For parents who want their children to perform well in school and enjoy healthy childhoods, the new school season presents the perfect opportunity to ask "Does where students learn impact how they learn?" Even people who are not teachers or members of the PTA should advocate for state and local school districts to green their built environments not only for the benefits to the students, but also for more holistic community gains.

Numerous studies now indicate that better lighting, ventilation and indoor air-quality in schools contribute to higher student achievement. Indeed, buildings with more filtered air and fewer materials that contain toxins reduce the instance of asthma and colds and flu, and therefore absenteeism among students, and it also reduces teacher turnover.

“Students gain directly from more comfortable environments because they improve learning outcomes,” says Tim Dufault, chair of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education and president of Cuningham Group Architecture.

But in this economy can schools afford to go green? Experts like Dufault think we can and that too much is at stake not to, especially with government stimulus funding available to local communities to make such improvements. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February 2009 to help boost the country out of the economic crisis, allocated $53.6 billion to school modernization.

States across the country must use at least 83 percent of this funding, or $40 billion, to provide aid to local school districts. Your state and local officials have the power to allocate funding to school modernization, renovation and repairs that will benefit students and teachers, and shrink your community’s carbon footprint.

“Not only do green schools make sense for the benefit of students, but they also make economic sense. As long as school districts plan properly, they can reap the full benefits of going green within about five to seven years,” suggests Dufault.

On average green schools save $100,000 per year – enough to hire two new teachers, buy 500 new computers, or purchase 5,000 new textbooks. Green schools cost on average less than $3 per square foot more to build, an investment that is paid back in the first year of operations through energy savings alone. If you factor in the lower energy and water costs, improved teacher retention, and lowered health costs, green schools save about $12 per square foot, around four times the average additional cost of going green.

The Chartwell School in Seaside, CA, one of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment’s Top Ten Green Projects for 2009, created a cost effective, green campus. The school limited the extra initial cost of building green to just 5 to 10 percent above conventional design. As a result, the high performance, green features of the new campus will eventually more than pay for themselves and provide long-term operating cost savings while enhancing learning outcomes for students.

In addition to improving learning outcomes and saving resources for school districts, the whole community benefits from modernizing school structure, according to industry experts. A 2008 report from the AIA finds that existing K-12 classrooms and educational spaces consume 30 percent of the nation’s electricity, generate 35 percent of our waste, use eight percent of water resources and are responsible for 20 percent of greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions. Green schools reduce carbon emissions by requiring less energy to heat and cool their facilities. They also have the potential to help cultivate today’s young people into tomorrow’s energy-sensible leaders.

“As true learning laboratories, schools have a unique opportunity to embrace cutting edge thinking on sustainable design and develop new generations of students for whom going green will be second nature,” says Dufault. “Architecture firms have many unique resources to help school district learn what is most appropriate for their local cultures and community needs.”