Greening Education

Third Creek Elementary School in North Carolina is the first elementary school in the United States to be registered with the US Green Building Council’s rating system known as the LEED programme. Registration with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) means that that the school is minimising its impact on the nation’s natural resources, while complementing the school’s standard curriculum by encouraging environmental stewardship among students.

Like many other environmental initiatives, the construction of the school building cost more than a similarly sized school. However the green buildings’ resource-saving features allowed the school to operate at two-thirds of the cost of the buildings it replaced, in other words the initial investments turned to profits in less than 3 years, providing the school with additional funds which could be used for education.

Third Creek Elementary School opened in August 2002, exhibiting several environmental features, including;

• Maximum natural day lighting, reducing the energy consumption of artificial lighting.

• A natural wetland to slow and filter storm water runoff. This wetland is also used as an outdoor classroom and living wildlife laboratory.

• Additional landscaping and specific roofing materials, intended to keep the building and parking lots cooler, lessening the heat and requirement for air conditioning

• Various innovations like, low flow automatic spigots aimed at reducing water and energy consumption

• Wall paint with lower gas toxicity, lessening the health impact on the environment and students.

In the first year of operation, standardised test scores skyrocketed from 65 percent to 79.8 percent, with some teachers and parents attributing much of the gains to daylighting and other “green” practices used by the building.

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