Green ValedictoriansBy Jane Holtz Kay The early-American school kids swaddled with scarves to within a breath of suffocating as they hiked to the little red school house didn't know that their classrooms suffered from faulty insulation and bad air. But that's because no one thought much about the coal fire's smoke, the oil lantern's lung-clogging potential, the dank air's capacity to promote mildew and molds, or the contaminated water from the well. That was then: before "green" and "sustainable" were "invented." And, now? Looking at such nods to urban ecology as Manhattan's green-roofed Calhoun school, we see a sample of the neighborhood classrooms' new sustainability and a sign that we know--and do better--now. Or at least some of us do, among them, the state of Washington that took the lead in insisting that all school and public buildings go green last spring, i.e. adopt LEED standards as rated by the U.S. Green Building Council. To be sure, the sustainability experts can list and act on everything from toxic cleaning products to off-gassing materials; from pesticides to bad air that exacerbate asthma within and PCBs from old caulk without. And yet, the Green Schools Initiative, a multi-school effort to make schools healthier and more ecologically sustainable, found that the classrooms in half of America's 115,000 schools suffer from poor indoor environments. And even the school's surroundings can be hazardous: A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association this July showed that pesticide spraying near schools has made children acutely ill, causing vomiting, wheezing and conjunctivitis. And, as others assuredly know, the indoor air and clean-up chemicals can do the same. The Criteria Herein, then, searching for better schools with better environments, we looked to the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, as well as a number of our own insights and impressions, to come up with criteria by which we measured our green school picks: See below for the criteria on which we based our final choice. (see bottom of page) Citing The Schools While no school scored straight A's in all these criteria, we found ten that covered the field beyond our early expectations. Still, green schools can't rest on their laurels and solving some problems can lead to others. Spanking new schools in the outburbs may, unfortunately, preclude walking, shuttling students on long bus rides to distant buildings. "Because of transit access, even the oldest, most decrepit school in New York City probably has a smaller ecological footprint than the 'greenest' new school in the suburbs," says economist Charles Komanoff of Komanoff Energy Associates (KEA), a New York energy consulting firm. Happily, as green schools grow in number, they have begun to offer the proof in the pudding (or in the organic oatmeal) that with improved ventilation, better thermal control, and enhanced natural lighting, students do better when tested academically. The following then our picks and prizes: 1. Two-handed Round of Clapping for Clackamas The award-winning Clackamas High School in Oregon managed to earn a silver LEED citation for its 265,000-square foot green building on a 4l-acre site in Oregon's kingdom of green. Linking architectural intentions to Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute which deals with complex, energy-efficient systems, Boora Architects secured a 44 percent reduction in energy consumption. By encouraging the students to join in creating full-scale mockups of buildings to test daylighting and ventilation through convection along with both sustainable energy and long-life materials, they added to the pedagogy and durability alike. A landscaped courtyard at the building's entrance and surroundings lined with trees, benches plus a gas barbecue pit--kept both bug-free and healthy with integrated pest management--made the indoor-outdoor space amiable. The architects' ultimate goal: a Bauhaus-inspired green building that "literally runs itself," says Heinz Rudolf, lead architect. Add to that other ecological enhancements from daylit classrooms, to long-life expectancy brick and concrete slabs acting as thermal masses to reduce heating costs--and their intent to last 100 years for a green centennial seems less than chimerical. 2. Bronzed School Bells for Ringing in New Ways From solar panels on the roof, to soft-tothe-foot rubberized tot lots made from recycled tires; from skylights and light shelves in the classroom to sophisticated air-circulating systems, the new Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center in a dense Somerville, Massachusetts, neighborhood has secured a better, brighter future for its pre-Kindergarten to first graders. Orchestrated by architect Douglas Sacra, AIA, LEED AP of Cambridge's school-oriented HMFH Architects, Inc., the eco-labor included digging up and disposing of ll,160 tons of PCB, mercury and lead contaminated soil on the grounds. Add to that a (clean) laundry list for reducing water, light and energy use and the building succeeds in attaining 41% less energy use than code. With airy classrooms and walls limned with vivid tiles, the cheery design is as uplifting as the complex's greening. Funded by a grant from the state's Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the photovoltaic cells create electricity from the sun which goes directly to the school's power supply. Add pleasant grounds and efficient systems, and this could be the ship that launched a thousand brighter kids. 3."Aloha" for Whole Earth Holism Some 164-years-old and getting greener, the Punahou School in Honolulu has inspired eco-change at the Case Middle School. Arup engineering, LEED consultants for the job, improved their ecological approach by joining with an administration committed enough to complete a project ranging from light dimming sensors to saving kitchen scraps. Charged with erecting the largest private school in the US--some nine buildings on a 75-acre campus--Punahou's educators sought to personalize the process by providing easy access to its meandering landscape. With extensive views to the ocean and the city, the school embraces the environment, framing space to allow more intimate meetings between students and teachers. An ice plant works during off-peak consumption hours to produce ice that will chill the air during the day. Coupled with solar energy from photovoltaic cells on the rooftop, the system reduced the school's energy cost by over 40 percent. Inside, student lockers are made of recycled cartons, with flooring of recycled rubber. Outside, the school irrigates the surroundings with captured rain water from the rooftop plus an existing artesian spring. Large monkey pod trees were salvaged by re-locating them and buildings skirted the roots of old banyan trees to maintain their vigor. Delving into the native Hawaiian plants, students and the science department maintain a pesticide-free nursery on site, providing both classroom pedagogy and an historic re-blooming for the community. 4. Blue Ribbon for Secure, Salmon-Safe, Secure Surroundings Raising salmon hatchlings for release in the campus stream is one way Sakai Intermediate's students find their place in the world. From the moment the five-year old school rolls its fifth and sixth graders to campus in a bus fleet retrofitted with particulate collectors to fend off breathing harmful exhaust, the building and teaching demonstrate that "the medium is the message." Students gather data on the local birds, test groundwater, and study nearby wetlands protected by their architects whose use of a swale and limited impervious surfaces avoids silting up the stream. Recycled materials with low-VOC finishes and oversize ducts that reduce mold-growth keep the indoor air fresh without relying on energy-intensive air-conditioning system. True to its the area's history, an integrated pest management program eliminated the use of pesticides, helping the school remain "salmon-friendly." 5. Five-star Primer on Elementary Excellence Going beyond the ABCs of learning to advance the state of sustainable design, the new 800-student Third Creek Elementary School in the growing community of Statesville, North Carolina, strives on two fronts: It lets its students loose in the natural world and heightens the green-ness of its interior space. Moseley Architects of Virginia and North Carolina, acting with Bryna Dunn, director of environmental research and planning, earned a LEED gold certification for this three-year old K-5 school. Builders enhanced the greening with devices from a metal, reflective roof and waterless urinals, to faucets with an automatic shut-off, extra insulation and low-E glazing. Native and adaptive plants were set in a pesticide-free, water-efficient landscape requiring no irrigation system. Healthy school lunches are complemented by an exterior where corn grows in the fields and butterflies drop by for a visit, 6. Double Gold Star for Cityside Global Village Venture Hands at work, and minds in thought, mix in the multi-faceted 110-year-old Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. Here, students alternate shop learning with classroom ABCs and incorporate the hands-on studies into the efficient use and re-cycling of materials . Eschewing the sight blight and cookie-cutter architecture of conventional class buildings, the independent school dug deep to fit new needs on a tight site in an eco-minded environment. Solar panels and green roofs insulate and reduce runoff add to the energy efficiency, while the school has commissioned windmills to provide power and heighten the use of natural energy. Green cleaners were part of the ecological interior and re-cycling was de rigueur in the design by Dwight Long for Pfau Architecture of San Francisco. Illuminating their tight space with large windows and a walkway inside and creating an "intricate collision of classrooms and clearings [that] makes everything come alive," observed the San Francisco Chronicle. Even school lunches live, it seems, with a vegetarian option and the nation's first high school to have a compost program for the remains. An underground energy-saving shop space insulated by the earth and sustainable materials like natural linoleum flooring and recycled carpet tiles fulfills headmaster Al Adams' aspirations to continue the progressive school's vintage tradition on its city block. 7. Good Will Towards Green Citation: The Goodwillie Environmental School in Ada, Michigan, lives up to its name in this multi-award winning building. Designed for the Forest Hills School district, the LEED-certified project included using students to study environmental issues both in creating the building and in their course studies. Under project architect Jim vander Molen and director of sustainability Jeff Remtema, the design was laid out to nestle between the woods allowing every class to open up to the outdoors and its surrounding restored pesticide-free prairie. The simple pattern of windows forming the whole South wall can be opened for ventilation while the dimmer lights and heating system use the floor and back wall of the building as a thermal masses teaching "the efficient use of resources" for 5th and 6th graders, says Remtema. So does the overall design-with-nature: no A/C, doors that open to porches, a heating system powered by a geothermal heat loop and simplicity in the layout. Add natural ventilation, re-cycling and low or no-VOC interior finishes--and the all-embracing effort inspired parents to vote for bond issues to build three more with the same high standards. 8. Gold Binocular for Clear Vision The Clearview Elementary School in Hanover, Pennsylvania, got the LEED gold for bringing out the basics--air and light, or, in USGBC's terms--"features Što enhance the learning environment through increased daylighting Šand better ventilation." Under architects L. Robert Kimball and Associates and John Boecker, director of High Performance Green Design, the project succeeded on many fronts. Low-VOC paints, sealers, coatings and adhesives were used throughout the building while indigenous plants outside reduce the need for water and pesticides. From daylight design with photocell dimming, to CO2 sensors in classrooms, to underfloor air distribution, to water consumption reductions of 39 percent and 20 percent recycled materials (65 percent made locally), to passive solar strategies, this state of the art structure got points-- and more points--for performance. Outside, indigenous plants reduce the need for water and pesticides and a bus-free exterior eliminates the all-too-familiar fumes from dirty diesel idling over the holistic, clean design. 9. Green Measuring Tape for Tying Toddlers to Old-timers Green go the generations in this ecologically astute, multi-age mix of Head Start, and high school, kindergarten and seniors at the all-encompassing John M. Langston High School Continuation and Langston-Brown Community Center in Arlington, Virginia. The LEED-certified silver design by William Brown of BeeryRio offers a veritable punch list of green procedures from solar shading to electric vehicle re-charging. Clerestory windows illuminate the peaks and green awareness--from reclaiming roof-top rain waters, to permeable soil that drains into a bio-filtration area, plus low-VOC paints, carpets, adhesives and built-in cabinetry made of formaldehyde-free strawboard--kept high standards in indoor environmental quality and efficiency. In the end, the unique design process involving nightly meetings and talks with the Arlington County neighbors, users and civic associations elevated the community's communication and created a handsome, multi-generational, green site, cooperatively. 10. As-Grows-the-Willow-Grows the Child Citation Learning from the building is a primary part of the teaching process for youngsters in the K-through-fifth grade Willow School, a private school on a 34-acre former farm in Gladstone, New Jersey. Aiming to preserve the historic and ecological aspects of the place--from making a clean building to offering occasional organic cooking classes in the school's farmhouse--was part of the project. Waterless urinals and metered faucets, low-flow toilet fixtures and a punch list to please the toughest LEEDs-point puncher included low-E glazing on wood windows made from pickle-barrels, natural linoleum and cork flooring, plus re-used materials throughout. Even the food scraps are composted. Nitty-gritty is the adjective for a design that collects rainwater from the roof in underground storage, treats it with UV light, uses it to flush toilets, and pumps it into constructed waste water wetlands with native planting and fine root systems that helps digest the effluent, returning through a sand filter to an aquifer. All of which won Princeton, New Jersey, architects Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects (FMG) a LEED gold rating. "The building block is the classroom," says FMG associate Heidi Fichtenbaum, but the indoor-outdoor connection is essential. Because the firm created a design that connects to the landscape," it enables the building to interlocks with the outdoor learning experience," she observes. Runners Up The number of schools across the country making improvements grows. While we don't have room to recognize them all, we want to clang our flatware to herald the better lunch programs and better buildings. Innovative green buildings open up new educational horizons to students and teachers alike, while serving as examples to other school districts. Runners up for high performance buildings include:
Serving organic and local foods is vital in setting kids' eating patterns early on, and particularly important for providing proper nutrition for their developing bodies and growing brains. Runners up for serving sustainable food and providing a healthy diet include:
Conclusion "It's not enough to be doing less harm," Heidi Fichtenbaum says. "We have to be doing something that benefits our world so they [the students] don't see this separation between the natural and built environment." That's advice that more and more schools are trying to inculcate in their students as they expand such green oases. "We have to go back to seeing ourselves as part of that environment," "Green building is taking off right now she observes. "Bryna Dunn of Moseley agrees, adding "People realize that this makes sense for so many reasons. It's healthy, it's smart, it's a responsible use of tax dollars [and] it raises test scores." Additional reporting by P. W. McRandle 1 - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building standards 2 - Healthy School Lunches Does the school serve organic and/or locally-grown food for school lunches? 3 - School-wide Green Initiatives Does the school have a recycling program, carpool incentives, or any other initiatives that show that the school is taking action to be pro-environment? 4 - Green Education Is there an environmental curriculum? 5 - School Procurement Policies Does the school use recycled paper, organic cotton for sports uniforms, low-energy computers or other green products? 6 - Contaminants 7 - School Green Spaces In the end, it's a daunting but doable model for many. |