Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent building new schools in Connecticut. They are the most important buildings we construct as nearly one out of five people in Connecticut spend part of there day in a school building. Insuring that our schools are high performance, energy efficient, healthy places to learn needs to be a top priority as these buildings profoundly influence our next generation.

Like all smartly designed high performance buildings, a high performance school offers significant benefits to the occupants and to local taxpayers. These benefits however, are amplified as the occupants in our schools, our children, are being shaped for the rest of their lives. Since children are not as tolerant as healthy adults to a variety of indoor pollutants, it is imperative that we provide high quality indoor environmental quality. This presents a real challenge as schools high occupancy densities compound indoor environmental concerns.

To raise awareness of High Performance Schools, the CT Green Building Council has embarked on a program to promote the transformation of schools in Connecticut. Launched in February, this initiative is operating on four tracks that include a stakeholder process, an educational outreach effort, an inventory of all public school buildings and a monitoring of legislative action. Upon conclusion of our stakeholder process, we will publish a final report that identifies the obstacles to building high performance schools and suggested actions for overcoming these challenges.

More information about the CTGBC High Performance Schools Initiative is available in the project description section.

If you would to be keep informed on the CT Green Building Councils High Performance School Initiative, please send an email to schools@ctgbc.org.