Healthy, High Performance School Construction:

Developments in State Policy

Green building practices incorporate a wide variety of environmental and health strategies into the construction and renovation process. In the school building context, these practices area important for advancing the learning process and promoting the health and wellbeing of students and staff, while also saving schools money and protecting the environment.

Some state governments have embraced this approach to building healthy, high performance schools in order to advance the mission of the state education system and maximize their investment in school facilities. Some of the early state efforts are described in detail in ELI’s 2003 report, Building Healthy, High Performance Schools. In the years following that report, many more states established laws, regulations, and other policies that set requirements or provide incentives for building healthy, high performance schools. Below are brief summaries of the laws and regulations in several states that establish green building requirements for school construction projects.

Some states have established their own green building criteria for schools. Most, however, reference third-party green building criteria.  The most common third-party criteria incorporated into state policies (though not the only ones) are the LEED rating system and the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) criteria. These two rating systems differ in terms of the indoor environmental quality and other measures that are designated as required or optional. States can adapt these criteria to ensure that priorities like indoor air quality are addressed comprehensively in all state-funded school building projects.

Last Updated: April 2024

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