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White paper to evaluate schools' green efforts

Dubai - Experts at the roundtable also pointed out the negative impacts a poor environment can have on students, including noise pollution which causes disruption to a child's learning, and poor air quality within schools that can create health issues for the students.

White paper on the state of schools in the UAE will be released next month by the Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC), which will reveal where schools stand in terms of being green.
Although, a round table by the EGBC has already revealed that majority of schools in the country need improvement when it comes to being green. Only 75 schools are registered as eco-schools out of the 1,316 school buildings in the UAE and only seven are LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design registered.
Experts at the roundtable also pointed out the negative impacts a poor environment can have on students, including noise pollution which causes disruption to a child's learning, and poor air quality within schools that can create health issues for the students.
"There's a lot of room for improvement. I think it's been proven by the group discussion here by all of the different stakeholders that there is definitely room for improvement to make more schools greener," said Charles Blaschke, managing director of Taka Solutions (the corporate partner of EGBC).
He added: "Somebody might raise their hand and say that they own a school and they think it's green because they don't spend a lot of energy. But if you look at the definition, it's not just about energy, it's about comfort and air quality, at the heart of the community, the education programmed around it. 
"If you look through the lens of what we've defined today as green schools, I'd say there are very few green schools. And, if we know there are 1,200 schools operating, that means the opportunity to make schools green is immense." 
Blaschke, who was moderating the roundtable, also discussed the negative impacts a school that is not green can have on students. He said there have been several scientific studies over the years that have proved the negative health and environment effects of poor air quality, lighting and noise pollution, that can have an impact on students.
"Poor acoustics in classrooms can have a very negative impact when they can't hear everything the teacher is saying - how are they going to learn when that's the primary means of learning? Those negative impacts are very scary. 
The bright side is the positive impacts, where we can make the school better. That's the whole reason behind this. We don't want to make schools green just for fun or to make money - it's much more than that. We want to make the community and people better," he said. "Within the next month, the focus is to release the white papers on the state of these green schools. There is a lot of talk around residential and commercial buildings, but now is the time to talk about schools."
Jackie Schemenauer, the sustainability coordinator at the Swiss International Scientific School Dubai (SISSD), told Khaleej Times that poor air quality can harm a student's concentration levels. 
"Our school has been purpose-built with natural lighting. Our lights are rarely on and the lights turn off automatically when someone leaves the room. Our building has been built on a vacuum seal, so our windows don't open. We have a filtration system for indoor air quality, which is all monitored and there is a system in place. We also have lots of plants inside to improve air quality," she said. 
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com