By Neall Digert, Ph.D., MIES
As educational institutions strive to create healthier, more energy-efficient and student-centered learning environments, natural daylighting has emerged as a key design strategy that supports sustainable and inclusive learning design. A well-planned daylighting strategy offers numerous sustainability benefits and can enhance key design principles that are shaping the future of educational spaces.
The Benefits of Sustainable School Design
1. Healthier Indoor Environments
Sustainable school design creates healthier learning environments by improving indoor air quality, natural ventilation and daylighting. High-efficiency ventilation systems filter out airborne pollutants, while sustainable materials and finishes reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.
Natural daylight, a critical element of healthy indoor spaces, offers a dynamic lighting alternative to static electric lighting solutions, which can adversely affect the building occupants’ mood, sleep patterns and overall well-being. The daily progression from darkness to physiologically meaningful dynamic daylight and back supports the body’s time-dependent production of serotonin and melatonin, enhancing mood regulation, attention span and overall student engagement.
Recent discoveries about intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) have further underscored the importance of daylight as a source for interior space illumination. These cells play a vital role in regulating our circadian rhythms, paving the way for evidence-based daylighting design strategies. By integrating these insights with modern architectural and engineering principles, sustainable schools are better equipped to optimize learning environments.
2. Higher Attendance and Teacher-Retention Rates
Sustainable school design not only creates healthier learning environments—it also boosts attendance and teacher retention. A survey of 665 industry executives revealed that more than 70% of respondents saw reduced absenteeism and improved performance in green schools. Complementing this, a nationwide survey found that nearly all teachers (97%) consider effective learning environment design essential for student success, with 80% linking it to effective teaching and 68% factoring it into job decisions.
Key features—such as improved indoor air quality, reduced chemical emissions, abundant natural daylight and better humidity control—yield environmental, fiscal and health benefits. These advantages lead to lower absenteeism, reduced turnover and enhanced performance, with a 2011 study showing up to 7.5% improvement in attendance and an 8% to 19% boost in student performance when compared to conventional schools.
3. Improved Student Performance and Test Scores
The relationship between sustainable school design and academic performance is also well documented. Research from the Lighting Research Center (LRC) and other academic institutions shows that exposure to natural daylight in classrooms enhances cognitive function, improves memory retention and reduces stress and fatigue. In fact, a study by the Heschong Mahone Group revealed that students in naturally daylit classrooms advanced 20% faster in math and 26% faster in reading compared to those in environments with limited daylight. Additional studies indicate that classrooms with optimized natural daylighting contribute to increased productivity, better concentration and higher overall academic achievement.
4. Reduced Environmental Impact
K-12 schools spend roughly $8 billion annually on energy and emit approximately 72 million metric tons of CO₂—equivalent to 18 coal-fired power plants per year—according to the U.S. Department of Energy. By adopting sustainable design strategies, especially natural daylighting, schools can lower energy consumption, reduce emissions and create healthier learning environments.
A well-designed daylighting system reduces reliance on electric lighting, which can account for 35% to 50% of a school’s annual energy use. Daylight has a higher efficacy factor compared to electric lighting, providing more light with less heat. As a result, maximizing daylight can lower cooling demands by up to 15%, easing the load on HVAC systems, and can reduce electric lighting consumption by up to 80%. These energy efficiencies translate into significant cost savings and a reduced environmental footprint.
5. Lower Operating Costs
Lastly, schools designed with sustainability in mind benefit from significantly lower long-term operational costs. High-performance buildings utilize strategies such as natural ventilation, enhanced insulation and geothermal heating to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency. According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC), green schools, on average, use 33% less energy and 32% less water than their conventional counterparts, saving roughly $100,000 per year in direct operating costs.
For Students and Future
The future of education depends on sustainable, student-centered design that prioritizes natural daylighting as a core architectural strategy. By integrating natural daylight into learning environments, schools can enhance student well-being, improve academic performance and reduce operational costs—all while minimizing their environmental impact.
As educational institutions continue to embrace evidence-based design principles, natural daylighting will play a pivotal role in shaping resilient, inclusive and high-performing schools that foster success for generations to come.
Read more in the March/April edition of School Construction News, Green Building News’ sister publication, available soon.
Neall Digert, Ph.D., MIES, is vice president of Innovation and Market Development, for Kingspan Light + Air North America. He has more than 30 years of consulting and education experience working in the energy/lighting/daylighting design and research fields, specializing in the design and application of advanced lighting and daylighting systems for commercial building applications.