Pop Quiz: Name America's Greenest Schools

When the $29-million, 152,000-square-foot Lady Bird Johnson Middle School opened in Irving, Texas, it was the first net-zero school in Texas and the largest in the country. Designed by Corgan Associates, the school, which opened in 2011, has geothermal heating and air-conditioning, wind turbines, and a large solar energy system that produces as much energy on-site as it uses throughout the year. The school also offers hands-on interactive displays to study and understand these technologies.

“Learning in this building is not hidden behind walls or covered up with craft paper, but the learning in the classrooms, halls, flexible spaces, and sustainable systems is transparent and on display to all who enter,” Susan Smith, Corgan’s vice president, says.

The school may have cost 12 percent more than a traditional one, but the district is expected to recoup its investment via energy savings within 10 to 12 years of opening.

Photo by Charles D. Smith

Sandy Grove Middle School in Lumber Bridge, N.C. will open in the summer of 2013. It will be one of the “greenest” schools in the Southeast and the first public-private partnership financed school in North Carolina.

The 74,000-square-foot school will be a net-zero building, and it will save Hoke County Schools nearly $35 million over the next 40 years. Designed by SfL+a Architects and built by Metcon, it will include glass lights at all doors to allow views from 90 percent of spaces, a staff shower, bike racks and paths, 10 additional VAV boxes in the office suite to allow temperature controls for every two permanent occupants, and an indoor air-quality management plan.

Art by SfL+a Architects

Haven Academy Charter School may seem like an unlikely green school at first glance.

That’s because the school sits in the Bronx, the poorest Congressional district in the country, surrounded by old factories and classic brownstones. The New York Foundling, one of New York’s oldest and largest child welfare agencies, developed Haven Academy Charter School to address the educational obstacles that plague children growing up in poor, underserved, urban communities and particularly those in the child welfare system.

The school is housed in a 55,000-square foot, LEED-certified building with eight floors and a rooftop playground. In October, the school created a rooftop garden in order for students to learn about healthy eating.

Photo courtesy of Haven Academy Charter School

When Margaret B. Pollard Middle School in Chapel Hill, NC, opened in 2011, it was the first LEED Gold Certified middle school in the state.

The 117,215-square-foot building, which serves 650 students, was constructed with specific attention to sustainability and environmental friendliness, as well as classroom acoustics, natural daylight and numerous high-performance energy features. It includes a ground-source geothermal mechanical system, a solar hot-water preheat system, and spray foam insulation in the exterior wall cavity to reduce energy loss through air infiltration.

But that’s not all. The wastewater system was designed so that all water used in the building is treated and used for landscape irrigation within the local community, eliminating the use of potable water for irrigation. The school’s staff has developed an integrated curriculum to provide a minimum of 10 hours per student per year of sustainable education.

Photo by Cramer Gallimore Photography