After a devastating tornado essentially leveled the town of Greensburg, KS a few years back, the rebuilding effort yielded a city that lived up to its green name. The reconstruction efforts, which were profiled on Plant Green’s series “Greensburg: A Story of Community Rebuilding” have resulted in a number of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) structures. One of these buildings opened this past Thursday as the school year began. The Kiowa county school has achieved the highest possible rating – LEED Platinum.

According to a recent NPR story, the school features an abundance of natural “day lighting”, a 50 kilowatt wind generator, a “recycling center, durable cabinets made out of wheat straw, and hall lockers built from recycled plastic.” Superintendent Dan Headrick, who was interviewed in the story, claimed that the “$50 million complex will be paid for in the next couple of months.” Headrick stated that “‘we are going to be able to pay for it in cash and have zero indebtedness to our community because of our partnerships, our leveraging money, our insurance, our federal support, and we’re pretty excited about that.” This represents an important component of building green. By not creating further debt, which could inhibit economic growth in the future, the school system has created a truly sustainable structure.

As school buildings age, replacing them with green structures makes sense from an environmental and economic standpoint. According to the National Association of Independent School’s Institute for Leadership in Sustainability, the average lifespan of educational facilities is 42 years, and the average age of buildings as of 1999 was 40 years. There will need to be an extensive renovation and new building campaign in the near future. With budgets stretched in the short term, long term thinking cannot be sparred. It is imperative that any building or renovation take place under the banner of green building for the sake of students, faculty, staff, educational values and the greater community – if it can be done without debt.

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