Are schools considered commercial green buildings? If so, are public schools included?

I am wondering because it seems like a lot of the financial benefits from green building would really make an impact in the public schools. They are so strapped for money these days, and I wonder if this is considered a priority. Are there any examples of districts going green?

I would group schools into the commercial area on a broad sense. Schools are made up of a number of different buildings. The administrative buildings are exactly the same a a typical office building. The other buildings such as classrooms and libraries will have a lower load that a normal office buildings.

Most schools have only obtained a small amount of the potential energy savings possible.

The reasons are often due to the way that they are managed and maintained. Unlike the private sector facilities which are now prodominately maintained on an out tasked basis with contractors, schools and a number of other public or government buildings are still maintained completely by an in-house maintenance groups. Many times the in-house operations have been put in charge with energy management even though they usually do not have the expertise in that field. As a result they are often not receptive to energy management due to unwarranted fears about job security that has been established.

Another problem is that they are managed where they low bid everything and are not as open to modern performance low bid structures common in the private sector. In the rare examples where they had energy audits performed those audits were bid on a low bid basis not on a performance basis. Also any recommendations found were then bid out again on a low bid non performance basis. That structure will not achieve the energy savings that have been achieved on the private sector.

As a result most of the energy management things that have been achieved are often simple small energy savings projects such as simple lighting retrofits, window tinting, etc. A small percentage have implemented solar but that too is a small annual energy savings technology.

Just as most people know that compared to the private sector government has a lot of inefficiencies due to the way governemnt is structured the same goes for the energy usage at schools. I do think that with the current economic climate there might be more motivation for schools to achieve more substantial energy savings. If the management structures at schools allows for more progressive performance based contracts and not always going with the minimum three bid take the low bid no matter what approach, large savings could be achieved.

That makes sense. It's unfortunate that there would be a fear for job security-it seems like the whole green movement is trying to work hand in hand with creating/maintaining jobs. But, it still makes sense.

Do they low bid everything because of a lack of funding? Or are they just not able to afford the wait for the energy saving payoffs?

I think the reason is that they have always felt that as an entity that uses tax dollars they should always take the lowest price on a bid situation. What is ironic is that if you look at their costs that process often results in costs much higher than in the private sector. Corporations still bid things out but when it comes to something where the performance is crucial they will look at performance requirements in the bid so that they will still take the low bid but the bid must stipulate a minimum performance result or the contractor will be penalized, etc.

I have heard that many public agencies like schools have to spend the dollars that year or loose the dollars. I have worked for some public agencies and while not schools they found creative ways to go to a performance based bid. Often they have already wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars toward energy efficiency only to find the energy performance was very poor.

Times like now are the perfect time to try to make schools and other public agencies more focused on energy savings and look at the results rather than their old process which is often causes their buildings to be energy inefficient in the first place.

The more we voice concerns about energy use in commercial buildings of all types from office buildings to schools to manufacturing, etc. the more public awareness is created which can create change. Regardless of what kind of building, everyone no matter your position in a company can help by making top management aware of the importance of energy efficiency. It can be done with very short paybacks which will result in improvements to the bottom line.

One of the only true measurements of energy performance is the EPA Energy Star Award level. Think of it like a minimum miles per gallon to be considered an efficient automobile but for buildings. They do not have categories for all types of schools but they do have K-12 schools.

Here is some excellent information on K-12 schools from the EPA. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=k12_schools.bus_s
choolsk12

K-12 School
K-12 School applies to facility space used as a school building for Kindergarten through 12th grade students. This does not include college or university classroom facilities and laboratories, or vocational, technical, or trade schools. The total gross floor area should include all supporting functions such as administrative space, conference rooms, kitchens used by staff, lobbies, cafeterias, gymnasiums, auditoria, laboratory classrooms, portable classrooms, greenhouses, stairways, atria, elevator shafts, small landscaping sheds, storage areas, etc.

The following information is required for a K-12 School Space.

Zip code
Gross floor area
Whether the School is open on weekends (yes/no)
Percent of the gross floor area of this space that is cooled
Percent of the gross floor area of this space that is heated
Number of personal computers
Presence of cooking facilities
Whether the School is a High School (yes/no)

Post edited by: greeniac168, at: 07/23/2009

Post edited by: greeniac168, at: 07/23/2009