U.S. Green Building Council to Release Green School Guidelines

by Rochelle Davis, HSC Executive Director

As more industries work to make their products and procedures environmentally responsible, green certifications programs help guide both industry and consumers.

Recognizing the special vulnerability that children have to environmental exposures and the special considerations in constructing schools, the U.S. Green Building Council created a committee to draft guidelines for constructing green schools. The USGBC recognized many differences between standard commercial construction and school construction needs. Such differences can be noted in the addition of acoustical standards for classrooms and the requirement that schools are not to be built on landfills as to prevent potential toxic exposures. Public comment period closed on February 23.

We believe that LEED for Schools will be an important step forward to creating schools that provide healthy learning environments while cutting schools’ energy costs. However, we also believe that there are many considerations that should go into a new school that would facilitate a healthy school environment. Last year HSC released our Illinois Guide to Healthy, High Performing School Construction which included less traditional construction issues, such as access to hand washing facilities, a minimum student to cafeteria size ratio, recommendations on commercial kitchen design to facilitate healthy food preparation, and standards for school health center design.