Stoddert Elementary School in DC wins first US DOE Green Ribbon School Award

The Washington, DC office of Perkins Eastman joined the students, faculty, staff, and community of Stoddert Elementary School; the Department of General Services; and DC Public Schools in celebrating the school’s recognition for environmental sustainability with a first-ever US Department of Education Green Ribbon School award. Stoddert is one of 78 schools spanning 29 states to receive the recognition.

Designed as both a high performance, healthy, and sustainable environment and as a teaching tool, Stoddert Elementary School and Community Center enhances learning and inspires environmental stewardship, as well as serving as an inspiration for the entire community. The school, certified LEED for Schools Gold, enhances learning by optimizing acoustics, enhancing indoor air quality, providing for thermal control/comfort, providing pervasive natural light, and by actively engaging the students and community in understanding how the design conserves resources. Stoddert is first school in the District of Columbia to be fully served by a ground source heating and cooling (geothermal) system.

An interactive kiosk with content also available online, enables Stoddert’s students to analyze the building’s use of energy, water, and other resources. A student-led Energy Patrol guides tours of the building empowering students to teach what they have learned. +

We offer the following recommendations in the hope that they will help step up the pace of high-performance building reconstruction in the U.S. and Canada. We consulted many experts for advice, but these recommendations are solely the responsibility of the editors of Building Design+Construction. We welcome your comments. Please send them to Robert Cassidy, Editorial Director: rcassidy@sgcmail.com.