Clean indoor air doesn’t have to come at a cost Achieve high air quality in schools without sacrificing budget and efficiency
Integral Group is committed to creating healthy school environments that benefit people and the planet. High efficiency mechanical systems, such as those at Sutherland Secondary School (SD 44), provide energy savings and improved ventilation. Photo by David Birdsall.
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n a time of uncertainty, school facilities are doubling down on the importance of creating healthy spaces that enhance the health and performance of students,
teachers, administrators, and staff. Heightened awareness around the risk of airborne diseases matched with climate-induced seasonal wildfire smoke reinforce the importance of properly ventilated indoor environments. At the same time, there is a need to respect and protect the local ecosystem and take climate action to deliver on carbon neutrality commitments. School buildings are a foundation for student health and success. With a large number of Canadian schools built before 1980, concerns around poor ventilation, uncomfortable temperatures, exposure to environmental toxins, and excessively noisy conditions have arisen. There have been numerous studies that relate facility design and environmental quality to student achievement. School studies conducted in North America have found the following links between green buildings and student performance: • Five per cent increase in student attendance after improvement of building air quality. • Better school facilities add three to four per cent to a school’s standardized test scores (after controlling for demographics). • Green school buildings show a 15 per cent decrease in absenteeism, and a five per cent rise in test scores.
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Ops Talk • Fall 2020
• Students who have moved from a conventional school to a LEED Gold school building showed major health improvements as well as a 19 per cent increase in average student oral reading fluency scores. In deciding what choices to implement, facilities managers are balancing the needs of students and staff with the need for energy conservation and carbon reduction, all while trying to keep costs down. In the past it has seemed at odds to reduce energy consumption while also implementing systems to improve indoor air quality and thermal comfort; however, clean indoor air and energy efficiency doesn’t have to come at a cost to the environment or your budget. Having implemented climate resilient design strategies in institutions as well as other sectors over the last two years, Integral Group’s approach has focused on implementing the BC Step Code for educational facilities, low carbon design, Passive House school design, energy modelling for optimization, deep green retrofits, and climate action planning.
BC Step Code for Educational Facilities The BC Energy Step Code is a compliance path in the BC Building Code that achieves “better-than-building-code” levels of energy efficiency required for new construction. As part of the BC Energy Step Code development process, Integral Group designed the overall process that assists in the determination of energy use intensity targets, alternative compliance methodologies, and possible regulatory reform. BC Energy Step Code
