School districts around the United States are struggling to cope with inadequate facilities. Deferred maintenance, poor design and construction, and overcrowding have prompted states and districts to spend tens of billions of dollars in recent years on school renovation and new construction. A new ELI report, Building Healthy, High Performance Schools: A Review of Selected State and Local Initiatives illustrates the strategies used by several states and school districts to ensure that these new school building programs produce facilities that not only advance the learning process, but that are healthy, environmentally sound and cost effective to operate.
"With billions of dollars to be invested in school construction over the next few years, states and school districts have a tremendous opportunity to create superior learning environments," said ELI Senior Attorney Tobie Bernstein. "School districts around the country have succeeded in re-shaping their approach to school planning, design and construction to ensure that the next generation of school buildings are sustainable educationally, environmentally and financially."High performance building — also termed "green" or "sustainable" building — emphasizes early, integrated consideration of a wide range of environmental and health goals, including environmentally-sound site planning, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, daylighting, and sustainable building materials and products. In the best cases, high performance school buildings themselves are interactive tools for learning.
Building Healthy, High Performance Schools, supported by funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, profiles three states and four school districts that have created high performance school building initiatives: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Los Angeles Unified School District, Wake County (NC) Public School System, Elk River (MN) Area School District, and Edmonds (WA) School District. Each initiative creates a framework for incorporating environmental and health goals throughout a school building program. The jurisdictions included in the report have developed effective strategies ranging from providing financial incentives and technical assistance to establishing minimum health and environmental requirements. The report analyzes each initiative and presents key considerations for other states and school districts that are interested in pursuing a high performance approach. The report also suggests opportunities for federal agencies and non-governmental organizations to support these efforts.
Building Healthy, High Performance Schools is available for purchase or download at www.elistore.org. For more information about this report or ELI’s Indoor Environments program, contact Tobie Bernstein at 202-939-3869 or bernstein@eli.org.