Illinois names first green school

Darien, IL— Illinois now has its first certifiably green school. Southwest suburban Bolingbrook High School (BHS), in Valley View School District 365U.

It recently became the first public school in the state, and the third high school nationwide, to be become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

BHS, which opened in 2004, was designed and constructed by Wight & Company according to LEED principles and criteria for environmentally friendly sustainable design.

Examples of LEED-driven strategies that resulted in “savings of the green” included:

•70 percent of the building materials were manufactured within 500 miles of the site eliminating the need for long-distance transportation costs.
•4708 tons or 62% of all site-generated construction waste was recycled rather than sent to landfills.
•At least 75 percent of the value of the specified building materials contained recycled content, including its structural steel, ceiling and floor tiles, acoustical panels, carpet, sports flooring and building insulation.
•Sophisticated lighting controls combined with a design that optimized the use of natural light is targeted to reduce energy consumption and operating costs by 25-30 percent.
•Bolingbrook High School is projected to save 360,000 gallons of water each year by collecting and re-using condensation from the air handling system instead of letting it go down the drain.
•An ENERGY STAR white PVC roof with high reflectance reduces the heat islands that can cause the temperature of surrounding areas to increase by 10 degrees.