The Washington, D.C.-based Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) has announced the publication and release of the second edition of its High-Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide.The guidebook describes the characteristics and benefits of high-performance school buildings and provides a detailed process to help school planners get the best possible design within budget.
The 86-page guide promotes planning, designing, and building of school building that are cost-effective, sustainable, as well as healthy and productive for students, teachers, and staff. It is organized into three sections, the first of which provides an overview, defines what a high-performance school building is, and why it is valuable. The second section is a process guide and provides specific questions that decision-makers can ask architectural and engineering teams during the design process. Lastly, in the last section, the guide describes 17 key building blocks for integration in the whole building design.
The book’s principal author is Deane Evans, director of the Newark, NJ-based New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Center for Architecture and Building Science Research. The High-Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide is available by calling SBIC at (202) 628-7400.