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River Crest Elementary School (Hudson, WI) has been designed to perform as much as 35 percent more efficiently than the LEED baseline. The use of low-flow lavatories, dual-flush toilets, waterless urinals and other water-saving fixtures will cut water use by 40 percent. The site has been designed to retain rainwater, and is being landscaped with native prairie grasses to eliminate watering and reduce maintenance. It will serve as an outdoor classroom. |
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AP Giannini Middle School (San Francisco, CA) has a 1-kW solar array, one of a number of systems provided to schools as part of the PG&E Solar Schools program. A highlight of its dedication ceremony was participation by students from Evergreen 6 in Paradise, CA, who had been awarded a similar system the year before. Students from their school came to San Francisco and set up a station outside the school with solar cooking, solar beads, facts about the sun, a solar telescope, hydrogen car, and other displays and demonstrations. |
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Teachers at Glendale (CA) schools are no longer allowed to bring in personal coffeepots or small refrigerators to keep in their classrooms. Energy audits have found that these personal items, which often duplicate appliances in break rooms and kitchens, add up to big energy usage in a school. Some school districts charge teachers and staff if they want to bring their own appliances to school. |
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Pioneer Middle School (DuPont, WA) has been designed to use the building as a teaching tool by keeping major building systems exposed, using energy lesson plans and teaching aids and having descriptive signage. There is an outdoor teaching patio and gardens that provide learning resources for science and health courses. Edible food and herb gardens also separate the classroom wings. |
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A number of new schools in Austin, TX, use recyclable materials in construction and have incorporated water- and energy-saving features in the buildings. Austin has been involved in creating schools that are healthier and less expensive to operate for some time. Five years ago, they made what was then the largest purchase of renewable energy from Austin Energy’s GreenChoice Program – more than 45 million kWh annually of solar, wind or geothermal power. Pickle Elementary School, which opened in 1999, was their first campus to include features like proper solar orientation, rainwater collection and other strategies that are estimated to save $12 million over the life of the school. |
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