Texas schools find it easy being green

When it comes to building schools, district leaders and taxpayers are focused on being green: being environmentally friendly as well as fiscally responsible.

Several campuses are opening for the first time Monday in the Austin, Texas, area, and dozens of other campuses and school buildings are under construction or are being renovated. Many have gone green — using recyclable materials in construction and operation and saving on water and energy — as part of a nationwide movement that touts green schools as healthier for students and cheaper to operate.

Almost four years ago, the Austin school district made the largest purchase to date of renewable energy from Austin Energy's GreenChoice program: 45.7 million kilowatt-hours annually of solar, wind or geothermal power. It was the largest such purchase by a school district nationwide. The district is eligible for $430,000 in Austin Energy rebates for environmentally friendly projects in the 2004 $519.5 million bond program.

When Pickle Elementary School opened in Northeast Austin in 1999, it was the first Austin campus to include green building features like proper solar orientation to better take advantage of natural light, which helps it use 25 percent less energy than other campuses, along with rainwater collection to replace water that evaporates out of air conditioners and salvaged long-leaf pine floors. An analysis estimates that those features will save the district $12 million over the life of the school.

Schools represent the largest construction sector in the nation, with $53 billion being spent this year, and they are the fastest-growing market for green building, which is expected to account for 5 percent to 10 percent of the school construction market by 2010, according to the Council of Educational Facility Planners International.

About 60 schools across the country, including two in Dallas and Houston, have been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization in Washington that sets "green" standards. An additional 370 are in the pipeline; one San Marcos school is among the nine in Texas.

Green schools just make sense, said Art Gissendaner, spokesman for the Council of Educational Facility Planners International.

"It's energy-efficient, healthier for kids and staff, and research shows there is a connection between the built environment and how well students learn," he said.

Not everyone believes that it's easier being green, however. Saying that building costs would skyrocket, the Fast Growth School Coalition, a group of 124 Texas school districts, helped defeat a bill during the most recent legislative session that would have required all school construction to fall in line with standards set by the Green Building Council.

Construction costs could rise as much as 10 percent under the legislation, the Texas Education Agency estimated.

Coalition members might have been more willing to support a state cost incentive program, said Chairwoman Karen Rue, superintendent of the Northwest school district near Fort Worth. "We aren't against the principles at all, but we definitely want the collaboration to make this happen."

Officials in the McKinney school district north of Dallas said they never realized any cost savings associated with its green schools built in 2001.

"In general, we found that there isn't any difference in utility usage in green school buildings and other buildings," said Steve Fortenberry, the district's chief financial officer. "We're building them very efficient anyway without having the extra cost of the green items."

But supporters of green building say that making the effort is worth it. Savings over the lifetime of the building — U.S. schools are 42 years old on average — can be as much as 20 times greater than the initial investment, the Green Building Council said.

Benefits include lower energy bills and operating costs, healthier students and teachers because of better indoor air quality, and longer building life, the council said.

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, said he plans to reintroduce the legislation during the next session.

"When school district leaders, trustees and taxpayers become aware of the cost savings over time, it will be an easier sell," Anchía said.

Six new Austin schools and eight campus additions are on track to receive an Austin Energy green building rating, including Blazier and Overton elementary schools and Garcia Middle School, which are opening Monday.

In the Pflugerville school district, where new schools have opened almost every year since 1993, officials said they plan to use more green material in flooring, ceilings, and insulation; research rainwater reuse; increase recycling; and aim to reduce electricity use at each campus 5 percent annually.

Hays school district officials said they selected carefully from a menu of eco-friendly items when building Lehman High School, which opened a few years ago. They decided against solar panels, saying they didn't think the benefits outweighed the cost, but chose to put artificial turf on the athletic field to save on labor and water, said Rod Walls, the district's director of new construction.

"The more eco-friendly we can be, the better off we all are, but we also need to keep our taxpayers happy," Walls said.

Cost savings from putting energy-efficient features into Lehman and retrofitting older schools allowed the district to spend money on other things, such as more service trucks for the maintenance department.

Rachel Gutter, who manages the school rating system for the Green Building Council, said school districts need to be more eco-friendly in construction.

"Most school districts have not yet made the commitment to build green," Gutter said. "It's a matter of education and getting the word out."

Being green

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington nonprofit group that sets national 'green' standards:

If all school construction and renovations went green starting today, energy savings alone would total $20 billion over the next 10 years.

On average, green schools save $100,000 annually: enough to hire two teachers, buy 500 computers or purchase 5,000 textbooks.

On average, green schools cost about $3 per square foot more than traditional campuses to build, an investment that is paid back in the first year of operations based on energy savings alone.

Factoring in lower energy and water costs, improved teacher retention and lowered health costs, building green schools saves about $12 per square foot, about 4 times the average additional cost of going green.