Green Building

da Vinci High Performance Classroom

The Evans-Harvard High Performance Classroom at da Vinci Arts Middle School represents a landmark achievement in school construction for more than just Portland Public Schools.

An innovative and ambitious design resulted in the first LEED Platinum certified public school building, and in a year "net-zero energy" may be tacked onto the building's accomplishments.

Rosa Parks Elementary School

Portland Public Schools' newest addition, Rosa Parks Elementary, is a LEED Gold certified building, built with the health of the environment and the building's occupants in mind. There are many energy-efficient features in the building that simultaneously save the district money and improve the learning environment by using daylight in most spaces.

Green Building Education

As a 2002 study by the National Clearinghouse for Education Facilities concluded, "School facilities affect learning.  Spatial configurations, noise, heat, cold, light, and air quality obviously bear on students' and teachers' ability to perform.  [...] we already know what is needed: clean air, good light, and a quiet, comfortable and safe learning environment."  PPS sees this as not only an argument in favor of Green Building, but a mandate.

Implementing occupant education programs in green buildings has the potential to greatly increase the positive impacts of a green building - on the environment, on the community and on the students.  AT PPS, where the school board adopted seven guiding principles for our future facilities, the community said it loud and clear that our buildings ought to "teach both students and the community at large about environmental responsibility - and model what they teach."  Occupant education will not only teach about environmental responsibility, it will also engage the school community in improving the building's ability to model this by improving its environmental performance.

Occupant education involves employing various strategies with the ultimate goal of teaching occupants of the building how to properly and efficiently operate the building. This includes a wide range of building systems; from high-tech HVAC control systems to regular old windows, from central district maintenance workers and custodians to teachers and students.