ATHERTON, CA — With 73 skylights, a 40K photovoltaic system, a living roof and dozens of other eco-friendly design elements, the new Michael J. Homer Science and Student Life Center at Sacred Heart Schools has earned the first LEED-Platinum rating awarded under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Schools standards.

A platinum rating is the highest of four Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification levels. Sacred Heart's two-story, 44,000-square-foot science center is expected to use 69 percent less energy than a standard building of comparable size.

Other green aspects of the center, which was designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and built by DPR Construction Inc., include:

• Siting the building along an east-west axis to maximize access to the sun and prevailing winds, which helps reduce energy use and costs for heating and cooling the structure.
• Daylight and views in almost all occupied spaces.
• Water-efficient toilets and plumbing fixtures that reduce water consumption by more than 40 percent, compared to standard equipment.
• Landscaping with native plants that help reduce water used in irrigation by more than 50 percent.
• Use of environmentally sensitive building materials such as interior wall insulation containing recycled cotton and denim and formaldehyde-free plywood and other wood products.
• Cleaning and maintenance practices that have low impact on indoor air quality but do the job needed in a high-touch environment.

 
In exploring the business case for building green, Sacred Heart determined that the investment would amount to roughly $665,225, or 2.6 percent, of the $25 million cost for construction. However, operational savings in energy, water, productivity and other areas were estimated to be at least $1.14 million over 20 years, and the minimum reduction in operating costs was estimated at 30 percent over the same period.

In addition to receiving the LEED-Platinum certification, the school is the first in its county to be cleared by the health department to serve fruits and vegetables that were grown in a campus garden in a school cafeteria.

Sacred Heart's 10,000-square-foot organic garden is operated and maintained by students in human geography, environmental science and global studies courses. Besides supplying the school cafeteria, the garden donates its surplus harvest to charitable food programs in nearby Redwood City and Menlo Park.

The garden project also composts 600 pounds of kitchen scraps each week along with all newspapers from the campus library and all white paper towels used at the school.

Just a handful of schools -- including the Chartwell School in Seaside, Calif., and the Windrush School in El Cerrito, Calif. -- have earned platinum certification from the USGBC. Those projects were certified under LEED standards for new construction. The Sacred Heart center was certified under LEED standards that were developed specifically for schools to address design, construction, health and related issues affecting K-12 students and their teachers.

Sacred Heart is a 63-acre campus in the San Francisco Bay Area town of Atherton. The Roman Catholic, independent, college prep day school serves about 1,070 students ranging from preschool to 12th grade.

The school is a member of the Network of Schools of the Sacred Heart, which has 21 institutions U.S., and is affiliated with the Society of the Sacred Heart schools, which can be found in more than 44 countries.


Images courtesy of Sacred Heart Schools.