Education Special Section Gold Stars for Going Green Area Schools Help Themselves While Helping the Environment by Carolyn Cosmos Young students often get gold sticker stars for tasks done well — a special drawing or classroom cleanup. But the Washington area also has some big schools earning big awards for their own cleanup efforts as part of the eco-friendly education movement — earning gold stars for their innovative green endeavors. At the head of the class is Sidwell Friends, a private Quaker school with campuses in Northwest D.C. and Maryland. Serving students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, this friends school’s new, earth-friendly middle school building has won a whopping seven environmental awards over the last three years. Also winning accolades is the York County Public Schools District in southeastern Virginia near Norfolk. York is putting green technologies into every one of its schools, bringing in geothermal heating and looking toward future solar and green-roof projects — saving a bundle of money in the process. Instituting these kinds of large-scale environmental changes costs big bucks at first, but pays dividends in the long run — something aging schools across the nation are coming to realize. It’s all part of a win-win arrangement that’s allowing area schools to help save the planet, while helping themselves to some vital savings as well. Friendly Model In 2007, Sidwell Friends Middle School was named one of the country’s top 10 green buildings by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Sidwell won four other AIA awards that year and received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Platinum Certificate — the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the first Platinum school in the country. Designed by the architecture firm of Kieran-Tim-berlake, the middle school is a renovated environmental marvel, inside and out. The construction, for instance, used local, recycled materials whenever possible, including wood from wine barrels, marine pilings from the Baltimore Inner Harbor, and trim board made from wheat chaff. The building also uses eco-friendly technology to harness the sun’s energy and bring light into every classroom while creating natural shade in the summertime. Photo-sensors manage lights, solar panels provide 5 percent of the building’s electricity, while solar chimneys run up and down the interior, helping with the heating and cooling. Wind chimes are even placed inside the chimneys so that students can hear the air moving through. When the windows open, air conditioning or heating systems ratchet down, and ceiling fans help to cool the air. That’s just the start. The middle school features a green roof composed of a garden layer that channels rainwater and keeps the roof from spewing heat. Like other plantings on campus (where lawns have given way to woods, wetlands and 80 native plant species), it aims for biodiversity and provides real-life lessons for the science classes. The school also has its own wastewater filtration system, the middle of which features a “constructed wetland” of terraces and a pond with aquatic plants. The end product reduces the school’s city water use by 93 percent. It even meets drinking water standards, though it’s only used in the cooling tower and toilets. Even the administration building on campus uses geothermal energy taken from the ground for its heat, noted Ellis Turner, the associate head of school. Designed to be an environmental model, the middle school is open to visitor tours by appointment. Diplomats, government offi-cials and educators from other countries are among those who’ve taken advantage of the opportunity, Turner said. Next Page

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