Ginger Wheeler is a freelance writer from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, whose work has appeared regularly in The Illinois School Board Journal.

When school board members talk about "green" schools, often another kind of green pops into their mind — the kind of green where Ben Franklin's portrait is printed in indelible green ink. They believe "going green" is going to add big time to construction or renovation costs.

But experts agree that building the cheaper, non-green way is — as wise old Ben would say — penny wise but pound foolish. New studies back up anecdotal evidence that green buildings not only save energy costs, but also enhance the health of staff, faculty and students, as well as foster learning improvements that can boost student achievement.

While it's true that going green can add about $3 per square foot to the cost of new construction, green buildings generate huge savings of 20 percent and more on essentials such as water, energy and waste removal. Greg Kats documented the savings in his "Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits" so well that it led Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, to make this pronouncement:

"Failure to invest in green technologies is not financially responsible for school systems; the study uses conservative accounting practices to show that investments in green technologies significantly reduce the life-cycle cost of operating school buildings."

Factors such as teacher retention and health, lower maintenance and repair costs, and lower insurance costs were not quantified in the study. But Kats maintains that if they were included, then the direct benefits of "building green" would be even greater.

The Healthy Schools Campaign, a Chicago-based non-profit organization, advocates for policies and practices that allow all students, teachers and staff members to learn and work in a healthy school environment. Claris Olsen, a Healthy Schools environmental health specialist, said green buildings also enhance learning.

"Indoor air quality is a big problem especially for schools built in the 1970s," Olsen said. "There was an energy crisis and people thought by sealing buildings up they would be more energy efficient. But it has resulted in condensation and mold issues. Also, when people are present in the buildings, CO2 build up in the afternoon causes drowsiness."

In an attempt to save money on construction costs, Olsen said some schools find their frugality can lead to other problems and mean more long-term costs:

• Flat roofs contribute to water leakage especially in Illinois' challenging climate.
• Fewer windows mean less natural daylight and its many benefits.
• Synthetic materials used in carpets, paints and wall coverings emit gasses that can cause fatigue and headaches.

Olsen urges school board members to work with architects and building professionals who will follow the guidelines presented by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).

"If you have a LEED-accredited architect, then they are very aware of the health issues associated with school buildings," Olsen said.

The LEED certification program has been targeting commercial buildings for more than a decade. The building council launched a special LEED initiative for schools in December 2006 that allows districts to implement LEED without the additional cost of establishing in-house certification programs. The program provides a rating system for new construction that takes into account classroom acoustics, master planning, mold prevention and joint use of facilities, in addition to the construction factors that any commercial building uses.

Schools can apply for LEED certification through their architectural firms. But even if schools choose not to make it official, adopting LEED guidelines is a step in a healthier direction, Olsen said.

Bradley Paulsen, AIA, vice president and K-12 education practice leader for Wight & Company, the design and construction firm that built Illinois' first LEED certified high school and many other school buildings, said there are levels of green that school boards can choose to adopt.

"People think the only reason to go green is for the environment. But green buildings also are good for lowering operating costs. They create a healthier working environment and foster creative education programs outside of the classroom," Paulsen said.

"There are other hidden reasons, too," he added. "Offering a healthy work environment, as opposed to a decrepit 1960s era building that hasn't been updated makes a great selling point when competing for good teachers and administrators."

Beginning in 2008, new school construction will have to meet green building standards whether they apply for LEED certification or not, according to the Energy Efficient School Construction Act (SB505), which became law in May 2007. Green proponents applaud the change.

Paulsen and Olsen point to studies that prove children learn better and test scores rise when their environment has cleaner air, moderated temperatures and plenty of natural daylight. "It's hard for adults and children to stay focused when it is 90 degrees in a classroom and the windows are open in the winter," said Olsen.

Illinois schools are rising to the challenge. While there are only a handful of schools in Illinois that have been certified by LEED, including the Bolingbrook High School project Paulsen supervised, dozens more have registered projects and are awaiting certification. The numbers represent an exponential increase, even if they are a tiny fraction of Illinois' 4,060 school buildings.

As the paperwork gets filed and reviewed, more buildings will attain their applied-for levels of certification. Reasoning that Americans don't like to finish third, the USGBC established Platinum, Gold, Silver and Certified as the levels to which schools can strive to be green.

But Paulsen said many strategies can provide learning opportunities in addition to being eco-friendly. Some might cost a lot: "A green roof is a good opportunity to provide a non-traditional learning experience for kids. Imagine taking data samples of plants, measuring moisture, doing experiments." Others might not: Using bioswales and permeable parking lots to percolate building water run-off through native plants back into the water table, for example.

"It depends on how green you want to be," he said.

Anja Caldwell, an architect and now Green Building program manager for the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public School District, recently addressed a group of suburban Chicago school building professionals to share her experiences. Her district not only built the first Gold-level LEED school in Maryland, it also strives to implement energy efficiency in all its 200 schools.

"The biggest thing to save money is turning out the lights and turning off the computers," Caldwell said. "We saved more than $5 million dollars through a program that convinced teachers and students to do this when they left a room." In fact, her department was formed and is supported by the savings generated from that simple act.

Caldwell also took aim at vending machines. "Vending machines use more energy dollars than they generate in revenue: more than $600 per year per machine." So the district got rid of them.

Caldwell's work impacted the curriculum as well. The district has used its Gold-certified building to provide hands-on learning experiences to teach students about the environment and conservation. Geothermal heating that minimizes heating costs and slanted ceilings that maximize natural sunlight have been used as learning tools.

Illinois schools are setting some examples and taking advantage of grants offered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Bureau of Energy and Recycling. The bureau offers grants for districts to use solar or wind-powered energy, as well as grants for schools that reduce their waste by recycling and composting.

Bureau Valley CUSD 340 took up the challenge to harness the power of the wind to power their buildings.

McLean County Unit District 5, which serves Normal, appointed an energy educator manager to work for cleaner, greener schools.

Genoa-Kingston CUSD 424 in DeKalb County switched to a cleaning system that uses an electrolyzed water and salt mixture as a disinfectant, saving thousands of dollars in chemical costs and minimizing their carbon footprint in the process.

Elementary SD 159 in Matteson employs one of the largest geothermal pond systems in Illinois to heat and cool its buildings, saving an estimated $70,000 per year on energy costs.

The innovations are inspiring and the breadth of information available to school board members is limitless. To find out how your school or district can be part of the green movement, check out the Healthy Schools Campaign at www.healthyschoolscampaign.org. Ben Franklin would be proud.

Greg Kats, "Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits," October 2006, www.cap-e.com/ewebeditpro/items/O59F12807.pdf

Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, http://www.commerce.state.il.us/dceo/Bureaus/Energy_Recycling/

U.S. Green Building Council, http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19

Conservation benefits Lockport THSD
by Linda Dawson

Having a healthy, high-performing, energy-conscientious school does not need to be expensive. By paying attention to four specific areas, Lockport THSD 205 learned how to buy energy more cost-effectively, got teachers and staff to buy into conservation ideas, improved air quality in its buildings and started using environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.

During a panel session at the 2007 IASB/IASA/IASBO Joint Annual Conference in Chicago, William Thompson, the district's director of facilities management, said the first step in any energy conservation program is to determine current energy costs and usage patterns. Lockport, which began its program in 1999, has saved nearly $60,000 each year by knowing its energy costs and usage pattern, as well as when and who to contract with for energy services. For a district their size, a swing of 40 cents can mean a difference of $160,000 in energy costs.

After determining how to buy energy at cheaper rates, the district turned to use conservation, starting with an energy audit. An audit is cost effective, Thompson said, because districts save money above the audit's cost. Lockport's audit pointed out many ways to save by looking at how energy was used in the kitchen, the boiler room, the gym and the parking lot, as well as classrooms.

Money was saved in the cafeteria by waiting to turn on 20 warmers when they were needed for food, not at 6 a.m. when staff came into work. Also, Thompson said, don't turn on all the stage lights if only one or two people are working in the area.

The district also takes advantage of "free" heating and cooling days (temps between 53 and 63) when neither the boiler nor chiller need to run. By installing occupancy sensors in every classroom and setting the temperature back on nights and weekends, additional money was saved. "And nothing is cheaper than off," he added.

Conservation efforts and tracking also give a certainty to budgeting, Thompson said, as well as providing demonstrable results. Despite the fact the district has 1,100 more students, 1,700 more computers and 145 LCD projectors than 10 years ago and despite adding air conditioning to a 35,000-square-foot field house, the district uses 900,000 fewer kilowatts a year.

With energy conservation well underway, the district turned its eye three years ago to improving air quality in its classrooms by checking and monitoring carbon dioxide levels. Dirty air filters have the biggest negative impact on carbon dioxide, Thompson said. The district now invests in better filters, as well as encouraging teachers not to stack books on ventilators, which they found can cause major problems with air quality. Improving the air quality has reduced the amount of irritants in the classroom, which helps cut down on asthma attacks and other breathing-related illnesses and absences.

The fourth step looked at products custodians use. If the purpose of cleaning is to protect students' and teachers' health, then it doesn't make sense to use products that have chemicals that will make them … or the people doing the cleaning … sick, Thompson said.

Facilities management started small, asking all custodians to use one green product … a Green Scene floor cleaner. Since then, they have slowly replaced traditional products with green products and have come to realize that 90 to 95 percent of the cleaning in all the buildings can be done with four products: a bathroom cleaner and scale remover; a multi-purpose cleaner; natural floor cleaner; and a window and glass cleaner.

They also have switched to HEPA filters on their vacuums, stopped using deodorizers and air fresheners, and now use micro fiber cloths and mops, which pick up more dust and irritants. To reduce cross-contamination, a different color micro fiber cloth is assigned to different areas: restrooms; surfaces like desks, walls and counters; glass and mirrors; and dry, general purpose cloths.

In addition to the health benefits, Thompson said, another reason to "go green" with cleaning supplies is because it became mandatory in 2008.

www.nymex.com (natural gas rates/high correlation with electrical rates)
www.futuresource.com (electricity rates)
www.comedpowerpath.com (Com Ed)
www.eia.doe.gov (Energy Information Administration)
www.healthyschoolscampaign.org
www.greensolutions.il.gov
www.greencleanschools.org

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