Buildings fundamentally impact people’s lives and the health of the planet. In the United States, buildings use one-third of our total energy, two-thirds of our electricity, one-eighth of our water, and transform land that provides valuable ecological resources.  The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System has been helping professionals across the country to improve the quality of our buildings and their impact on the environment since 1999.

Integrating “sustainable” or “green” building practices into the construction of state buildings is a solid financial investment.  In the most comprehensive analysis of the financial costs and benefits of green buildings conducted to date, “A Report to California’s Sustainable Building Task Force” compiled in late 2003 found that a minimal upfront investment of about 2% of construction costs typically yields life cycle savings of over ten times the initial investment.

The report found financial benefits of green buildings include:

• lower energy, waste disposal and water costs
• lower environmental and emissions costs
• lower operations and maintenance cost
• savings from increased productivity and health

“Green” or “sustainable” buildings use key resources like energy, water, materials, and land much more efficiently than buildings that are simply built to minimum codes. They also create healthier work, learning, and living environments, with more natural light and cleaner air, and contribute to improved employee and student health, comfort, and productivity.  Sustainable buildings are cost-effective, saving taxpayers dollars by reducing operations and maintenance costs and lowering utility bills. The financial benefits of greening schools are about $70 per square foot, more than 20 times as high as the cost of going green.

It is generally recognized that buildings consume a large portion of water, wood, energy, and other resources used in the economy.  Green buildings provide a promising way to help address a range of challenges facing our state, such as:

• cost of electric power
• worsening electric grid constraints, with associated power availability problems
• pending water shortage and waste disposal issues
• continued pressure to reduce pollution
• growing concerns over the cost of climate change
• rising incidence of allergies and asthma, especially in children
• health and productivity of workers
• effect of physical school environments on our children’s ability to learn
• increasing expenses of maintaining and operating state facilities over time

See list of benefits for building green schools on the back of this fact sheet.

VOTE YES on HB 3032 (Rep. McMullen),

HB 3319 (Rep. Lindley) and HB 3394 (Rep. Cargill)

 

 

 PROTECT OKLAHOMA’S ENVIRONMENT … FOR OUR FAMILIES, FOR OUR FUTURE

Sierra Club Urges You to SUPPORT Green, Healthy Schools in Oklahoma – This will be implemented as part of any of these three bills: HB 3032 (Rep. McMullen), HB 3319 (Rep. Lindley) and HB 3394 (Rep. Cargill)

A recent report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA)*, along with several other groups, documents the financial costs and benefits of green schools compared to conventional schools. Following are some of the main conclusions of this report.

• Greening school design provides an extraordinarily cost-effective way to enhance student learning
• Some green schools are built on the same budget as conventional schools.
• Market-wide energy cost savings represent an important benefit often not included in energy efficiency financial analyses.
• There is a large body of research linking health and productivity with specific building design attributes.
• 17 separate studies all found positive health impacts from improved indoor air quality, ranging from 13.5% up to 87% improvement.
• Good lighting improves test scores, reduces off-task behavior, and plays a significant role in the achievement of students.
• Greening school design is extraordinarily cost-effective compared with other available measures to enhance student performance.
• A recent review of five separate studies found an average asthma reduction of 38.5% in buildings with improved air quality.
• Greening public schools creates an opportunity to improve the health and educational settings for all students.
• The financial benefits of greening schools are about $70 per square foot, more than 20 times as high as the cost of going green.
• Greening schools today is extremely cost-effective, and represents a fiscally far better design choice.

Conventional schools are typically designed just to meet minimum building codes – that are often incomplete. Design of schools to meet minimum code performance tends to minimize initial capital costs but delivers schools that are not designed specifically to provide comfortable, productive and healthy work environments for students and faculty. Few states regulate indoor air quality in schools or provide for minimum ventilation standards. Not surprisingly, a large number of studies have found that schools across the country are unhealthy – increasing illness and absenteeism and bringing down test scores.

*“Greening America’s Schools – Costs and Benefits” by Gregory Kats

www.usgbc.org