Commissioning

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National Best Practices Manual For BuildingHigh Performance Schools
The National Best Practices Manual for Building High Performance Schools is a part of the suite of products developed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in schools. The manual is provided in PDF format.

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.

Featured Commissioning Resources:

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/

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

Green Buildings Portal
Green or sustainable building is the practice of creating healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. EPA's Green Building web portal provides links to energy, waste, water, materials, and indoor environment resources.
Source: EPA-Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response - Office of Solid Waste
http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/

National Best Practices Manual for Building High Performance Schools
Written specifically for architects and engineers, this manual is designed to help design or retrofit schools. This is a large document (8.2MB) and may take a few moments to download.
Source: Department of Energy - Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs
http://www.eren.doe.gov/energysmartschools/pdfs/31545.pdf

NCEF Resource List: High Performance School Buildings
NCEF offers an annotated list of links and journal articles describing a sustainable approach to school building design, engineering, materials selection, energy-efficiency, lighting, waste management strategies, etc., also called "green design."
Source: National Institute of Building Sciences - National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/high_performance.cfm

NCEF- Healthy School Environments Resource List
National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities resource list of links, books, and journal articles on environmentally safe and healthy school buildings.
Source: National Institute of Building Sciences - National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/healthy_schools.cfm

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 Assesment of Building Performance
The assesment of a school's building peformance is a rating system that is used by EPA's national energy performance rating system to see if a school (K-12) may be eligible for ENERGY STAR.
Source: EPA - Energy Star
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_portfoliomanager

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

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

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

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

Rhode Island Rules and Regulations for School Health Programs
These regulations, issued by RI Department of Education and RI Deptartment of Health, address a number of environmental/health issues in schools, such as: mercury, pesticide application, asbestos, lead, radon, water supply, and chemical hygiene plans. The regulations prohibit the use of certain chemicals from schools (see Appendix A).
Source: RI Dept Education and RI Dept Health
http://www.rules.state.ri.us/rules/released/pdf/DOH/DOH_2722.pdf

California -- Sustainable Schools
This website provides a diverse collection of sustainable building resources that will help schools create high performance educational facilities that will ensure the optimal health and productivity of students and faculty.
Source: California Division of the State Architect
http://www.sustainableschools.dgs.ca.gov/sustainableschools/

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/

Massachusetts - Green Schools Initiative
The goal of the Green Schools Initiative is to encourage school districts to construct or renovate school buildings that will cost less to operate and will provide healthier learning environments for students. This pilot program is an extraordinary opportunity for school districts planning new schools or major renovations to create more efficient facilities. The program will also help influence how future schools will be designed and built in Massachusetts.
Source: Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC)
http://www.mtpc.org/RenewableEnergy/green_schools.htm

Washington State School Health and Safety Program
The program provides consultation, technical assistance, and training to local health jurisdictions, schools, and parent groups on school health and safety issues.
Source: Washington State Department of Health - Office of Environmental Health & Safety
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/school.htm

Rebuild America K-12 Schools
Rebuild America, a Department of Energy program, provides business and technical tools, customized assistance, and information on alternative financing mechanisms to enable building owners and community leaders to successfully plan and carry out building energy projects that improve building performance, reduce energy use and costs, and promote local economic development.
Source: Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Clearinghouse
http://www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/rebuild/

Inventory of Federal School Environmental Health Activities
This inventory was prepared by the Schools Workgroup of the President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children and includes descriptions of major school related programs and activities of EPA and other Federal departments and Agencies.
Source: EPA -- President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children
http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/Inventory.htm/$file/Inventory.pdf

Illinois -- Greening Schools
Greening Schools offers FREE technical assistance, workshops for teachers, administrators and facility managers, and on-line resources related to pollution prevention for all Illinois schools.
Source: Illinois Waste Management and Research Center
http://www.greeningschools.org

EPA New England's K-12 Schools Website
This site discusses efforts to improve coordination and integration amongst EPA's many schools related programs, and provides links to Regional topic specific web sites, such as: asbestos, diesel school buses, drinking water, environmental management systems, energy, indoor air quality, lead, mercury and teacher and student resources. Links to national websites are provided as well.
Source: EPA Region 1
http://www.epa.gov/ne/schools

Washington - Seattle Partnership for Resource-Efficient Schools
Seattle Public Schools has organized the Building Excellence program to head this ambitious capital works campaign. A major focus of Building Excellence is to ensure decisions made during the design and construction of these buildings strike a balance between the values of fiscal prudence and providing optimal learning environments for students.
Source: Washington - Seattle Public Utilities
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilities/SchoolProjects/BEXIIschools.xml

Massachusetts Healthy Schools Web site
The Massachusetts Healthy Schools Web site is a resource for promoting healthy indoor air environments and environmentally sustainable school buildings in Massachusetts.
Source: Massachusetts Public Health Association - Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network
http://www.mphaweb.org/pol_schools.html

Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide
The Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide is a tool to learn about sustainability, manage design decisions, and integrate sustainable design into the building design and operation processes for new and renovated facilities.
Source: University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture - CALA Building Research
http://www.msdg.umn.edu/

New York High Performance Building Guidelines
These guidelines outline a range of 'best practices' for planning, designing, constructing and operating healthier, more energy and resource-efficient facilities.
Source: NYC Department of Design and Construction
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/ddc/html/highperf.html

Commissioning and O&M Resources
Documents and organizations related to building commissioning and operation and maintenance.
Source: Portland Energy Conservation, Inc.
http://www.peci.org/commissioning.htm