Stoddert Elementary School & Community Center

A recent recipient of the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Award program, the LEED for Schools Gold-certified Stoddert Elementary School and Community Center is a 65,200-square-foot K-12 facility located in the historic Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Designed by Perkins Eastman with substantial input from community stakeholders, the building has been equipped to accommodate after-hours use by the community and office use by the Department of Parks and Recreation, in addition to its primary use as a neighborhood school.

The team from Perkins Eastman took advantage of the school’s existing sustainable culture—which includes a student-led “Energy Patrol”—to create a campus that stands as an inspiration for the entire community. An interactive green kiosk in the heart of the school enables the students to monitor and analyze the building’s use of energy. The kiosk displays near real-time water and energy use and CO2 levels (updated every 15 minutes) and benchmarks them against the performance of a more conventional school building. This performance data is also available on interactive whiteboards in classrooms throughout the school.

Among the other sustainable features integrated into Stoddert:

• Daylighting and views are available to more than 90 percent of classrooms and regularly occupied spaces, promoting a strong connection between the indoors and outdoors
• Operable windows allow continuous airflow through spaces to promote clean, healthy passive ventilation
• Classroom materials and furniture are low-emitting to support indoor air quality and an improved learning environment
• Built-in millwork is certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council’s principles and criteria for sustainable forestry
• Occupancy sensors are installed in all classrooms, along with individual lighting and HVAC controls
• Deep overhangs and shading devices block the summer sun to reduce solar heat gain, while allowing the winter sun to penetrate into the building
• Water efficiency is maximized through the use of pint flush urinals, dual flush toilets, and low-flow lavatories and sensors
• A geothermal system makes it the first school in the district to be fully served by ground-source heating
• Two vegetated green roofs are visible from the interior of the building and demonstrate the sustainable use of rainwater

This emphasis on green education has put Stoddert Elementary at the forefront of efforts to teach sustainability to a new generation. The school is currently prototyping green curriculum modules for use by elementary schools nationwide with help from the Green Education Foundation. The U.S. Green Building Council launched its new Center for Green Schools at Stoddert because of its commitment to sustainable design, and the school served as the site for the announcement of the U.S. Department of Education’s first-ever Green Ribbon award winners in the spring of 2012.

“These Green Ribbon School award winners are taking outstanding steps to educate tomorrow’s environmental leaders, and demonstrating how sustainability and environmental awareness make sense for the health of our students and our country,” said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, at the ceremony.