 Financing
High performance schools are cost effective for a number of reasons. For example, they can
bring more money to the school by increasing average daily attendance; keep more money in the school by significantly reducing utility bills; and take advantage of currently available incentive programs. When the avoided costs of workers' compensation claims and litigation are also considered, high performance schools become an even wiser business choice for school districts.
Featured Financing Resources:
Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT)
HealthySEAT is a new software tool from EPA designed to help school districts conduct voluntary, customized self-assessments of their school facilities for environmental, health, and safety hazards.
Source: EPA - Office of Air and Radiation - Indoor Environments Division
http://www.epa.gov/schools
Indoor Air Quality Design Tools for Schools
Indoor air quality is a critically important aspect of creating and maintaining healthy school facilities. IAQ Design Tools for Schools will help school districts find the information resources they need to design, construct and renovate school facilities that will support the schools core mission of educating children.
Source: EPA - Office of Air and Radiation - Indoor Environments Division
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/
Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits
This report is intended to answer this fundamental question: how
much more do green schools cost, and is greening schools cost
effective?
Source: Capital E
http://www.cap-e.com/ewebeditpro/items/O59F9819.pdf 
High Performance School Design Online Training
Interactive courses on this site are offered free of charge as a public benefit for design and engineering professionals specializing in sustainable design for K-12 schools. High performance school design integrates daylighting, indoor air quality, and energy efficiency to build a school that runs efficiently, saves money, protects natural resources, and provides superior visual, acoustical, and thermal comfort.
Source: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
http://www.hpschooldesigntraining.com/nyserda/home.jsp
Portables Tool Kit: A toolkit for parents and school administrators for successful use of portable classrooms.
The Modular Building Institute (MBI) has created its own toolkit of materials that are available to any school district purchaser or facility administrator to help them secure and maintain facilities that provide an optimum learning environment.
Source: Modular Building Institute
http://mbinet.org/htmlPage.aspx?name=news22
California Portable Classrooms Study
The Air Resources Board (ARB) and Department of Health Services (DHS) completed a comprehensive study of the environmental health conditions in portable (relocatable) classrooms. This study investigated classrooms in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools and included a large representative sample.
Source: California Air Resources Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/pcs/pcs.htm
Collaborative for High Performance Schools
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) aims to increase the energy efficiency of public schools in California by marketing information, service, and incentive programs directly to school districts and designers. The Collaborative's goal is to facilitate the design of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and contain the amenities needed for a quality education.
Source: Collaborative for High Performance Schools
http://www.chps.net/
LEED for Schools
The LEED for Schools Rating System recognizes the unique nature of the design and construction of K-12 schools. Based on the LEED for New Construction rating system, it addresses issues such as classroom acoustics, master planning, mold prevention and environmental site assessment.
Source: U.S. Green Building Council
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1586
Energy Star for Schools
Through the Energy Star program, EPA partners with K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities across the country, providing technical support, guidance on financing options, and recognition for schools wanting to use energy more efficiently. Energy Star has coordinated with EPA's Indoor Air Quality program to address the overlap between energy efficiency upgrades and indoor environmental quality, and it has launched an energy performance rating tool in schools.
Source: EPA - Energy Star
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=k12_schools.bus_schoolsk12
Energy Star New Building Design Process
The New Building Design Guidance is a series of strategic checklists with related resources for each step in the design process. The strategic checklist is a management tool that outlines the necessary steps for your team to achieve its goals. It will help you understand what and why certain actions should occur in order to reach the desired outcome.
Source: EPA - Energy Star Hotline
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_bldg_design.new_bldg_design
Energy Star School Challenge
This Web site is aimed at helping you to use the Energy Star Program to begin evaluating your building's energy use through "benchmarking". It provides links to funding opportunities and technical expertise to help you upgrade your building and access to resources and tools for you to uncover and implement energy saving solutions. Also included are lesson suggestions for teachers that support Washington State Essential Learning Requirements.
Source: EPA Region 10 - Office for Innovation
http://yosemite1.epa.gov/r10/oi.nsf/webpage/energystarschools
Federal Energy Management Program
FEMP's Financing Team provides policy guidance and technical and contracting assistance related to private sector funding for Federal energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects. This section contains guidance on how agencies can fund these projects.
Source: Department of Energy - Federal Energy Management Program
http://www.eren.doe.gov/femp/financealt.html
Illinois State Board of Education
School construction pages contain information on a range of health, safety, financing and other issues.
Source: Illinois State Board of Education - School Construction and Facility Division
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/
Green Schools Project
The Green Schools program helps schools use energy efficiently through building retrofits, changes in operational and maintenance routines, and changes in the behavior of building users.
Source: Alliance to Save Energy - Green Schools
http://www.ase.org/greenschools/index.htm
California's Coalition for Adequate School Housing
California's Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.) since 1978 has promoted, developed and supported the enactment of new statewide and local funding alternatives for public K-12 school construction, maintenance, and modernization.
Source: California's Coalition for Adequate School Housing
http://www.cashnet.org/
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