GREEN SCHOOLS PLUS

2008

 
 

“Green” High-Performance Schools represent the new goals for school design and construction, and every school district and charter developer has a responsibility to achieve these goals to preserve the quality of our planet and improve tßhe learning environment. 

The goals are embodied in the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) criteria and best practices, which embrace:

  1. •Energy Savings

  2. •Alternative Energy Sources

  3. •Indoor Air Quality

  4. •Atmospheric Emission Reduction

  5. •Waste Recycling

  1. •Water Conservation

  2. •Classroom Lighting Quality

  3. •Acoustical Quality

  4. •Storm-Water Retention and Quality


The CHPS criteria, when translated into standards for design, become the owner’s requirements for the architects’ and engineers’ inclusion in the design documents, as well as performance measures to be proven in a project’s commissioning process.  They also provide the basis for evaluating the capital and operating costs the owner can expect. 

At Green Schools Plus, we are committed to developing  high-performance standards for school design, while always remaining conscious of the cost impacts on project budgets.   The result of applying our standards is a school that saves on construction cost, and costs less to operate and maintain than a traditional school design.

(Photos show some of the principal’s 40-years of designing schools -- all “Green.”)

See also my blogsite:     ClassroomCommunications.typepad.com.

 

Green High-Performance Schools

Design is the cardinal means by which human beings have long tried to modify their natural environment  , , , and constitutes the only chance  to preserve life  on this shrunken planet and to survive with grace. . . .  Nature has too long been outraged by design.

Our constructed environment will be considered  legitimate only if the  designs have a high,  provable index of livability,  and are intent on aiding the survival of a race that is in grave danger of becoming self-destructive.

Design to contribute to  survival of the race is more than design as a long-hair luxury . 

With our knowledge of human nature and its potentials, we shall raise our heads over the turmoil of daily production and command views over an earth which we shall have to keep green with life if we mean to survive -- drifting will no longer do.

“Survival Through Design,”

  Richard J. Neutra,  1953