Q&A: Rachel Gutter, USGBC

Gutter

Economic uncertainty looms at every corner these days, but Rachel Gutter, the U.S. Green Building Council’s senior manager for the education market, says green school construction projects have the potential to make it through the turmoil unscathed.

Gutter discussed the school construction market with Green Building News about the state of the market.

Q: What kind of impact has LEED for Schools had since it was introduced a year ago?

A: I think we are only just beginning to understand it, but we are pretty thrilled with what we have seen so far.

There are a lot of ways to measure impact. One of the ways is the increase in project registrations. We see an average of one to two new schools registering for certification every day, including weekends. We think that is a good sign, but when we look at the total number of schools in the United States, we see that there is still a lot more to do.

Registration is something that is moving the ball forward, and having a national rating system that addresses schools specifically has allowed legislators to tap into that opportunity. There are now 10 states that require green school construction. A few of them require LEED, and others require state-specific guidelines.

We can also start to anticipate what the impact is going to be through the support of partners. The National School Boards Association, teachers unions, and the National PTA have picked this up as one of their issues. With those groups championing green schools to a network of people, we are going to be able to see a lot of measurable impact.

It is also really exciting to see how much this is being talked about with the Obama administration, and the extent to which it seems to be integrated into not only the policy agenda, but also the concept of injecting money into the economy through stimulus packages and other forms of aid. It’s seen as an opportunity to bring more money into communities through the creation of green jobs.

Q: During a recent workshop, you said in 2009 the stars are going to align for green schools with the Obama administration and a few other factors that will affect the market. Do you think that is going to prompt more change than we have already seen?

A: I think it’s going to prompt a huge change. What you have seen up until now is a lot of communities and the private sector pushing green construction forward on their own. It was more of a grassroots movement.

We hope with the new administration, there will be more money put into federal programs to help schools become green. We think there will be more buy-in and a lot more support.

There are a lot of things coming together that are moving us to the tipping point where we stop calling them green schools and we just build them that way without a term or a title. We have the momentum to get us there, and I think we are on track.

Q: Have you seen an impact from the economic downturn?

A: Green is not expected to take as big of a hit as other aspects of the economy. I think our annual conference Greenbuild is a testament to that. Almost 30,000 people showed up for the conference, and many attendees were dealing with travel expense freezes, which forced them to pay out of their pocket to be there.

I think it will be OK with schools because that is one of the only sectors of the economy that is expected to continue to build.

Q: Are you seeing more performance contracting and steps in that direction?

A: We are, and the Clinton Climate Initiative has been hugely influential in terms of giving performance contracting a new image. When you talk to a lot of people, especially in school districts, there were a lot of things that went on in the ’80s and ’90s that in some communities gave performance contracting a bad name.

Through the Clinton Climate Initiative, and what they are doing to build in assurances for the owner and guarantee savings, it’s an incredibly viable model. You just have to work out the details of its implementation and make sure resources and support are provided for smaller districts so they can understand how to navigate a contract and ensure all of their needs are met.

The USGBC is also publishing a set of guidelines for high-performance public contracting that we hope will also help to transform that market.

Q: You have talked about “eco-bling,” which includes a lot of bells and whistles that draw people to green building. What are some of the practical, less expensive ways to apply green concepts at schools?

A: I think that eco-bling is often what draws people in, but it’s not what keeps people around. People think about building a green school and many times they initially plan to cover them with solar panels, but soon they realize that will significantly increase the cost of the project.

A lot of school districts are looking at public-private agreements — the solar panels are installed, owned and operated by a third party and the school district gets the energy. They get the added benefit of locking in an energy price, so if energy prices go up they are not impacted.

As much as eco-bling can be a draw, schools really want to save money up front and save money over the life cycle of the school facility. The more experienced school officials get, they are making better choices and maximizing the opportunity to save up-front and long-term. With many projects, that leads to cutting out the eco-bling and going for concepts that have the greatest impact on operating budget, student health and learning.

Q: Are green construction components brought into the curriculum with most projects that you see now?

A: I think that until 100 percent of projects are including green components in the curriculum, it is not happening enough. Many schools deal with curricula after the school is built, almost as an afterthought. It’s a great first step, but I hope in the future every project will include educators in the design team to ensure that sustainability is included in curriculum.

We are also working to address the curriculum through incentives and awards grants, as well as through the education resource center and regional educators summits. That allows us to work with teachers and nonprofit organizations to identify how they can incorporate sustainability concepts into their existing curricula, instead of expecting them to generate brand new lessons.

Q: Why is that so important to USGBC?

A: I believe, and think the USGBC also believes, that the single greatest opportunity with green schools is the opportunity to raise a new generation of sustainability natives — students that are fluent in the language of green.

Children are going to grow up and they will inevitably inherit the problems that we leave behind. If we don’t find ways to integrate these concepts into our models for teaching, we are losing out on our biggest opportunity of all. We can start training them at kindergarten and first grade to look at green as a way of being.

Europeans are already doing a good job of living that way. They don’t say they are going green, they just produce less waste, have a smaller footprint and walk more. These are the kind of choices that we want to see our students integrate so they don’t look at renewable energy as alternative energy; they just think of it as energy. That is where we should all be going.