Texas school for students on the autism spectrum wins A+ for green initiatives

From TMCnet:

The Monarch School in Houston, an education institute in special education programs for children with autism / Asperger’s Syndrome has been awarded with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold certification due to its adaptation of a range of environmental sustainability initiatives. The school’s new Chrysalis building, the first special education facility in the United States has celebrating the A+ earned recently by the joint green initiatives taken by its students, families and teachers.

Before Chrysalis’ opening less than a year ago, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the green school with its rarely awarded “Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR (News - Alert)” (DEES) certification - placing Monarch at the top of its class, among the nation’s 14 percent most energy-efficient private and public school buildings. Recently, The Monarch School’s Chrysalis achieved Gold certification under the US Green Building Council’s LEED for New Construction Rating System – making Monarch the highest rated LEED certified K-12 school in Texas.

Monarch’s executive board president David Matthiesen said that building green is economical, practical, meaningful and relevant to students, particularly ours with autism / Asperger’s, attention deficit and hyperactivity, and other neurological disorders. These schools enjoyed 20 times more lifecycle benefits than the small zero-to-two percent upfront premium for green building back then. Given the nation’s cumulative 12-year experience on 10,000+ ENERGY STAR labeled buildings, and nearly 5,000 LEED certified projects, it was clear that sustainable best practices could yield even greater savings for Monarch. Chrysalis’ green building strategies helped the school management to reduce long-term operating costs.

Chrysalis is projected to prevent 33 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than a conventionally designed K-12 school, and use 33 percent less energy, saving more than $170,000 on utility bills over the next 25 years. These savings are worth more than a 13 percent discount on all design professionals’ fees. Nationwide, only 38 K-12 schools are members of the EPA Green Power Partnership, 14 of which are purchasing 100 percent green power.