Saving Energy – Improving Health – Fiscally Smart
Utility costs are on the rise and the environmental movement is changing the culture in every industry, including our schools. America is traveling an unsustainable path and the impact on our environment, our health, and our financial security has become overpowering. Our schools are becoming the front line in this movement to reduce our energy consumption and waste.
Nearly 14,000 K-12 public school districts exist in the US. The average annual energy cost is approximately $1.25 – $1.50 per square foot and rising. Traditional schools are built to meet building code not to provide a healthy, productive and comfortable learning environment that is energy efficient.
High performance green schools are the future – Energy smart classrooms are here now.
High performance schools provide greater rewards to the facility occupants and the community as a whole. They enhance the quality of the educational setting, reduce the number of student and faculty lost days, and enjoy reduced operational costs, which in turn ease the tax burden on the community.
Whether it is constructing or renovating a school; the greening of a school in a high performance manner is more attainable, practical and financially feasible than ever before. Today, there is significant data to support the cost and health benefits of going green. In most circles it is agreed the premium of building a high performance school is only 2-3% more than the conventional school building, but the reduction in operational cost, estimated at 30% over the life of the building, actually makes it equal. Understanding the relationship between performance and cost, as it relates to the approach of going green, is the fundamental step in creating a higher performing building.
The EPA provides Portfolio manager an interactive energy performance tool allowing facility managers the ability to track and assess energy and water consumption across a portfolio. Once the managers understand the elements that are driving the energy cost of the building they can start looking at each energy-consuming component.
Often schools engage energy professionals to evaluate the energy-consuming components of the school. The professionals will determine the quality and efficiency of the building envelope, heating and air-conditioning system (HVAC), indoor air quality, insulation, lighting and water management. These evaluations will also identify and prioritize future energy retrofits, lay the ground work for commissioning or retro-commissioning and outline a facility master plan for operation and maintenance (O&M). Additionally, some of these professionals may provide a special conservation survey with a low cost or no cost energy savings plan that can be implement immediately by the students and staff.
Low cost/no cost energy savings tools, emphasizing environmental responsibility, are being introduced in schools around the country. Energy smart classrooms are on the increasing; engaging students and teachers in a new level of life skills and learning. History, environmental science, physics, chemistry and math all have a fun and exciting cross road in the energy smart classroom. Low cost/no cost energy saving projects is growing momentum; it is a way to direct money back into the classroom without a large capital investment.
Our educators see the educational, health, and financial benefits of developing energy smart students and classrooms.
The environmental culture is changing; climate science is growing in the classroom; and kids are the new stewards of our future.
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