This conference, sponsored by the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education, was held in Cambridge, MA, April 11-13, 2002.

Conference Sessions

Overview

Lifelong Learning—What Do We Expect?

The Campus as Classroom: Issues and Opportunities

Sustaining and Promoting an Educational Facilities Design

Keynote: Lifelong Learning on a 21st-Century Campus

Learning from Living

Technology: The Unifier in a Multidiscipline Educational Environment

Equity and Excellence-Making an Urban School System Work

Sustainability-Massachusetts Sustainable Schools Pilot Program

Planning at MIT

Tours at MIT

Dreyfus Chemistry Building

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Distance Learning at MIT

TEAL Room (Technology Enabled Active Learning)

Albert and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center

Simmons Hall Undergraduate Dormitory

Ray and Maria Stata Center

Sustainability—Massachusetts Sustainable Schools Pilot Program
Kimberly Ashton, program manager, Green Schools Initiative, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative

The Massachusetts Green Schools Initiative is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) Renewable Energy Trust and the Massachusetts Department of Education School Building Assistance Initiative.

Its aim, noted Ashton, is to provide Massachusetts schools with the information and resources needed to incorporate sustainable practices into school planning, design, and construction. The Initiative has channeled its $13.5 million in funds into two tracks.

Track I, which is closed, offered design and construction funding. It included a solicitation for 10 grants that offered up to $130,000 in design costs and up to $500,000 in construction funding. This track is currently in the design and construction phase.

Track II, which is open, offers educational workshops, feasibility study grants, and design and construction awards. The workshops are free of charge and tailored to the community. Seven awards have been made to date, and 33 are still available. There is $20,000 available for a feasibility study, and those are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Then there are 10 design and construction projects with the same criteria as those in Track I. Massachusetts DOE will add 2 percent to the total facility grant, and it will consider waiving funding caps.

All public schools in Massachusetts are eligible for state construction funding, as long as they are within the service territory of an investor-owned utility; otherwise they're not paying into the state's renewable energy trust, which was established in 1997 as part of the electric industry's restructuring efforts. The schools must also have initial capital costs.

Ashton listed some of the key elements the program is looking for:

• Independent commissioning of mechanical systems
• Energy modeling (target 20 percent below baseline)
• Use of CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools) or LEED
• Grantees must participate in any utility or energy rebate programs
• They will become case studies, which is the true enduring value of the program

Ashton discussed four projects that are currently in Track 1: Newton South High School, South Street Elementary School (Waltham), Williamstown Elementary School, and Carlton Elementary School (Salem).

Newton South High School includes 60 kW PV panels on the roof of the field house. The school is researching opportunities for wind turbines and fuel cells, although there is some community resistance because of the potential noise or unsightliness. The school is also doing energy modeling and is in the early phases of commissioning.

South Street has incorporated PVs, a wind turbine, a teaching and monitoring station, an improved air barrier, and increased roof insulation.

Williamstown Elementary School has 24kW in PVs and a solar green house with a biomass boiler. It will undergo an energy efficiency review this fall.

Carlton Elementary has a green roof, PVs, daylighting, and landscaping elements that cool the building. It will also have a combined solar/skylight system over the gym that will produce electricity and natural daylight, while lowering the heating and lighting costs of the gymnasium.

For more information visit http://www.mtpc.org/massrenew/greenschools.htm.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.