The Top 10 Green Schools in the U.S.: 2005

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The following then are our picks and prizes:

l. Two-handed Round of Clapping for Clackamas

The award-winning Clackamas High School in Oregon managed to earn a silver LEED citation for its 265,000-square foot green building on a 4l-acre site in Oregon's kingdom of green. Linking architectural intentions to Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute, which deals with complex, energy-efficient systems, Boora Architects secured a 44 percent reduction in energy consumption. By encouraging the students to join in creating full-scale mockups of buildings to test daylighting and ventilation through convection along with both sustainable energy and long-life materials, they added to the pedagogy and durability alike. A landscaped courtyard at the building's entrance and surroundings lined with trees, benches plus a gas barbecue pit—kept both bug-free and healthy with integrated pest management—made the indoor-outdoor space amiable. The architects' ultimate goal: a Bauhaus-inspired green building that "literally runs itself," says Heinz Rudolf, lead architect. Add to that other ecological enhancements from daylit classrooms, to long-life expectancy brick and concrete slabs acting as thermal masses to reduce heating costs—and their intent to last l00 years for a green centennial seems less than chimerical.

2. Bronzed School Bells for Ringing in New Ways

From solar panels on the roof, to soft-to-the-foot rubberized tot lots made from recycled tires; from skylights and light shelves in the classroom to sophisticated air-circulating systems, the new Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center in a dense Somerville, Massachusetts, neighborhood has secured a better, brighter future for its pre-Kindergarten to first graders. Orchestrated by architect Douglas Sacra, AIA, LEED AP of Cambridge's school-oriented HMFH Architects, Inc., the eco-labor included digging up and disposing of ll,l60 tons of PCB-, mercury- and lead-contaminated soil on the grounds. Add to that a (clean) laundry list for reducing water, light and energy use and the building succeeds in attaining 41 percent less energy use than code. With airy classrooms and walls lined with vivid tiles, the cheery design is as uplifting as the complex's greening. A grant from the state's Massachusetts Technology Collaborative funded the purchase of photovoltaic cells that create electricity from the sun which goes directly to the school's power supply. Add pleasant grounds and efficient systems, and this could be the ship that launched a thousand brighter kids.

3."Aloha" for Whole Earth Holism

Some l64-years-old and getting greener, the Punahou School in Honolulu has inspired eco-change at the Case Middle School. Arup Engineering, LEED consultants for the job, improved their ecological approach by joining with an administration committed enough to complete a project ranging from light dimming sensors to saving kitchen scraps. Charged with erecting the largest private school in the US—some nine buildings on a 75-acre campus—Punahou's educators sought to personalize the process by providing easy access to its meandering landscape. With extensive views to the ocean and the city, the school embraces the environment, framing space to allow more intimate meetings between students and teachers. An ice plant works during off-peak consumption hours to produce ice that will chill the air during the day. Coupled with solar energy from photovoltaic cells on the rooftop, the system reduced the school's energy cost by over 40 percent. Inside, student lockers are made of recycled milk cartons, with flooring of recycled rubber. Outside, the school's irrigation system uses captured rain water from the rooftop plus an existing artesian spring. Large monkey pod trees were relocated and buildings were laid out to skirt the roots of old banyan trees. Delving into the native Hawaiian plants, students and the science department maintain a pesticide-free nursery on site, providing both classroom pedagogy and an historic re-blooming for the community that receives the plants.