Monday 28 October 2013

Q&A with Anisa Baldwin Metzger of the Center for Green Schools

Nearly 13 million pre-k-12 students are being educated in schools that have green building polices—and that number keeps growing.

While some energy-saving solutions, such as solar panels, can be pricey, green schools aren’t necessarily more expensive, says Anisa Baldwin Metzger, manager of sustainability at the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), In fact, she says, green schools can save districts thousands of dollars in heating, cooling, and lighting costs while teaching students, staff, and the public about conservation and sustainability. Recently, Baldwin Metzger spoke with ASBJ Senior Editor Lawrence Hardy.

How have public perceptions of green schools changed in the past 10 or 15 years?
The public has slowly begun to understand the importance of the ideas inherent to sustainability: healthy living, energy efficiency, natural resource conservation, and investment in the future. For shorthand, USGBC often uses the concept of a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit. We’ve gained much better evidence in the past few decades about the impact of school environments on productivity, focus, respiratory health, and general well-being. Also, within the last seven years or so, we’ve seen more and more examples of healthier, more resource-efficient schools being built at or below regional construction costs.

What do you tell school board members who might balk at the cost of building green schools? 

Green schools do not have to cost more money. Any choice made in designing and constructing buildings has the potential to raise or lower the cost. The emphasis should be on clearly setting expectations for design teams. When school leaders take the time to ask about and understand what goes into a green school—what’s behind the LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] rating system, for instance—they are better able to manage design choices. The Center for Green Schools has hundreds of volunteers all over the country who can come in to talk to your team about what goes into a green school.

Can building a green school lead to other efficiencies? 
I don’t have to tell your readers about the cash-strapped situation of facilities departments. They are always the first to get cut when budgets are tight. While there is usually a learning curve in the first year or two of managing green buildings, facilities managers report fewer emergency calls and fewer complaints over time from their green schools—both new and renovated.

What advice could you offer a school board looking to go green?
First, be intentional about the goals you set for your green schools. Set the expectations high for your team, and your expectations will give them the permission they need to be creative and resourceful. If your goal is to save money, find every energy efficiency opportunity you can while maintaining a healthy learning environment. If your goal is [to] improve student health and performance, use existing research to make smart choices about day lighting, ventilation, and other targeted items. Second, involve your facilities team from the very beginning of any project. Make innovation and efficiency everyone’s job. Some of the best ideas to save energy in an existing school come from custodians and teachers.

About 3,000 K-12 schools have pursued or obtained LEED certification. That’s a lot, but still a small percentage of U.S. schools. Do you see a time when green schools will be the norm?

With $542 billion needed over the next 10 years to modernize our pre-k through 12th-grade schools, you might think the outlook is dire. Yet state- and district-level commitments toward green schools have soared. In McGraw-Hill’s survey of hundreds of administrators, released in October 2012, 81 percent reported doing at least some new green projects, and 84 percent reported doing some green renovations over the last three years. Our estimations put the number of children impacted by green school building commitments at more than 14 million. More investment in our school infrastructure is absolutely needed, and more people are realizing that the investment should be in spaces that make our students and teachers healthy, and ready to learn and teach.

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