Keeping historically significant facilities weatherproof and energy-efficient while preserving architectural features takes care and planning.
Here are five metrics for establishing and tracking performance and customer satisfaction in your outsourced campus services.
So what is the solution to IEQ factors, acoustics, daylighting, thermal control, air quality and the effect each of these places on the other? The short answer is proper planning and coordination.
Federal law requires that schools prepare an individual educational program (IEP) for each student with a disability, providing related services known to include safety in an emergency. Codes stipulate warning systems and require regular drills for all st
While increased enrollment is widely regarded as a positive development, understanding ways to manage the influx of additional students, providing a high-quality educational experience, meeting academic goals, and staying within budget requires administrators and architects to minimize new construction and maximize existing space.
From projectors to iPads and iPod Touches, YouTube and teacher-created textbooks, multimedia lessons and the technology needed to run it are throughout New Braunfels Independent School District (ISD) in New Braunfels, Texas, from kindergarten
For the past decade, fire safety programs on college and university campuses have focused on keeping students safe while in campus residence halls and fraternity and sorority houses, buildings that are often most at risk. While from a numbers standpoint, campuses are relatively safe from the effects of fire, there are a number of small, too often deadly, fires in student housing on campus generally caused by student carelessness. There are a number of ways to enhance student fire safety.
Today, in college classrooms, instead of the silence of students taking notes in notebooks, one may hear the soft tapping of laptop keys. Technology in the classroom has been evolving at a rapid rate, leaving teachers and students sometimes running to keep up. Multimedia technology, which specifically refers to technology related to audio and video, is no exception.
Something old, something new? That may work great in weddings, but how about campus renovations? In constructing new buildings, assuring good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a basic consideration. But when it comes to renovating older facilities, special efforts must often be taken to apply modern standards in acoustics, daylighting, thermal comfort, and air quality.
The world outside has a lot to teach pre-K-12 students and educators are finally learning to take advantage of that world. Outdoor playgrounds and classrooms can help overcome the disconnect to nature caused by technology, enabling students to build
Sure, it’s easy to toss trash into the proper receptacles and to turn off the lights when leaving a room, but how does a university with thousands of personnel, administrators, and students on campus initiate a greener place to live, work, and study? Green initiatives for the higher education sector are everywhere, and there are so many ways that colleges can get involved, from implementing cleaner technologies that use less power consumption to offering vegan dining choices in the cafeteria to properly disposing of old, outdated printers.
Intelligent services combine technology, proprietary analytics and expertise in heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to continuously collect, interpret and act upon data from building systems and controls to optimize operational perfor
There are many ways to "go green." There are a plethora of examples of schools and districts that are working to reduce their environmental impact while educating their communities about the sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
Beyond the prospect for energy savings, many school boards assume there will be additional costs associated with green buildings, including the LEED certification effort and the associated building materials and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems
Both security and sustainability are important. Newtown and other school shootings make the case for security. The case for sustainability is strong, too. Estimates say that buildings produce 35 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S. and use 37
While the nonstop, point-grabbing treasure hunt for Silver, Gold, or even Platinum certification has forced architects to get better at designing and creating more efficient structures, everything outside the building envelope has basically remained an afterthought. This narrow approach not only downplays the complex role a project’s site plays in its overall sustainability, it also ignores cultural and contextual considerations that are critically important to campus planning and design. Thankfully, there could be help on the horizon with the long-overdue introduction of the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) into the certification game.
Given that an investment in a LEED building is 40 to 50 years or longer, a related investment in management and maintenance will also run for many decades. Unfortunately, maintenance is often not adequately considered in advance, and when budgets tighten, deferring building maintenance can seem like an attractive option to universities who are trying to stretch their dollars. So how does a cash-strapped public institution pay for green construction and maintenance?
Carbon neutrality, net-zero, whatever you call it, is going to be the way everybody will judge the success of sustainability strategies for school districts. Schools are public institutions by their very nature, and the public more and more desires that i
Unity College in central Maine is a small liberal arts college with a big voice in the national sustainability conversation. We take seriously our leadership role in higher education and across sectors, preparing our students for leadership roles of their own in a changing world. From our unique sustainability science focus throughout the curriculum, to our first-in-the-nation commitment to divest our endowment from fossil fuels, we aim to model viable approaches to sustainability education that improve learning, engage the community, and decrease environmental impact.
Higher education has already taken a leadership role in climate mitigation — that is, preventing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions — as displayed by the 660 signatory campuses of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) who have collectively reduced net carbon emissions by 25 percent in just five years. Now, higher education must take the lead in climate adaptation — preparing for and responding to the impacts of climate change.