Green Schools in Massachusetts Get Greener

MA School Agency “Enthusiastically Endorses” Updated Green School Rating System

Please Contact: Ariel Dekovic, 415-970-6604 (office), 617-823-7474 (cell), adekovic@chps.net
For Immediate Release - March 23, 2010

San Francisco, CA - Massachusetts has a newly updated tool to help schools and districts design more environmentally-friendly buildings. The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) has released a new update to the Massachusetts CHPS Criteria (known as MA-CHPS), a green building rating system designed specifically for Bay State schools. Eighteen schools have used the CHPS green rating system in Massachusetts to rate their schools. Nineteen more schools have green projects registered with CHPS.

"Massachusetts was one of the first states to adopt the CHPS Criteria. Since its creation, the Massachusetts School Building Authority has been a strong supporter of sustainable building design, and enthusiastically endorses the new edition of MA-CHPS,” said Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

He continued, “This document will guide Massachusetts school districts and their design teams in providing cost effective and energy efficient school buildings.”

Massachusetts is part of a growing list of eleven states nationally that have joined CHPS to develop geographic-specific high performance school standards, created for the unique codes and regulations, climates, opportunities, and local priorities.

MA-CHPS also incorporates upcoming changes to the Massachusetts energy conservation code – the MA Stretch Energy Code – by making compliance with that code, which requires schools to be 20% more efficient than the national baseline, a prerequisite for all schools using MA-CHPS.

“It’s hard to overstate the importance of ‘greening’ our schools. Doing so not only cuts municipal energy bills, but also gives students a firsthand look at clean energy strategies at work,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said. “I commend MA-CHPS for both strengthening and streamlining the Green School rating system by making adoption of our new super efficiency Stretch Code a requirement.”

The update reflects a move by CHPS to provide a core of green building benchmarks to states – known as the CHPS National Core Criteria – that can than be adapted by states. The new Core Criteria focus on not just the design of the building, but also pre-design planning, and the occupancy of the school. It also includes benchmarks for the building’s site selection, water efficiency, acoustics, daylight in classrooms and environmentally-friendly building materials.

“As a former facilities manager, I know firsthand challenges of making green design a reality in the operations of the school. By incorporating the principles of the CHPS National Core Criteria, Massachusetts ensures that their schools are designed and operated as healthy, energy efficient learning environments,” said Carolyn Sarno, Vice Chair of the CHPS Board of Directors and Senior Program Manager at the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership.

The 2009 version of MA-CHPS takes advantage of the growing knowledge base nationally and locally on high performance schools, particularly the recent Massachusetts Green Schools Post-Occupancy Study of Energy Efficiency completed by Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust (MRET). Several new credits have been added for high performance measures in electric lighting, adaptability to alternative energy sources, and calculating greenhouse gas emissions. Credits that give points for using the school as a teaching tool and installing water management systems were also added.

One of the changes that MA-CHPS users are likely to notice first is its look – the document has been updated to the standard design of the CHPS Criteria. Other changes include overhauling the minimum ventilation and building flushout requirements, as well as acoustics, daylighting and low-emitting material credits.

CHPS is a 501c(3) non-profit headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about CHPS, visit www.chps.net.

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The Collaborative for High Performance Schools created the nation’s first green building rating program developed especially for school learning environments. The mission of CHPS is to improve the quality of education for our nation’s schoolchildren by facilitating the design, construction and operation of a new generation of high performance schools: places of learning that are environmentally sustainable, healthy and comfortable.