High
performance design can have a positive effect on health and comfort,
and design strategies such as daylighting have been shown to enhance
student learning. Good indoor air quality is essential for teacher and
student health. Good design also produces more comfortable
environments with proper lighting, air temperature, humidity, and
noise levels. This reduces distractions and creates environments where
students and teachers can see clearly, hear accurately, and not feel
too warm or too cold.
Yes. High
performance design creates environments that are energy and resource
efficient. These increased efficiencies save money on utility bills,
and are so valuable that some organizations will provide building
owners with funds to have them included in the design. Furthermore,
healthier environments can bring money into the school by
lowering absenteeism and increasing funding based on Average Daily
Attendance. These financial, health, and productivity benefits are the result of integrated
design (i.e., understanding how building elements affect one another to optimize the
performance of the entire school).
No. The key is to identify goals and budgets
in advance and to verify that the designers and contractors explicitly
understand your needs and their responsibilities. School construction budgets are tight, but
cost-effective solutions can be found for nearly any budget.
Yes.
School design and construction timelines are short, but better design
does not have to be a roadblock. As a district, you must identify your
educational and high performance goals early and communicate them
clearly with the design team. Your goals can then be integrated into
the design from an early stage, and not require time- and
money-intensive changes later in the process.
No. It's the architect's and engineer’s role to make sure the design
is as effective as possible. You must, however, identify and
prioritize your goals, and hire designers with the appropriate skill
sets. Without the luxuries of expansive timelines and budgets, every
school design becomes a balanced system of trade-offs. Understanding
the value of high performance design will be important as choices
arise.
No. They
do not require any more maintenance than traditional designs. High
performance design does not imply using overly complicated,
maintenance intensive systems. It is a design philosophy that
integrates daylight, electric lighting, air conditioning and
ventilation systems, site planning, materials, and controls to create
the best facility for your budget. All schools, from traditional to
high performance buildings, require regular maintenance to ensure they
perform as designed. Health, comfort, and efficiency can all be
compromised without adequate maintenance.
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High performance schools have
advantages from the local classroom to the district office, including:
- Higher Test Scores.
A
growing number of studies are confirming the relationship between a
school’s physical condition, especially its lighting and indoor air
quality, and student performance. One recent study of school districts
in California, Washington, and Colorado indicates a strong correlation
between increased daylighting and improved student performance. In the
California district, for example, students in classrooms with the most
daylighting progressed 20% faster on math tests and 26% faster on
reading tests in one year than those in classrooms with the least
amount of daylight. This study confirms what
teachers, students, and parents have known anecdotally for years: a
better facility—one with appropriate acoustics, lighting, indoor air
quality, and other high performance features—will enhance learning
and may improve test results.
Increased Average Daily Attendance
(ADA). A high performance
school provides superior indoor air quality by controlling sources of
contaminants, providing adequate ventilation, and preventing moisture
accumulation. These tactics, designed to reduce sources of health
problems and inhibit the spread of airborne infections, help keep
pollutants, stale air, and mold growth out of the classroom. The
result will be fewer sick days for students and teachers, especially
those suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems. The
majority of a school’s operating budget is directly dependent on
ADA, so even a small increase can significantly boost the operating
budget.
Reduced Operating Costs. High
performance schools are specifically designed—using life-cycle cost
methods—to minimize the long-term costs of facility ownership. By
using less energy and water than standard schools, overall operating
costs are lower—particularly helpful in times of rising and uncertain energy
prices—and with good operation and maintenance will remain so for
the life of the facility. School districts can save 20–40% on annual
utility costs for new schools and 20–30% for renovated schools by
applying high performance design concepts. Savings can be used to
supplement other budgets, such as maintenance, computers, books,
special education, classrooms, and salaries.
Increased Teacher Satisfaction and
Retention. High performance
classrooms are designed to be pleasant and effective
places to work. Visual and thermal comfort is high, acoustics are
good, and the indoor air is fresh and clean. Such environments become
positive factors in recruiting and retaining teachers and in improving
their overall satisfaction with their work.
Reduced Liability Exposure. Because
they are healthy and emphasize superior indoor environmental quality,
high performance school buildings reduce a district’s exposure to
health-related problems, lawsuits, and loss of credibility.
Remediation expenses for schools with indoor environment problems
often reach a quarter of a million dollars, and legal costs can be
much higher. Consequently, proactive measures that prevent problems
are good investments.
Reduced Environmental Impacts. High performance school
buildings are consciously designed to have low environmental impact.
They are energy and water efficient. They use durable, non-toxic
materials that are high in recycled content, and the buildings
themselves can be recycled. They preserve pristine natural areas on
their sites and restore damaged ones. And they use non-polluting,
renewable energy to the greatest extent possible.
These benefits can only be achieved when
districts establish high performance as a specific design goal from
the very beginning, and fight for it over the course of the
development process. A focus on student and teacher performance,
coupled with a concern for the environment and a commitment to cost
effectiveness, will help ensure that the effort is successful and that
any school—no matter what its budget—achieves the highest
performance level possible for its particular circumstances.
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A high performance school is:
- Healthy. Good indoor air quality is essential. It
requires minimizing pollutant sources, and providing adequate
ventilation and air filtration. The significant amount of time that
students and teachers spend inside schools during their educational
career, combined with children’s increased susceptibility to indoor
pollutants, underscores the importance of high indoor environmental
quality.
- Thermally, visually and acoustically comfortable. Thermal
comfort means that teachers, students, and administrators should be
neither hot nor cold as they teach, learn, and work. Visual comfort
means that quality lighting makes visual tasks, such as reading and
following classroom presentations, easier. The lighting for each room
is "designed," not simply specified. Daylight and electric lights are
integrated, and glare is minimized. Visual comfort also means
providing a connection to the outdoors and visual stimulation through
the use of windows at eye level to offer views. Acoustic comfort means
teachers and students can hear one another easily. Noisy ventilation
systems are eliminated, and the design minimizes the amount of
disruptive outdoor and indoor noise affecting the classroom.
- Energy efficient. Energy-efficient schools save money
while conserving non-renewable energy resources and reducing
atmospheric emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Heating,
ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems use high efficiency
equipment; are "right sized" for the estimated demands of the
facility; and include controls that optimize system performance. The
school’s lighting system uses high efficiency products; optimizes the
number of light fixtures in each room; incorporates control devices
that ensure peak system performance; and successfully integrates
electric lighting and daylighting strategies. The walls, floors,
roofs, and windows of the school are as energy efficient as cost
effectively possible. The building shell integrates and optimizes
insulation levels, glazing, shading, thermal mass, air leakage, and
light-colored exterior surfaces to minimize the use of the HVAC
systems.
- Material efficient. To the maximum extent possible, the
school incorporates building materials that have been recycled or
produced in a way that conserves raw materials. Such materials may
be manufactured with a rapidly renewable resource or recycled
content, are durable, or can be recycled or reused. In addition, the
school has been designed and built in a manner that reduces waste
and keeps re-usable or recyclable materials out of the landfill.
- Water efficient. High performance schools are designed to
use water efficiently, saving money while reducing the depletion of
aquifers and river systems and minimizing the use of sewage
treatment systems. The school uses as little off-site water as
possible to meet its needs, controls and reduces water runoff from
its site, and consumes fresh water as efficiently as possible.
- Easy to maintain and operate. Building systems are simple
and easy to use and maintain. Teachers have control over the
temperature, airflow, acoustics, and lighting in their classrooms, and
are trained how to most effectively use them.
- Commissioned. The school operates the way it was designed
and meets the district's needs. This happens through a formal
commissioning process—a form of "systems check" for the facility. The
process tests, verifies and fine-tunes the performance of key building
systems so that they perform at the highest levels of efficiency and
comfort, and then trains the staff to properly operate and maintain
the systems.
- An environmentally responsive site. The site is recognized
as an essential element of the school building’s high performance
features. To the greatest extent possible, the school’s site conserves
existing natural areas and restores damaged ones, minimizes storm
water runoff and controls erosion, and incorporates products and
techniques that do not introduce pollutants or degradation to the
project site or at the site of extraction, harvest, or production.
- A teaching tool. By incorporating important concepts such
as energy, water, and material efficiency, schools can becomes tools
to illustrate a wide spectrum of scientific, mathematical, and social
issues. HVAC and lighting equipment and controls systems can be used
to illustrate lessons on energy use and conservation, and day-lighting
systems can help students understand the daily and yearly movements of
the sun.
- Safe and secure. High performance does not compromise
safety. Students and teachers feel safe anywhere in the building or on
the grounds. A secure environment is created primarily by design:
opportunities for natural surveillance are optimized; a sense of
community is reinforced; and access is controlled. Security technology
is used to enhance, rather than substitute for, the design features.
- A community resource. The most successful schools have a
high level of parent and community involvement. This involvement can
be enhanced if schools are designed for neighborhood meetings and
other community functions.
- Stimulating architecture. High performance schools should
invoke a sense of pride and be considered a genuine asset for the
community.
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High performance schools are cost
effective for a number of reasons. For example, they can:
- Bring more money to the school by increasing average daily
attendance
- Keep more money in the school by significantly reducing
utility bills
- Take advantage of currently available incentive programs
When the avoided costs of workers'
compensation claims and litigation are also considered, high
performance schools become an even wiser business choice for school
districts. Discussed below are issues related to financing high
performance schools, including life-cycle costing, reduced operating
expenses, increased funds, financial incentive and technical
assistance programs, avoided costs and reduced litigation risks.
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School facilities are investments.
State government and local communities spend billions of dollars per
year on new facilities for current and future generations of
students. Unfortunately, the institutional separation of operational
and construction budgets can create schools that are economically,
environmentally, and educationally poor investments. Many high
performance measures can be incorporated into a school design
without increasing first costs, but additional investments can
increase the health and efficiency of the school even further.
However, if a conventional financing methodology is used, design
measures that save money in the long-term may be rejected due to a
greater initial cost.
Life cycle costing is a means to
calculate and compare different designs to identify which is the
best investment. Districts can use it to assess the total cost of
ownership for a facility over time. All of the building expenses
that can be calculated are included in the analysis; including
initial costs (design and construction), operating costs (energy,
water, other utilities and personnel), and maintenance, repair and
replacement costs. The values are adjusted for the time-value of
money to represent the true value of the investment. Predicted costs
for alternative design approaches can then be compared, allowing the
district to select the design that provides the lowest overall cost
of ownership consistent with the desired quality level.
The true cost of a school includes
much more than the cost to design and build it. The long-term costs
of operating and maintaining the facility must also be included.
Only by evaluating all three of these factors can a community
understand how much a new school really "costs". And only
by looking at all three factors simultaneously can the impacts of
specific design approaches, especially those that result in better
long-term performance, be evaluated. High performance windows, for
example, may cost more upfront but may result in energy savings that
pay for the extra costs in a few years and then continue to save
money for the school for years to come. Life cycle cost analysis is
the key to making these kinds of comparisons and to creating new
schools with the lowest long-term costs of ownership. Note, however,
that life cycle costing will only address some of the benefits of
high performance design. Many benefits, such as improved health and
test scores, are valuable, but difficult to quantify monetarily.
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High performance schools cost less to
operate. School districts spend less for electricity, gas, water,
maintenance and other ongoing facility operating costs, which allows
more money to be spent for salaries, books, teaching supplies and
other items with a more direct link to the true mission of schools:
educating students.
How much savings can be expected?
School districts can save 30–40% on annual utility costs for new
schools and 20–30% for renovated schools by applying high
performance design and sustainability concepts. The potential for
savings is greater in new schools because it's possible to
"design out" inefficiencies from the outset, thereby
saving money year after year.
The California Energy Commission estimates that the average cost
of energy is $126 per student.
Expenditures for electricity and natural gas typically run 2.2% to
2.7% of the total schools budget. High performance design solutions
could yield savings of up to $50 per year per student with aggressive designs.
Furthermore, these savings continue to reap savings as long as they
are used as designed. Integrated design is the key to savings of
this magnitude. From the beginning of the design process, each of
the building elements (windows, walls, building materials,
air-conditioning, landscaping, etc) is considered part of an
integrated system of interacting components. Choices in one area
often affect other building systems; integrated design leverages
these interactions to maximize the overall building performance.
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Investing in high performance
measures can bring monetary returns to the school district. District
funds come from a variety of state, federal and local sources, and
every district has a unique blend of sources. In general, a
district’s funding can be divided into three components:
General Purpose Funds are calculated
by multiplying a school’s Average Daily Attendance by its Revenue
Limit. Current revenue limits for the 2000-2001 school year are
$4,306, $5,175 and $4,485 for elementary, high school, and unified
schools, respectively.
Categorical Aid covers a wide array
of programs from special education to instructional materials. The
application process and funding amounts vary depending on the
programs. Depending on the district, categorical aid can range from
small amounts to almost one-third of their total budget.
Miscellaneous funds comprise the
small remaining amount. Typical sources are the lottery and various
local sources.
High performance schools can increase
school funding by increasing average daily attendance, through
reduced illnesses and more user satisfaction. Because the revenue
limits range from $4,300 to $5,175, even small changes in attendance
can significantly affect a school's bottom line. Recent changes in
the funding mechanism that exclude excused absences from the Average
Daily Attendance calculation further increase the financial
necessity of keeping as many students in class as possible.
For example, assume that a 500-student elementary school invests
$4.00 per square foot on high performance lighting and
air-conditioning improvements that will improve the indoor
environment quality. Based on the $4,300 revenue limit, an increase
in Average Daily Attendance of 1.75% would pay back all of the
investments in only two years. And this doesn’t
begin to take into effect any utility savings from energy efficiency
improvements. Although some studies have correlated characteristics
of the indoor environment to changes in student health, behavior and
performance, estimating the degree to which absenteeism might be
reduced by a given investment in high performance design is unknown.
Ongoing research may eventually provide an answer, but for now it's
reasonable to assume that investing in high indoor environmental
quality may
decrease absenteeism.
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Several programs are currently
available to financially and technically assist districts and
designers in creating high performance schools.
The Savings
By Design program
promotes energy-efficient design in new construction and renovation
projects with financial incentives and technical resources for
designers, contractors, and building owners. The program is funded
by California utility ratepayers and is administered by Pacific Gas
and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern
California Edison, and Southern California Gas Company under the
auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission. It is
available for any school district within these utilities’ service
territories. The financial performance-based incentives increase
with the energy efficiency of the design and can be a significant
source of additional funds. In addition, Savings By Design offers
technical assistance and project-specific design assistance to the
school design community. Savings By Design sponsors training and
continuing education in integrated school design practice (for
example, daylighting systems, proper HVAC sizing, integrating
internal loads from other end uses, proper HVAC installation, and
building system modeling). More information is available at
www.savingsbydesign.com 
The California Energy Commission’s Bright
Schools program offers a full suite of programs to schools
considering high performance design strategies in new and existing
buildings. School districts can use the program to evaluate
potential areas for energy and resource savings and prioritize their
needs. The services are typically provided at little or no cost to
districts.
On new construction projects, the
Bright Schools program provides a variety of services, including
design consultation, cost-effectiveness calculations, development of
specifications, help in selecting the design team, review of
construction documents, and complete value engineering of specific
efficiency measures. Bright Schools also provides comprehensive
services for energy renovations. The particular services are
determined by the program and the district and may include energy
audits, feasibility studies, design review, equipment
specifications, and contractor selection and installation
assistance. In addition, schools can take advantage of a loan
program to help finance the required district match of renovation
projects. More information is available at www.energy.ca.gov/efficiency/brightschools/info.html
Standard
Performance Contracting (SPC) is a renovation incentive
program funded by utility ratepayers and administered by Pacific Gas
and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern
California Edison under the auspices of the California Public
Utilities Commission. It offers schools additional financial support
for implementing energy efficiency improvements to existing
facilities. Under the program, Energy Efficiency Service Providers (EESPs)
provide information and energy audit services to analyze energy
saving opportunities in existing school buildings. If
energy-efficiency projects are identified, the utility will provide
funds to help finance the project in exchange for the energy
savings. The utility can make a contract with either the school
district or the EESP, depending on how the district wants to manage
the project. Often, school districts will contract with an EESP for
project development, management, and construction, and the EESP will
contract with the utility. Either way, the school district receives
an improved facility at a lower cost. For a
list of resources, see the National Association of Energy Service
Companies (NAESCO) bookstore -
www.naesco.org/bookstor.htm
Energy
Design Resources, is a program to develop and disseminate
design tools and resources that help elevate energy efficiency in
new schools to a higher priority. It is funded by utility ratepayers
and administered by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas
& Electric, and Southern California Edison under the auspices of
the California Public Utilities Commission, Resources include both
informational publications such as design briefs and in-depth
handbooks on the latest energy technologies, and software design
tools to guide design decision-making. All resources are available
for download at the Energy Design Resources website at www.energydesignresources.com
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The considerable costs of poor school
indoor environmental quality (IEQ) are borne by students, staff, parents and the local community.
In the school populations, the costs include poor health, reduced
learning effectiveness, and increased frustration when IEQ problems
become unmanageable. These costs are difficult to quantify. More
easily counted are the strained budgets and staff resources expended
by districts for facility repairs due to insufficient maintenance,
community relations damage control, litigation, and workers'
compensation claims. In addressing such problems, schools must use
resources that would otherwise be available for educational and
other programs.
Poor school IEQ can cause both
short-term (reversible) and long-term (chronic) effects in students
and staff. Overcrowded, poorly ventilated classrooms contribute
substantially to the spread of infectious diseases, such as colds
and influenza. Poorly maintained carpets, dirty air ducts, and
water-damaged materials are prime breeding grounds for a plethora of
substances that can trigger asthma attacks, sensitize allergy-prone
individuals, and cause sinus and respiratory infections. Asthma is
one of the environmentally triggered diseases acquired during
childhood that may be carried well into the adult years. Other
chronic diseases include irreversible lung and respiratory illnesses
that result from chronic irritation by airborne chemical and/or
biological contaminants. The economic costs of these long-term,
possibly lifelong, diseases are substantial; the costs in terms of
quality of life are more profound, and certainly difficult to
measure.
One of the ramifications of school
building neglect and its consequent adverse effects on IEQ is the
potential for litigation from students, parents and staff.
Crisis-stage IEQ problems can be extremely costly, may lead to
litigation, and can be detrimental to long-term relations among
school administrators, staff, parents, students, and public agencies.
The fiscal, political and social costs of addressing a crisis
situation are often larger than
anticipated. Schools may close temporarily when a formerly
manageable problem becomes a financial, logistic, and emotional
crisis. Besides the costs of conducting emergency repairs, a school
closing requires alternative space and making up missed classes.
Reopening schools that have been closed is also a difficult process,
due to the logistics of inspections, the uncertainties of authority,
and residual fears. Workers’ compensation claims by school staff
are another financial cost to districts when IEQ complaints
escalate.
The threat of increasing IEQ
problems, recognition of adverse health effects from indoor air
exposures, and the litigious nature of societal interactions serve
as a warning
that poor IEQ in California schools can threaten the financial
stability of local school districts. A number of lawsuits have been
filed against California school districts. For example, after
complaints, investigations, and legal actions spanning more than
three years, a student received a cash settlement for damages from
"contaminated air" in his junior high school classroom. At
the same time a third of the school staff filed workers’
compensation claims for respiratory and other health problems. In
other states, lawsuits have been settled for millions of dollars. In
a school district in Washington, D.C., leaky school roofs and other
IEQ problems prompted a judge to order closed 21 school buildings
due to the resultant potential fire hazard. For each incident that
makes the evening news or is adjudicated in court, there are many
less publicized cases occurring in other districts. Building a high
performance school helps protect districts from IEQ problems by
designing out potential problems and verifying and documenting the
facility's health.
(The material on this page is adapted, with permission, from the Collaborative for High Performance Schools
"Best Practices Manual" available at
www.chps.net )
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