If the schools don't get smart, who will?

Only two Berks County School Districts have adopted green building technology (Wilson and Twin Valley) and only Kutztown University and Albright have made significant commitments to green buildings (though Alvernia is doing some recycling on its construction site).

When I ask education administrators why they’re not adopting environmentally friendly and energy efficient building technologies, they almost always say “ because it costs more”.

So I always say: “More than what?”

And no one’s ever answered that question.

It used to be true that there was a “green premium" for building green buildings, at least as it relates to what are called “first costs”—another way of saying “construction and design costs”.

But improvements in technology and the increased availability of better building materials have made even that first cost premium go away, leaving the building owner free to just enjoy reduced operating costs.

But schools and colleges shouldn’t take my word for it.

The Davis Langdon study "The Cost of Green Revisited 2007" was unable to find any correlation between green design and higher construction costs in academic buildings . An October 2006 study "Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits" by Capital E found a modest (about 1.7%) green premium in construction cost that, depending on regional energy costs, was recaptured in a very short time given an average reduction of 30% in electricity utilization. The Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate estimates that electric rates will increase 51% when the rate caps come off in 2010 or 2011 (depending on the service territory). At that point, the reduced operating costs of a green building will be deeply appreciated by the taxpayers (or tuition payers).

In the Capital E study, the authors noted a growing body of research that (after controlling for demographics) putting students in green schools results in about a 15% decrease in absenteeism (this is consistent with similar data from office environment studies).

Green schools are demonstrating increases in student standardized test scores of between three and five percentage points. One school we funded (the Clearview Elementary School in Hanover) found a documented (this was a PhD Dissertation) increase in Oral Reading Fluency Scores of 19%. Same kids. Better school.

If the schools don't get smart, who will? It's time for education to start providing some leadership in the area of building better buildings.