Consider using different interior design elements for different areas or classrooms that can serve as exhibits for different products, materials, designs, or furniture types. Further, the opportunity for contests between classrooms—in terms of energy use, water use, and waste—can be a good way to engage students. (This generally requires tracking infrastructure and operational support.)

Consider including the following features in your school, as they generally have visible, “teachable” elements, while helping with other LEED credits: 

green roof
vegetable garden
compost bin
daylight and occupancy sensors
comprehensive recycling program
onsite renewable energy
exposed ductwork
onsite wastewater treatment
bioswales and other natural stormwater management
graywater reuse
rainwater capture
locally manufactured, recycled, or salvaged content materials. 

Discuss the potential for your project to attempt EAc5: Measurement and Verification, which could provide a good way for students to have access to energy and water consumption data. Through their studies, they may even determine ways they can help to improve their building’s performance. This is not required for credit compliance, but it can be a great teaching tool. If your school will not be attempting EAc5, consider having students evaluate the school’s Energy Star score through Portfolio Manager.

The design team can aid teachers in developing the curriculum by providing resources for existing environmental and sustainability lesson plans, and by communicating in detail about the building’s high-performance design features. 

When submitting the credit to LEED Online, you are required to provide a narrative on how the curriculum was developed. It is a good idea to document meetings between the design team and the teachers as a way of describing curriculum development. 

Discuss exactly what ten curriculum hours per full-time student per year might look like. It may be relatively easy to overlay an existing curriculum—for example, adding building information to an existing environmental sciences class. Some curriculum areas—like a computer class, for example—might present more challenges. Keep communications open with the teachers, and determine together the best strategy for the school. 

Designing the building as a teaching tool needs to be addressed early in the design process. For example, some schools like to show a “truth window” that provides a view of a dissected wall assembly. Another idea is to include a mostly white roof, with only a small portion that is black—an easy way to demonstrate the temperature differences between the two colors. If your project attempts something like this, you need to design for safety and proper roof access for students, or you can design built-in thermometers so that students don’t even have to access the roof.

The curriculum does not have to be implemented until ten months after LEED certification. But you’ll need to start discussing this credit in the early stages of design, because the curriculum may take a while to develop, and some teachers may find it difficult to incorporate an additional ten hours per student devoted to high-performance design. 

Work with school administrators, staff, and teachers to establish their level of interest in incorporating the high-performance features of the building into the school curriculum. Identify a team of “green champions”—teachers and administrators who facilitate the development of the sustainability curriculum. 

Place daylight-sensing controls within 15 feet of windows or skylights, but be careful not to place sensors within “sight” of direct sun shining on furniture or floors.