Posted: November 19, 2007
By Michael Burnham, Greenwire senior reporter
A bipartisan House caucus created to promote green building practices in schools plans to host a formal launch next month and introduce its first legislation early next year.
The Green Schools Caucus, founded by Reps. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), aims to raise awareness amongst fellow lawmakers about how sustainably designed schools could help lower building energy and maintenance costs and bolster student learning and health. Seven other lawmakers have joined the caucus, said Chris Huckleberry, legislative director to Hooley, a former teacher.
"Green schools is a new concept for a lot of folks, so we'll be doing a lot on the education side at first," explained Huckleberry, who is coordinating a Capitol Hill news conference Dec. 5 to unveil the caucus.
Huckleberry said the caucus could introduce its first bills early next year.
Sixty-eight K-12 and higher education buildings have earned the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification, which is a tiered rating system based on points for using energy- and water-efficient windows, lights, insulation and fixtures, as well as alternatives to toxic chemicals in interior paints and glues. One of the caucus' first efforts will be ensuring lawmakers keep a provision in the House-passed energy bill, H.R. 3221, which would require the Energy Department and other federal agencies to study how sustainably designed buildings affect students' learning.
A 2006 study sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers and USGBC found that building green could save a typical school about $100,000 annually in energy costs, enough to offset the average 2 percent premium cost of state-of-the-art building materials within a year. Even so, the study found that school administrators listed higher construction costs among their top reasons for not building greener classrooms.
Members of the caucus hope to change that mind set by quantifying the benefits of going green.
"Schools are vulnerable to the skyrocketing costs of energy," said Matheson, whose district encompasses parts of Salt Lake City and southern Utah. "When their energy budgets take a hit, kids' education suffers."
The green schools effort received another major boost last week when former President Clinton announced that his nonprofit foundation would work with USGBC to help fund energy retrofits in K-12 and university buildings throughout the country.
Among the 25 organizations working with the Clinton Foundation are Arizona State University, Chicago Public Schools, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Middlebury College and the Los Angeles Community College District (E&ENews PM, Nov. 7).
The seven other members of the Green Schools Caucus are Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), David Wu (D-Ore.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Michael Honda (D-Calif.).
For more information on the newly formed Green Schools Caucus, read the U.S. Green Building Council press release.
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