Buildings Magazine - August

RESILIENT

BUILDINGS

Score an A in LEED Certification
SCHOOLS SHOULD TRACK METRICS, PLAN PRIORITIES WHEN APPLYING

Agreen school provides many benefits for its students, educa- tors, community and the environment. Students learn the importance of sustainability, teacher satisfaction is increased, the community has a sense of pride and connection, and the school’s environmental impact is reduced, according to the Center for Green Schools.

If you’re thinking about submitting your school for LEED certification, start by tracking metrics related to sustainability. Anisa Heming, Director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC, says that existing schools interested in applying for LEED Building Operations and Maintenance should look at energy, water, waste, transportation and air quality metrics.

“Anyone who’s been working in energy management will know what power those numbers have,” she notes. Once you have that information, you’ll know where to take critical action first. She cites examples like energy spikes, waste anomalies or if one school in the district is performing differently than others.

“Data lets your target where your
actions will be most powerful,” Heming
says.
The Power of Metrics

Schools and districts working on
obtaining LEED certification are track-
ing sustainability metrics. Once ready,
Prior to obtaining LEED certification,
schools focus on energy and water man-
agement, monitoring data, troubleshoot-
ing problems based on the data, and
implementing energy-efficient measures
and behavior programs, Heming explains.

“We always encourage schools to do
what’s necessary to look at their metrics
to determine what might be causing
problems,” she says.

Obtaining LEED certification provides
a third-party verification that the build-
ing or district is performing in a sustain-
able way consistently. Heming notes that
LEED certification is a useful benchmark
with school decision-makers, constitu-
ents, voters and parents to show how
the school is performing.

“It’s a great tool to communicate this and make the case those facilities managers and staff are doing the job they need to do to make the school sustainable and healthy for students,” she adds.

Tips for Obtaining
LEED Certification
Heming offers tips on how a school
or district can begin working toward
obtaining LEED certification:

Pick an area to focus on. Heming suggests deciding if you want to go broad or deep. “A school system needs to think about if it wants to tackle one topic in all schools or focus on one school and get that school in ship-shape all at once.”

Determine whom to involve in the
process. You won’t leave out important
departments or colleagues who need to
know what’s happening.

Get buy-in before starting. “It’s very helpful to have the support of the principal, superintendent and school board,” Heming notes. “Making the case to higher-level decision-makers can be very helpful in keeping the process moving along and all colleagues on the same page.”

Using the Arc Platform
for LEED Certification
Both new and existing schools can
access Arc, a digital platform that helps
school buildings collect, manage and
benchmark data to improve sustain-
ability performance. By tracking energy,
waste, water, transportation and human
experience, schools can receive a per-
formance score between 0 and 100 and
track progress with the goal of making
decisions that are more informed.

Currently, 110 K- 12 schools are using Arc. Existing schools can use it to track their sustainability data. If they want to pursue a LEED certification, they can use that data, upload policies and procedures and submit it all as a package for LEED certification.

Some schools are even using Arc to
connect it with student learning.

“They are using the fact that the schools are benchmarking sustainability to teach students about the power of data and your impact based on what you find,” Heming says, noting that students are taking the information from their school and doing data analysis.