High Performance Schools
“(High performance) green schools can save up to $100,000 per year — enough to hire two new teachers, buy 150 new computers, or purchase 5,000 new textbooks.”1
– U.S. Green Building Council
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, high performance schools are facilities that improve the learning environment while saving energy, resources and money.
High performance schools raise student performance
They take an integrated, “whole building” approach to optimizing key building systems and technologies to support the mission of K-12 education; creating school conditions that improve student and teacher comfort and productivity.2
Creating a high performance K-12 school
Trane is actively involved in the U.S. Green Building Council LEED® for Schools program. With over 700 LEED accredited professionals on staff, Trane provides professional support to school districts that are striving to improve their learning environments or to gain LEED building certification.
In addition, Trane is a national sponsor of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), a non-profit organization focused on making schools better places to learn by facilitating the design, construction and operation of high performance schools.
Along with providing design tools and quiet, energy-efficient building systems, Trane professionals can assist districts with completing the evaluations and benchmarking systems that are defined by CHPS:
- CHPS Operations Report Card for older schools
- State-specific CHPS Criteria for new construction and major renovations
Consequences of poor school conditions
The high performance schools movement is a response to research linking poor school conditions to lower teacher and student performance. Many students and teachers simply cannot work up to their full potential in a deficient school environment.
Distractions caused by poor acoustics glare, mildew, lack of fresh air, and temperatures that are too hot or too cold cause many students and teachers to struggle.4
Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been linked to reduced teacher and student performance, short- and long-term health problems and low staff retention.5
Learn how Trane can help with improving classroom acoustics.
Learn how Trane can help create and maintain an environment that is conducive to learning.
1. USGBC
2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
3. Gregory Kats, Greening of America's Schools: Costs and Benefits, a Capital E Report, October 2006.
4. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Do Indoor Environments in Schools Influence Student Performance? 2006.
5. E-Source Snapshot of k-12
Resource efficiency
High performance schools use energy and water resources efficiently. According to Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits, a report by Gregory Kats, on average, (high performance) green schools offer these benefits:
- 33.4 percent direct energy savings
- 50 percent indirect energy savings
- 32.1 percent water savings3
In short: they reduce the use of natural resources, while quantitatively and verifiably increasing student performance and test scores.
Additional Resources
Research
- Do Facilities Impact a Child's Education?
- Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes?
- Sound in the Classroom, Why Kids Need Quiet
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