Going along with the idea of a green movement driven by students, TheStreet.com talks about a group of seniors at Yarmouth High School (ME) who got a state grant worth around $26,000 to assist in making their building solar-powered. Of course, you have plenty of other more affordable options for greening your school, but it just goes to show that passionate people who find support from the right organizations and corporations can accomplish some pretty impressive objectives. Some interesting numbers seem to support the idea that it pays to get LEED certification for your school building - according to the aforementioned TheStreet.com article, a 2007 report concludes that the long-term savings of converting a building to meet state- or LEED-certification standards outweigh the costs by about $71/sq. ft./year. I’m not sure whether this includes the costs from getting someone to inspect and actually certify your project, so the number may be a little lower in reality.

Of course, you can’t always take numbers at their face value, especially considering that a principal of the firm that did the study is pretty closely affiliated with LEED. At the same time, it helps quantify the overall benefits of a very respected green building certification for schools with the patience and the resources to undertake a renovation or all-new building project. Hopefully an impartial observer can conduct a relatively comprehensive study and give us all a better idea of what green certification can do for schools. I’d like to see some kind of calculator that shows you your savings after you enter in different variables, including characteristics of your current school building, your budget, etc. Until then, I’m skeptical that anyone can truly know whether it makes sense to formally go green until they go ahead and take the plunge.

(Photo via Morguefile)