time. Paints, adhesives, composite wood, and wall paneling can all contain high VOC content.

Keep it Cool

Cool roofs are light in color, so they reflect the sunlight to prevent solar heat gain. Roofs can easily be retrofit with high performance coatings to increase light reflectivity and reduce unnecessary heat from entering the space. Installing solar shades on exposed windows is another way to keep heat and glare out while letting in adequate daylight.

Beyond the Building

Although the most important part about green schools is indoors where students spend the majority of their time, it is also beneficial to analyze the environment surrounding classrooms for improvement measures. Planting trees can help control solar heat gain by providing shade for the building. Replacing any dark pavement with landscaping can reduce the ambient temperature at ground level, avoiding the heat island effect and helping to keep areas around the building cool.

Green Retrofits

Before selecting which green measures to implement in existing facilities, it is important to conduct a survey to determine which building problems are of most concern for teachers and facility management. Performing an energy audit can help identify the areas where the most energy is being used and can pinpoint which systems should be upgraded.

Sustainability Standards for Existing Schools

School districts are relying on green building programs to set realistic targets for energy reduction, to guide sustainable design, and to benchmark progress. While several programs have flourished for guiding new construction and major renovations in educational facilities, there is increased interest - and guidance - in greening existing schools, since the majority of our children learn in these facilities everyday.

USGBC Green Existing Schools Toolkit

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has developed a set of resources to help schools adapt the LEED for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance rating system for their existing facilities. The rating system is not specific to schools, although it lends itself well to campus or district-wide applications. The program, called Green Existing Schools Toolkit, was released in November of 2009.

Part of the toolkit is the Green Existing Schools Implementation Workbook which contains sample policies, programs and plans, data collection forms, and worksheets. The Workbook is designed to be an active tool to support the process of integrating sustainable practices into a facility's overall operation methods. According to the USGBC, the toolkit will help schools create a roadmap for instituting changes even if the school is not ready to fully pursue LEED certification. All toolkit resources are available for free download on the USGBC website.

CHPS Operations Report Card

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) is piloting an existing schools program called the Operations Report Card (ORC). The program fills a niche in the marketplace, addressing some of the major issues with existing schools. The ORC acknowledges both 1) high performance buildings and 2) high improvement buildings in five critical categories: energy efficiency, acoustics, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and lighting.

The report card is used as a self-completed assessment to benchmark a school's performance and implement improvement measures. Collecting faculty and facility feedback via surveys to determine potential issues will trigger feedback on suggested improvement measures broken down by space type - classroom, office, and other assembly areas - and an overall school score. The ORC recognizes schools that perform above a score of 70 and schools that show improvement within at least 3 of the critical categories.

Improvement measures will be categorized by cost. Schools and districts can then select which improvements they can implement within their budget. Along with the feedback tools and a program report, online video trainings will be available to assist and support school personnel in implementing this program on their campuses.

Training Highlights

California utilities offer outstanding educational opportunities that focus on the design, construction and operation of energy-efficient buildings. Listed here are a few of the many upcoming classes and events; for complete schedules, visit each utility's website. California's Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.) C.A.S.H. is holding their annual conference on February 22-25 at the Sacramento Convention Center and Hyatt Regency. The conference covers federal and state laws and regulations that affect funding, emerging industry trends, best practices, planning and maintenance and operations. read more > Ratcliff Architects: From Windrush School to Campus Sustainability Planning Ratcliff architect Brian Feagans will present the sustainable design, energy modeling, and actual performance of Windrush School's LEED Platinum classroom building and share examples of how ideas explored at Windrush have grown into current

work on comprehensive campus sustainability planning. April 15 (Thursday, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm) San Francisco-Pacific Energy Center. register > High Performance Modernizations The Pacific Energy Center and the Stockton Training Center issued new schedules at the end of January. Check out what is now available. CHPS also posts information about training on their website. High Performance Modernizations Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, SoCal Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric offer a variety of training classes on HVAC, lighting design and other building technologies that are applicable to schools and other commercial buildings. For more information on training in your area, visit: PG&E Pacific Energy Center SCE Customer Technology Application Center SCG Energy Resource Center California Center for Sustainable Energy

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e-News is published by Energy Design Resources (www.energydesignresources.com), an online resource center for information on energy efficiency design practices in California.

Savings By Design (www.savingsbydesign.com) offers design assistance and incentives to design teams and building owners in California to encourage high-performance nonresidential building design and construction.

Energy Design Resources and Savings By Design are funded by California utility customers and administered by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Company, under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.